(LifeSiteNews) — Major investment firm BlackRock, which has drawn substantial backlash for embracing controversial left-wing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ideology, has reportedly lost $1.5 trillion and plans major layoffs.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and president Rob Kapito made the announcement in a memo sent to employees and viewed by Business Insider.
“Taking a targeted and disciplined approach to how we shape our teams, we will adapt our workforce to align even more closely with our strategic priorities and create opportunities for the immense talent inside the firm to develop and prosper,” the executives wrote.
Go woke, go broke!
“BlackRock plans to dismiss some 500 workers as the asset management company seeks to contend with heavy losses.”
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— Tea Party Patriots (@TPPatriots) January 12, 2023
The world’s top asset manager, BlackRock manages almost $10 trillion in investments. Its holdings include Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Now, an estimated 500 BlackRock employees, representing roughly 3% of the company, are slated to see their jobs on the chopping block.
The Daily Wire cited the firm’s most recent earnings report, noting that BlackRock’s “assets under management declined from $9.5 trillion in the third quarter of 2021 to $8.0 trillion in the third quarter of 2022.”
The layoffs will be the first for BlackRock since 2019 and follow a pause on new hires at the end of 2022.
The company’s financial woes mirror those of other major corporations, including Big Tech companies, which have been forced to downsize as the economy continues to lag, The Daily Wire pointed out.
However, the moves also come on the heels of crucial actions by state governments to strip away billions of dollars in assets from the major money manager over their objections to the company’s embrace of “ESG” principles.
States that have opted to divest from BlackRock in recent months include Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Missouri.
RELATED: Florida pulls $2 billion in investments from BlackRock for pushing social justice agenda
Broadly speaking, ESG principles and related scores are designed to promote investment in companies that advance left-wing social justice goals, including “renewable energy,” racial “equity,” and even, in the post-Dobbs world, abortion access. BlackRock has openly incorporated ESG principles, particularly focusing on environmental causes, and also promised to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) by leveraging its “ESG-focused financial products.”
The World Economic Forum, an infamous proponent of mandatory vaccination and lockdowns, widespread abortion access, and the “Great Reset” of society, is listed as one of BlackRock’s “key diversity partners.”
Like the World Economic Forum, BlackRock’s CEO has stated a mission to “shape society” via so-called “stakeholder capitalism.”
The WEF, headed by COVID-19: The Great Reset author Klaus Schwab, has defined “stakeholder capitalism” as “a form of capitalism in which companies do not only optimize short-term profits for shareholders but seek long-term value creation by taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders, and society at large.”
Conservatives have blasted the model for imposing top-down left-wing ideological goals upon society.
After announcing that Florida would exclude “social, political, or ideological interests,” from its pension investment decisions, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the use of “corporate power” to “impose an ideological agenda on the American people through the perversion of financial investment priorities under the euphemistic banners of environmental, social, and corporate governance and diversity, inclusion, and equity.”
In October, UBS analyst Brennan Hawken cited the firm’s increasingly unpopular ESG agenda as the reason for downgrading stock in the company, according to a report from Barron’s, the Dow Jones & Company’s official financial news publication.
Critics of ESG scores and their impact in society have expressed concern that powerful firms like BlackRock, as well as fellow investment giants Vanguard Group, State Street, Fidelity Investments, and Capital, could easily use their financial muscle to shape corporate policy and starve out opposition, LifeSiteNews previously noted.