BlackRock to Buy Risk Platform EFront in $1.3 Billion Wager (2)

BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, agreed to acquire French software provider eFront to expand private equity and real estate analytics for clients.

BlackRock will acquire 100 percent of the equity interest in eFront for $1.3 billion in cash, the company said in a statement March 22.

The deal comes as BlackRock, which mostly oversees assets in indexed products, looks for other avenues to grow its business, including in technology and alternatives. The eFront purchase will add to BlackRock’s risk management technology platform called Aladdin. Customers like pension funds, insurance companies and competing asset managers license Aladdin to analyze ...