Etrade financial center market st san francisco

E-Trade Financial Corporation (stylized as E*TRADE) is a financial services subsidiary of

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

, which offers an

electronic trading platform In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products ...

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exc ...

financial asset A financial asset is a non-physical asset whose value is derived from a contractual claim, such as bank deposits, bonds, and participations in companies' share capital. Financial assets are usually more liquid than other tangible assets, such ...

s. The company receives revenue from interest income on

margin Margin may refer to: Physical or graphical edges * Margin (typography), the white space that surrounds the content of a page *Continental margin, the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust *Leaf ...

balances, commissions for order execution,

payment for order flow Payment for order flow (PFOF) is the compensation that a stockbroker receives from a market maker in exchange for the broker routing its clients' trades to that market maker. It is a controversial practice that has been called a " kickback" by its ...

, and management services. The company has 30 branches.

History

In 1982, William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb founded TradePlus in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, with $15,000 in capital. In 1991, Porter and Newcomb founded E-Trade Securities, Inc., with several hundred thousand dollars of startup capital from TradePlus. E-Trade offered its trading services via

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

and

Compuserve CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

. In 1994, its revenues neared $11 million, up from $850,000 in 1992. By June 30, 1996, the company had 73,000 accounts and processed 8,000 trades per day, with quarterly revenue of $15 million. On August 16, 1996, 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 ( ...

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 investme ...

. In 2000, the company acquired Telebanc. In May 2001, the company acquired Web Street Securities for $45 million in stock. In January 2004, Toronto-Dominion Bank held talks to merge its TD Waterhouse discount brokerage with E-Trade, but the two sides could not come to an agreement over control of the merged entity. TD Waterhouse instead merged with Ameritrade to form TD Ameritrade. After the merger, E-Trade continued talks to merge with TD Ameritrade but the two sides could not agree on price and governance rights. DLJ direct metrocard ad 2001

In August 2005, the company acquired Harrisdirect (known under previous owners as DLJdirect and CSFBdirect) from

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (BMO; french: Banque de Montréal, link=no) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in ...

. Two months later, E-Trade acquired Brown & Company (aka BrownCo) from

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...

for $1.6 billion in cash. As a result, E-Trade closed its office in Rancho Cordova, California, on August 31, 2006 and terminated 500 employees. In July 2007, E-Trade Australia, which was a separately operated company owned 6% by the company, was purchased by

ANZ Bank ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand * ...

for $432 million. E-Trade was battered in the U.S. housing bubble. On November 29, 2007, E-Trade announced a transaction in which Citadel LLC invested $2.5 billion in cash in exchange for the company's securitized subprime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and second lien loans, as well as 12.5% senior unsecured notes, and 84,687,686 shares of common stock (equal to 19.99% of the then currently outstanding shares). This resulted in a net $2.2 billion reduction in assets on the company's

balance sheet In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a business ...

. Citadel received a seat on 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 orga ...

of the company and Mitch Caplan resigned as CEO. In November 2007, the company revoked the brand name license from SBI E-Trade Securities in Japan. In March 2008, E-Trade named Donald Layton, formerly

vice chairman, as its new CEO. Layton had joined E-Trade's board of directors in November 2007, at the same time as the Citadel LLC deal. In September 2008, the company sold its Canadian division to

Scotiabank The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...

for . In December 2009, Robert Druskin, a former chief operating officer of

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

was named interim CEO and chairman. On March 22, 2010, Steven Freiberg was named CEO. Freiberg was the former co-CEO of Citigroup's global consumer group and former head of its credit card unit. 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 Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

bank. On September 12, 2016, E-Trade acquired OptionsHouse for $725 million and later that month Karl A. Roessner, E-Trade's general counsel since 2009, was appointed CEO. On October 19, 2017, E*TRADE acquired RIA custodial services company Trust Company of America. On August 14, 2019, Michael Pizzi was appointed CEO. On December 9, 2019, E-Trade acquired student loan benefit provider Gradifi. In October 2020, the company was acquired by

"E-Trade Baby" advertising campaign (2008–2014, 2022–present)

E-Trade Baby was an integrated advertising campaign that featured a baby that talked about finance. The goal was to make the audience believe that E-Trade was easy to use. The campaign, which appeared online, on television, and in print, was created by Tor Myhren, then of Grey Global Group. At first, Myhren had doubts if the ad campaign would work. In January 2008, during

Super Bowl XLII Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

, the company debuted advertisements featuring the baby, voiced by comedian Pete Holmes, discussing investing in an adult voice in front of a

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripher ...

. The advertising mascot is now sometimes remembered as a symbol of the excesses of the era before the global financial crisis. In February 2009, during Super Bowl XLIII, the company once again aired a 30-second advertisement featuring the baby, along with a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

page, updates on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and videos on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. As a result of the advertisement, the company realized a 19% increase in online applications and an 86% increase in website traffic in the week after the game. In January 2011, an episode of '' SportsNation'' on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

parodied the commercial with sportscaster Michelle Beadle as a "Beadle Baby". In February 2011, the baby was featured in an advertisement called "Enzo the Tailor", in which the baby was fitted for a custom-made suit and talked about how his tailor could retire in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

. In January 2013, the company aired an advertisement during Super Bowl XLVII featuring the baby. In the advertisement, the baby focuses on how much money is at stake in

401(k) In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodical employee contributions come directly out of the ...

account fees and offers a better approach: "come to E-Trade, and Save It". On March 21, 2014, the company announced the end of the E-Trade baby via a commercial which aired during the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams fro ...

. On February 13, 2022, the baby made a return during a commercial which aired during

Super Bowl LVI Super Bowl LVI was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2021 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Los Angeles Rams defeated the American Football Conference ...

References

External links

* {{Online brokerages 1982 establishments in California 1996 initial public offerings 2020 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1982 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Financial services companies established in 1982 Online brokerages American corporate subsidiaries Online financial services companies of the United States Morgan Stanley Companies based in Arlington County, Virginia

History

"E-Trade Baby" advertising campaign (2008–2014, 2022–present)

See also

References

External links