Legg Mason was an American

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

and

asset management Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...

firm headquartered in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, founded in 1899 and acquired by Franklin Templeton Investments as of July 2020. As of December 31, 2019, the company had $730.8 billion in assets under management, including $161.2 billion in equity assets, $420.2 billion in fixed income assets, $74.3 billion in alternative assets, and $75.1 billion in liquidity assets.

History

In 1899, George Mackubin & Co., predecessor to Legg & Co., was founded in Baltimore, Maryland. It got its start selling stocks out of a back office in the

Baltimore Stock Exchange The Baltimore Stock Exchange was a regional stock exchange based in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened prior to 1881, The exchange's building was destroyed by the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, and was then located at 210 East Redwood Street in Baltimore ...

in 1899. In 1970, it had offices in San Francisco, New York, as well as several in Maryland, with over 400 employees. It was best known for its expertise in the life and casualty insurance industry. In 1949, after the departure of Mackubin, John C. Legg, Jr. named the company after himself. In 1962, Mason & Co., a

stockbroker A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...

age, was founded by Raymond A. “Chip” Mason in Newport News, Virginia. In 1967, Mason & Co., with over 80 employees in 4 offices, became one of the largest Virginia-based

ages. In 1970, Mason & Co. was acquired by Legg & Co., forming Legg Mason & Co., Inc., with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1975, Raymond A. Mason became chairman and CEO, adding to his existing role as president. In 1982, Legg Mason Fund Adviser, Inc. was established to manage the company’s flagship fund, Legg Mason Value Trust. In 1983, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

, raising $14 million. In 1997, the company moved its headquarters to 100 Light Street in Baltimore. In July 2002, the company sold its

age subsidiary to

Raymond James Financial Raymond James Financial, Inc. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company providing financial services to individuals, corporations, and municipalities through its subsidiary companies that engage prim ...

. In 2005, the company transferred its Private Client and Capital Markets business to

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

in exchange for Citigroup’s asset management business in a $3.7 billion transaction, turning Legg Mason into the 5th largest money management firm in the U.S. In 2006, fund manager Bill Miller's streak of beating the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

15 years in a row ended. In January 2008, Mark R. Fetting became CEO of the company, succeeding Raymond A. "Chip" Mason. In May 2008, during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the company reported its first quarterly loss as a public company. In July 2009, the company moved its headquarters to

Inner Harbor East, Baltimore Inner Harbor East, now more recently referred to more commonly as simply as Harbor East, is a relatively new mixed-use development project in Baltimore, Maryland, United States along the northern shoreline of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco ...

. In October 2009,

Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New Yo ...

joined the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of the company after acquiring a stake. In May 2010, the company announced layoffs of as many as 350 people. In February 2013, Joseph A. Sullivan became CEO of the company. In 2016, the company acquired real estate investment firm

Clarion Partners Clarion Partners ("Clarion") is an American real estate investment firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is the real estate asset management platform of Franklin Templeton Investments. In 2022, IREI ranked Clarion as the eighth largest ...

, combined its hedge fund platform Permal with New York independent hedge fund investor EnTrust and purchased a minority stake in New Jersey-based Precidian Investments to boost its exchange traded funds. In April 2019, the company ended all sports sponsorships to cut costs. In July 2020, Franklin Templeton Investments acquired Legg Mason for $4.5 billion.

Investment affiliates

Brandywine Global

*Year Founded: 1986 *Year Acquired: 1997 *Location: Headquartered in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

; offices in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Clarion Partners Clarion Partners ("Clarion") is an American real estate investment firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is the real estate asset management platform of Franklin Templeton Investments. In 2022, IREI ranked Clarion as the eighth largest ...

*Year Founded: 1982 *Year Acquired: 2016 *Location: Headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; offices in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

ClearBridge Investments

*Year Founded: 2005 (predecessor firms date to 1962) *Year Acquired: 2005 (as Citigroup's asset management business) *Location: Headquartered in

; offices in

, and Wilmington

EnTrust Global

*Year Founded: 2016 (predecessor firms date back to 1997 and 1973) *Year Acquired: 2005 (as The Permal Group) *Location: Headquartered in New York; offices in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and

Martin Currie

*Year Founded: 1881 *Year Acquired: 2014 *Location:

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

QS Investors

*Year Founded: 1999 *Year Acquired: 2014 *Location:

RARE Infrastructure

*Year Founded: 2006 *Year Acquired: 2015 *Location:

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

; office in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

Royce Investment Partners Royce Investment Partners is a family of mutual funds that focuses primarily on small-cap investing, and has been considered one of the industry's most experienced smaller-company stock pickers. Royce & Associates, LLC serves as investment adviser t ...

*Year Founded: 1972 *Year Acquired: 2001 *Location: New York

Western Asset Management Company Western Asset Management Company is a global fixed-income investment firm headquartered in Pasadena, California, with nine offices on five continents and $484.5 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2020. The firm offers insti ...

*Year Founded: 1971 *Year Acquired: 1986 *Location: Headquartered in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

; offices in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Former offices

File:Legg Mason Building.jpg, 100 Light Street File:Former Legg Mason Building.jpg, Pratt Street File:Old Legg Mason Building 2.jpg, Redwood Street File:Legg mason tower.jpg, 100 International Drive - Legg Mason Tower

References

External links

{{authority control 1899 establishments in Maryland 1980s initial public offerings 2020 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Financial services companies established in 1899 Financial services companies disestablished in 2020 Financial services companies based in Maryland Investment management companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Baltimore 2020 disestablishments in Maryland