iShares on the block

iShares, the ETF manager owned by Barclays Global Investors, is up for sale, per the Financial Times.

ETFs are growing in popularity despite the financial crisis (I wrote about it in January). The folks at iShares recently visited Dubai, and they're trying to promote ETFs in the Middle East, Europe and a bunch of other places where they haven't caught on yet. There would appear to be a huge untapped market for low-cost, tradable index fund. So why sell now? It probably comes down to cold, hard cash and a few execs who stand to make a boatload of it if the leading purveyor of ETFs is snapped up by Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital or any of the other firms said to be interested. You see, a lot of the Barclays brass own shares in the bank's BGI subsidiary. Which means if iShares fetches $6.5bn - or an amount anywhere close to that - they'll be swimming in cash just as bonuses go the way of the dodo in the wake of the financial crisis. One to watch, for sure.