Cassatt & Company

Last updated
Cassatt & Company
TypeAcquired
Industry Financial services
PredecessorLloyd, Cassatt & Company
Founded1872
FounderRobert K. Cassatt
Defunct1940
FateAcquired in 1940 by E.A. Pierce Merrill Lynch
SuccessorMerrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce and Cassatt
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane (later Smith)
Headquarters Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Products Brokerage, investment banking

Cassatt & Company was a Philadelphia based investment banking and brokerage firm founded in 1872. The firm was acquired by Merrill Lynch in 1940, shortly after Merrill's merger with E.A. Pierce & Co. that created Merrill Lynch, E.A. Pierce & Cassatt.

Contents

The Cassatt name was dropped in 1940 when the newly combined firm acquired New Orleans-based Fenner & Beane.

History

Founding and early history

The firm, which was originally known as Lloyd, Cassatt & Company was founded by Robert S. Cassatt, father of railroad executive Alexander Cassatt. [1]

By 1919, the firm had offices in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. [2]

Acquisition by Merrill Lynch and E.A. Pierce

In 1931, the firm split its investment banking business from its traditional brokerage business. [3]

In 1934, Cassatt began discussions with E.A. Pierce & Co., the largest brokerage firm in the U.S. at the time about a potential merger. [4] In 1935, these discussions resulted in a partnership between the two firms. As part of the deal, Cassatt transferred its brokerage business to E.A. Pierce and focused exclusively on investment banking and merchant banking. [5]

In the late 1930s, E.A. Pierce began discussions with Merrill Lynch about a potential merger. E.A. Pierce was struggling financially in the 1930s and was thinly capitalized. [6] Following the death of Edmund C. Lynch in 1938, Winthrop Smith began discussions with Charles E. Merrill, who owned a minority interest in E.A. Pierce about a possible merger of the two firms. On April 1, 1940, Merrill Lynch, E.A. Pierce & Cassatt was formed when the two firms merged and also acquired Cassatt & Co. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles E. Merrill</span> American businessman

Charles Edward Merrill was an American philanthropist, stockbroker, and co-founder, with Edmund C. Lynch, of Merrill Lynch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood Gundy</span> Canadian stock brokerage and investment banking firm

Wood Gundy Inc. was a leading Canadian stock brokerage and investment banking firm. Founded in 1905, it was acquired by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in 1988 as it attempted to build an investment banking business. The Wood Gundy name was used extensively by the bank's investment banking arm, which was known as CIBC Wood Gundy until 1997. Today, CIBC's investment banking business is known as CIBC World Markets, and the name CIBC Wood Gundy is used as the brand for the bank's retail brokerage business.

CIBC Wood Gundy is the Canadian full-service retail brokerage division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Through its network of over 1,000 investment advisors working in 80 locations across Canada, CIBC Wood Gundy offers an array of investment and insurance products and services.

Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives and was among the largest members of the New York Stock Exchange. The company served over 3.2 million clients primarily in the U.S. Dean Witter provided debt and equity underwriting and brokerage as mutual funds and other saving and investment products for individual investors. The company's asset management arm, Dean Witter InterCapital, with total assets of $90.0 billion prior to the acquisition, was one of the largest asset management operations in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piper Sandler Companies</span> American financial services company

Piper Sandler Companies is an American independent investment bank and financial services company, focused on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, public offerings, public finance, institutional brokerage, investment management and securities research. Through its principal subsidiary, Piper Sandler & Co., the company targets corporations, institutional investors, and public entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.</span>

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) is the oldest and one of the largest private investment banks in the United States. In 1931, the merger of Brown Brothers & Co. and Harriman Brothers & Co. formed the current BBH.

PaineWebber & Co. was an American investment bank and stock brokerage firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with two employees, they leased premises at 48 Congress Street in May 1881. The company was renamed Paine, Webber & Co. when Charles Hamilton Paine became a partner. Members of the Boston Stock Exchange, in 1890 the company acquired a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Wallace G. Webber retired after the business weathered a major financial crisis that hit the market in 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merrill Lynch & Co.</span> Defunct American investment bank

Merrill Lynch & Co., formally Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, was a publicly-traded American investment bank that existed independently from 1914 until January 2009 before being acquired by Bank of America and rolled into BofA Securities.

S. G. Warburg & Co. was a London-based investment bank. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was acquired by the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995 and ultimately became a part of UBS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex. Brown & Sons</span> First investment bank in the United States

Alex. Brown & Sons was the first investment bank in the United States, founded by Alexander Brown in 1800 in Baltimore, Maryland. The firm was acquired by Bankers Trust in 1997 to form BT Alex. Brown, and then integrated into Deutsche Bank in 1999 following Deutsche's acquisition of BT. In 2016, Raymond James acquired Deutsche's U.S. private client services unit, operating under the Alex. Brown brand.

G.H. Walker & Co. was an investment banking and brokerage firm founded in 1900 by George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush, and located at 1 Wall Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shearson</span>

Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward Shearson and the firm he founded, Shearson Hammill & Co. Among Shearson's most notable incarnations were Shearson / American Express, Shearson Lehman / American Express, Shearson Lehman Brothers, Shearson Lehman Hutton and finally Smith Barney Shearson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shearson, Hammill & Co.</span>

Shearson, Hammill & Co. was a Wall Street brokerage and investment banking firm founded in 1902 by Edward Shearson and Caleb Wild Hammill. The firm originally built its business as a stock broker as well as a broker of various commodities, particularly grain and cotton. The firm was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt, originally Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill, was an American investment banking and brokerage firm founded in 1960 and acquired by American Express in 1981. In its two decades as an independent firm, Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt served as a vehicle for the rollup of more than a dozen brokerage and securities firms led by Sanford I. Weill that culminated in the formation of Shearson Loeb Rhoades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dain Rauscher Wessels</span>

Dain Rauscher Wessels was a brokerage and investment banking firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The firm traced its origins to a number of smaller regional securities firms founded in the 1920s and 1930s.

E. A. Pierce & Co. was a securities brokerage firm based in New York City. Founded as A. A. Housman & Co., the firm was renamed for Edward A. Pierce in 1927. In 1930, following the stock market crash of 1929 E. A. Pierce acquired the brokerage business of Merrill Lynch. Ten years later, Merrill Lynch merged with E. A. Pierce.

Fenner & Beane was a brokerage firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1916 as Fenner Gatling & Beane, it was renamed in 1919. The firm was founded by the Beane Brothers, who were New Orleans cotton merchants, to manage their exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winthrop H. Smith</span> American businessman and investment banker

Winthrop Hiram "Win" Smith was an American businessman and investment banker. He was notable as a name partner of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.

Merrill, previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banking arm, both firms engage in prime brokerage and broker-dealer activities. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and once occupied the entire 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex in Manhattan. Merrill employs over 14,000 financial analysts and manages $2.3 trillion in client assets. The company also operates Merrill Edge, a division for investment and related services, including call center counsultancy.

Charles Erasmus Fenner was a businessperson in New Orleans, Louisiana, who founded Fenner & Beane, a brokerage firm which later became part of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, & Smith. He was a civic leader in New Orleans.

References