Morgan Stanley will announce the acquisition of online brokerage company E-Trade for a reported $13 billion, as the world’s largest asset management firms continue to rearrange and map out a road for future success.
The merger will combine Morgan Stanley’s $2.70 trillion in assets with E-Trade’s $360 billion, setting the stage for the company to compete more readily with powerhouse firms Fidelity and Charles Schwab. According to The New York Times, this is the biggest takeover by a major American lender since the Great Recession.
In November, Charles Schwab merged with TD Ameritrade to create one of the largest asset management firms in the world. With Schwab now at $4.05 trillion and Fidelity at an enormous $8.30 trillion, Morgan Stanley is taking the opportunity to try and play catch up in terms of asset size.
