E*TRADE Financial Corp.

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*ETrade Financial Corp.**
Founded	1982
Headquarters	New York City, US
Key People	Mitchell Caplan, CEO and Director; George Hayter, Chairman; Robert Simmons, CFO; R. Lilien, President COO and Director
Employees	4705
Products	Online stock trading, mortgages and banking services for consumers and businesses, corporate services
Web site	http://www.etrade.com

E*Trade is an online stock trading company that was a pioneer in its space. In addition to serving as a discount brokerage, it also offers financial services including mortgages and banking services for consumers and businesses, in addition to corporate services including employee stock plan administration.

1 History
2 Products and Services
3 News
4 References

History

In 1982, inventor and entrepreneur Bill Porter developed VAX-based back-end technology that would be used to launch the E*Trade web site. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb founded TradePlus Inc. in Palo Alto, California.

In 1983, the company launched its first online trade over a network via CompuServe.
In 1991, Porter founded a new company, E*TRADE Securities, Inc., with several hundred thousand dollars of startup capital from TradePlus.
In 1992, E*Trade began offering online brokerage services directly to individual investors through online brokerage services.
In 1996, the company launched its E*Trade.com web site. Shares of E*Trade Group went public.
E*Trade acquired Telebank in early 2000, which subsequently became E*Trade Bank.
E*Trade joined the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 and moved its headquarters from California to New York in 2004.
The company acquired online brokers Harrisdirect and BrownCo in 2005.
In 2006, E*Trade reported record revenues of $2.4 billion and net income of $628.9 million. Total customer assets now exceed $195 billion.

Products and Services

Investors can buy and sell securities such as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds on E*TRADE's website. As a discount brokerage, E*Trade charges a smaller fee on each trade than most full-service brokers. While most people know E*Trade mainly as an online stock brokerage firm, the company also operated a large mortgage business--with a home loan portfolio of $30 billion.

News

On Nov. 29, 2007 hedge fund giant Citadel made a $2.5 billion cash infusion into E*Trade Financial. The action was made to restore brokerage client confidence in E*Trade after analyst reports sparked fears of a possible bankruptcy. The move failed to have an immediate impact on E*Trade's share price.^[1]

E*Trade's deal with Citadel also included an agreement to route all E*Trade's customer options and a significant portion of stock order flow through Citadel for the next three years.^[2]

On Nov. 12, 2007, E*Trade said the turmoil in the housing markets and rapid devaluation of mortgage-related securities, had reduced the value of its $3.0 billion asset-backed securities portfolio. The same day, shares nearly 59% after a Citi Investment Research analyst said the online brokerage could face bankruptcy. ^[3]

On Nov. 9, 2007, E*Trade warned investors that its write-downs would be larger than expected in the fourth quarter.^[4] However, the online brokerage firm told its customers that it remains well-capitalized under regulatory standards, but that market conditions are likely to get worse before improving.^[5]