⚠ Selling Data to People You Compete With for DealsModerate threat

An asset manager running its equity book on Aladdin is dependent on a competitor for infrastructure, which is uncomfortable. A private markets firm using Preqin is dependent on a competitor for information about the deals both of them bid on, which is worse.

BlackRock became one of the largest private markets managers in the world in a single year, adding roughly $118 billion of client assets with HPS and $70 billion with GIP¹. The same firm now owns the industry's principal source of fund-level performance and terms data. Every institution deciding between a BlackRock private credit fund and a competitor's is making that decision partly using data BlackRock sells.

There is no allegation here of misuse, and BlackRock's information barriers on this are extensive. The problem is structural and does not require anybody to behave badly. A competitor evaluating whether to keep feeding its fund data to a subsidiary of its largest rival has an obvious reason to hesitate, and the value of the dataset depends entirely on the industry continuing to contribute to it.

The tell would be data coverage rather than revenue. If competing managers begin withholding or delaying their submissions, or a consortium alternative gains traction, the asset degrades quietly and the technology revenue line will be the last place it shows.