BlackRock offers shares, $6.6B cash for Barclays unit

NEW YORK -- Investment manager BlackRock says it will purchase the asset management arm of British investment bank Barclays, including its iShares division, for $6.6 billion in cash plus 37.8 million shares currently worth about $6.9 billion.

New York-based BlackRockBLK says its takeover of Barclays Global Investors will create a firm with combined assets under management of more than $2.7 trillion.

Barclays BCS had agreed to sell San Francisco-based iShares, which generates half the profits within BGI, to CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion. CVC now has five business days to match BlackRock's terms or walk away from the deal.