Morgan Stanley is acquiring discount broker E*Trade for $13B
Investment banking giant Morgan Stanley is buying discount broker E*Trade Financial Corporation for $13 billion.
The all-stock deal is set to be announced today, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The takeover is said to be the biggest by a giant U.S. bank since the 2008 crisis.
“We’ll take on Schwab. We’ll take on Fidelity,” James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, told the Journal. “This isn’t about legacy-building; it’s about getting [Morgan Stanley] ready for prime time.”
The Morgan Stanley stock is down by over 4% in the pre-market hours. It remains to be seen how the stock reacts when the market opens.
In November, brokerage giant Charles Schwab agreed to acquire rival TD Ameritrade in an all-stock transaction valued at $26 billion.
Notably, E*Trade is also a crypto-friendly brokerage like TD Ameritrade. E*Trade was said to be preparing to offer trading in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), but there has been no official announcement in that regard yet.
