Merrill offers CEO job to BlackRock's Fink: report

BOSTON (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (NYSE: - ) has offered the post of chief executive to BlackRock Inc (NYSE: - ) CEO Laurence Fink, CNBC television reported on Monday.

Merrill has given Fink two weeks to decide whether to accept the offer, CNBC said.

The channel also reported that Fink was under consideration for the post of Citigroup Inc (NYSE: - ) CEO. Citigroup Chairman and CEO Charles "Chuck" Prince resigned on Sunday after massive sub-prime losses,

A BlackRock spokeswoman declined to comment on the CNBC reports.

A Merrill spokeswoman declined to comment on the reported offer to Fink, and a Citigroup spokesman declined to comment on the possibility of Fink being a candidate for Citi CEO.

Merrill ousted CEO Stan O'Neal last week amid an $8.4 billion write-down in the third quarter. The write-down resulted in a $2.3 billion loss, the largest quarterly loss in the company's 93-year history.

Fink, when contacted by Reuters on October 28, said he was not aware he was a candidate for the CEO job at Merrill.

"I'm a happy CEO of BlackRock," Fink said then.

Nevertheless, investors and analysts see Fink as the antidote to Merrill's fixed-income problems. Considered to be a leading bond manager, Fink built BlackRock from scratch.

Merrill owns slightly less than half of BlackRock, whose board includes star Merrill investment banker Greg Fleming.

Fleming is co-president of Merrill. Some investors and analysts speculate that Fleming would hold an even bigger role in the company if Fink became Merrill CEO.

In BlackRock's April proxy filing, the company said Fink had an employment agreement that was allowed to expire without replacement on March 30.

BlackRock shares were down 1.3 percent at $196.74 in morning trade in a weak overall market.

(Reporting by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christian Plumb and Tim McLaughlin)