After a day of interviewing for buy- and sell-side jobs, the former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette research chief wasn’t in the mood for any more job talk. “I go home, pop a beer, lay down on the couch and start watching McClintock!, the John Wayne western, and the phone rings,” he recalls. Hollywood? No, Tyco International, asking if Blackstock would come talk to CEO Dennis Kozlowski about becoming head of investor relations for the industrial conglomerate. Blackstock had covered Tyco for a decade when he was an analyst, first with Credit Suisse First Boston and later for DLJ, before getting the top U.S. research job there last year. When CSFB bought DLJ in October, it offered Blackstock a chance to come back to his old firm as co-director of research. But he declined, figuring he’d land with a competitor or a money management firm. When Tyco called, “my knee-jerk reaction was resistance. I had five reasons why it didn’t make sense, but Dennis had answers for all of them.” Blackstock won’t give details, but he says the job is not a classic investor relations position. “If it were, I wouldn’t have been inclined to take it,” he says.
