Morgan Stanley is acquiring discount broker E*Trade for $13B

Startups • February 20, 2020, 7:45AM EST
UPDATED: February 20, 2020, 7:48AM EST
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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.

AUTHOR

Yogita Khatri profile picture Yogita Khatri

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.

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