E-Trade
American financial services company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
E*TRADE (stylized as E*TRADE)[2] is an investment brokerage and electronic trading platform that operates as a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley.
Logo since January 1, 2022 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: ETFC | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1982, in Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, U.S.[1] |
Key people | Rodger Lawson (chairman) Mike Pizzi (CEO) |
| Services | |
| Parent | Morgan Stanley |
| Website | etrade |
History
In 1982, physicist William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb founded TradePlus in Palo Alto, California, with $15,000 in capital. In 1983, it launched its first trade via a Compuserve network. In 1992, Porter and Newcomb founded E*TRADE and made electronic trading available to individual investors.[3]
On August 16, 1996, the company (by then known as the E*TRADE Financial Corporation) became a public company via an initial public offering. The company sold 5,665,000 shares of its common stock for $10.50 per share under the stock ticker "ETFC" on the NASDAQ stock exchange.[4] The company figured prominently in the dot-com bubble, as both a way to speculate in internet stocks and an internet stock itself.
In October 2020, the company was acquired by Morgan Stanley.[5][6][7]
Management history
In November 2007, Mitch Caplan resigned as CEO and Citadel LLC received a seat on the board of directors of the company after Citadel invested $2.5 billion in the company to bolster its finances after it suffered losses due to the bursting of the 2000s United States housing bubble.[8][9][10]
In March 2008, E-Trade named Donald Layton, formerly JPMorgan Chase vice chairman, its new CEO. Layton had joined E-Trade's board of directors in November 2007, at the same time as the Citadel LLC deal.[11][12][13]
In December 2009, Robert Druskin, a former chief operating officer of Citigroup, was named interim CEO and chairman.[14]
On March 22, 2010, Steven Freiberg was named CEO. Freiberg was the former co-CEO of Citigroup's global consumer group and the former head of its credit card unit.[15][16]
On January 17, 2013, Paul T. Idzik was appointed CEO. Idzik had previously been group chief executive of DTZ and also served ten years at Barclays bank.[17]
In September 2016, Karl A. Roessner, E-Trade's general counsel since 2009, was appointed CEO.[18]
On August 14, 2019, Michael Pizzi was appointed CEO.[19]
Advertising
In 2007, E-Trade introduced its talking baby campaign in which comedian Pete Holmes was the voice of the baby and Steve Burns was the voice of the announcer.[20]
Acquisitions and divestitures
| Date | Acquisition / Divestiture | Company | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2000 | Acquisition | Telebanc | [21][22][23] |
| May 2001 | Acquisition | Web Street Securities | [24][25][26] |
| August 2005 | Acquisition | Harrisdirect | [27][28][29] |
| October 2005 | Acquisition | Brown & Company | [30][31][32] |
| July 2007 | Divestiture | Australian division | [33][34][35][36] |
| September 2008 | Divestiture | Canadian division | [37][38] |
| September 2016 | Acquisition | OptionsHouse | [18][39][40] |
| April 2018 | Acquisition | Trust Company of America | [41] |
| December 2019 | Acquisition | Gradifi | [42][43] |
See also
- Ajaxo Inc. v. E*Trade Financial Corp.
- Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. v. Manning, a 2016 Supreme Court case involving naked short-selling claims against E*TRADE, Merrill Lynch, and others, resolved in the defendant's favor
- List of electronic trading platforms
