BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors. It also manages accounts for corporate, public, union and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, foundations, charities, corporations, official institutions, and banks. The firm also provides offers global risk management and advisory services. It manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. The firm also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, ETF's, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including hedge funds and structured funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth, value, and core stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap and multi-cap companies. It employs a fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up stock picking approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City.