BlackRock's Power to Influence

BlackRock's(BLK) announcement last week that it would purchase Barclays Global Investors from U.K. bank Barclays(BCS) for $13.5 billion confirmed that BlackRock would yield an enormous influence on corporate America. In fact, the combined firm will own $2.8 trillion in assets, twice the size of its nearest rivals State Street (STT) and Fidelity, which hold $1.4 trillion in assets each