Preqin's own history page blurs its 2024 BlackRock announcement

The record

On 30 June 2024, BlackRock announced it had agreed to acquire Preqin, a private-markets data provider, for £2.55 billion, or approximately $3.2 billion, in cash. The release states the transaction was expected to close before year-end 2024, subject to regulatory approval, and that Preqin would continue to be offered as a standalone product alongside BlackRock's Aladdin and eFront platforms. Founded in 2003, Preqin's own data page describes coverage running to 190,000-plus funds and tens of thousands of fund managers and investors.

What the sources establish

BlackRock's announcement is explicit about the date and price of the agreement, not the closing. Preqin's own "Who we are" page, in its retrospective account of the deal, describes BlackRock as a longtime Preqin client and states that this relationship led to BlackRock "acquiring the company in 2025" -- a full calendar year after the announcement that page does not otherwise date. Neither page states an actual completion date; BlackRock's release only projects a year-end 2024 close. The two primary sources therefore agree on nothing more specific than an announcement in 2024 and a description, from Preqin itself, of BlackRock ownership by 2025.

Scope and revision

This is a case where a company's own retrospective language can outrun its acquirer's contemporaneous announcement. An announced deal, an expected closing date, and an eventual completion are three separate facts, and only the first two are documented here with any specificity. Preqin's methodology page separately states its dataset is built from "direct relationships with alternative assets professionals" going back to 2003, verified by a research team against regulatory filings, press releases, news, websites and Freedom of Information Act requests -- a records-and-relationships model, not a survey panel, and one that predates the BlackRock ownership change by two decades.

The decision in front of you

Editorially: cite the 30 June 2024 announcement date and price when discussing the deal itself, and treat any completion date as unconfirmed by these two sources; do not repeat Preqin's 2025 phrasing as an announcement date, or BlackRock's 2024 date as a closing date.

• Is a cited date for this deal the announcement, an expected closing, or an actual completion -- and which source supports it?
• Does the LP or GP benchmark being cited predate or postdate the ownership change, and does that matter for how the data was collected?
• Has BlackRock or Preqin published a dated completion announcement that resolves the gap between the 2024 and 2025 dates?

A $3.2 billion acquisition of a widely cited data provider is not, on these two pages alone, pinned to a single year -- a reminder that even the acquired company's own account can drift from its acquirer's contemporaneous record.