So it's official; BlackRock's chairman and CEO Larry Fink affirmed the rumors that Merrill Lynch has decide to hang onto its stake in his company.

Fink all-but-cofirmed the news as part BlackRock's earnings release Thursday morning:.

"BlackRock and Merrill Lynch worked together over the past weeks to reinforce our partnership. The outcome of our collective efforts is a strong reaffirmation of our strategic relationship," said Fink in the release.

"Merrill Lynch decided not to sell any of their stake in BlackRock, and we jointly agreed to extend and strengthen our global distribution agreement to reinforce our mutual commitment to serve investors globally and create value for our respective shareholders,” he added.

Yesterday evening CNBC's Charlie Gaspirino, reported that Merrill's CEO John Thain had decided to sell its stake in Bloomberg in order to keep its share of BlackRock. That news was also picked up in Thursday mornings Wall Street Journal. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE