The New York money manager gets its retail wish as BlackRock pulled the trigger to buy MetLife's State Street Research unit for $325 million in cash and $50 million in stock Thursday morning. The deal is set to close in early 2005.

BlackRock manages $310 billion in assets, approximately $79 billion of which is in mutual fund assets. The company is majority-owned by PNC Financial.

Boston-based State Street Research & Management manages approximately $11 billion in mutual fund assets and $52 billion in total assets.

Word of negotiations between BlackRock and MetLife first leaked into Boston papers last week. 

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