Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) will acquire online brokerage firm E-Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:EFTC) for $13 billion, the companies said on Thursday.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Wall Street investment bank will pay $58.74 a share in stock for E-Trade. E-Trade has over 5.2 million client accounts with over $360 billion of retail client assets, adding to Morgan Stanley’s existing 3 million client relationships and $2.7 trillion of client assets.
“E*TRADE represents an extraordinary growth opportunity for our Wealth Management business and a leap forward in our Wealth Management strategy,” James Gorman, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, said in a press release.
The deal, which for Morgan marks a “decade-long effort to rebalance the firm’s portfolio of businesses so that a greater percentage of firm revenues and income are derived from balance sheet light and more durable sources of revenues,” is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020.
E-Trade shares jumped 25% at $56 in the pre-market trade before being halted. Morgan Stanley shares fell 5.17% at $53.40.
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