Paine Webber

In May 1881, William Alfred (W.A.) Paine (with a loan from his father) and Wallace G. Webber founded Paine & Webber as a brokerage firm in Boston, Massachusetts with a seat on the Boston Stock Exchange.^[1] With the admission of Charles H. Paine to the partnership, the firm was renamed Paine, Webber & Co. The firm would purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1890. Also in the 1890s, W.A. Paine entered into a partnership with Copper Range Company and Copper Range Railroad, controlled by John Stanton.

Controlled by the Paine family, Paine, Webber & Co. entered the investment banking business in the 1920s. After nearly fifty years at the head of the company, W.A. Paine died right before the Wall Street crash of 1929. His son F. Ward Paine became head of the firm, a position he held until 1940.^[2]

Following the difficult years of the Great Depression, Paine Webber merged with Jackson & Curtis, another Boston-based brokerage firm, in June 1942. In July 1879, Charles Cabot Jackson and Laurence Curtis had founded their brokerage firm Jackson & Curtis on Congress Street in Boston, not far from the original Paine Webber offices. The combined firm, Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis,^[3] operated a combined total of 22 branch offices. With its greater combined asset base, Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis had become a significant participant in the New England financial market.

En octubre de 1960, Paine Webber gestionó la oferta pública inicial (OPI) de Green Shoe Manufacturing Co. , ^{[ 4 ]} en la que introdujo el concepto de estabilización cubierta por una opción de sobreasignación, ^{[ 5 ]} que desde entonces se conoce con el nombre coloquial de greenshoe .

La empresa trasladó su sede de Boston a Nueva York en 1963. La sociedad matriz de la empresa se constituyó el 30 de junio de 1969 como PaineWebber Inc., de la cual Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis ^{[ 3 ]} era su principal filial.

En 1974, la firma realizó una oferta pública inicial de acciones de su sociedad matriz, PaineWebber Inc., y la cotizó en la Bolsa de Nueva York . PaineWebber llevó a cabo varias adquisiciones en la década de 1970, en el marco de una ola de consolidación que se extendió por el sector. En 1973, la firma adquirió FS Smithers & Co., estableciendo así su primera presencia en el mercado de renta fija. PaineWebber también adquirió Abbott, Proctor & Paine en 1970, el Abacus Fund, una sociedad de inversión de capital cerrado, en 1972, y Mitchum, Jones & Templeton Inc. en 1973.

En 1977, la empresa adquirió la firma de investigación y asesoría de inversiones Mitchell Hutchins, que había sido fundada en 1919.

En 1979, la empresa adquirió Blyth, Eastman Dillon & Co. , ^{[ 3 ]} que a su vez era producto de varias fusiones. Entre sus empresas predecesoras se encontraban Blyth & Co., que se había fusionado con Eastman Dillon Union Securities & Co. en 1972, producto a su vez de la fusión en 1956 de Union Securities (anteriormente la división de banca de inversión de J. & W. Seligman & Co. ) y Eastman Dillon & Co. La adquisición añadió más de 70 sucursales y más de 700 profesionales, así como un negocio de banca de inversión.

Para 1980, PaineWebber tenía 161 sucursales en 42 estados y seis oficinas en Asia y Europa . Con la adquisición de Rotan Mosle Financial Corp. en 1983, PaineWebber desarrolló una red de distribución nacional y, con su campaña publicitaria "Thank You PaineWebber", desarrolló su marca a lo largo de la década de 1980. En 1984, la compañía consolidó sus dos divisiones, Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis y Blyth Eastman Paine Webber Inc., para formar PaineWebber Inc. ^{[ 3 ]} PaineWebber Group Inc. se estableció como la empresa matriz. ^{[ 6 ]}

PaineWebber moved its headquarters from 140 Broadway to 1285 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan in 1985.^[7] PaineWebber became a visible presence on Sixth Avenue. At the time, the illuminated name on the building (today UBS) was unique among investment banks, and the building hosted a ground floor gallery of art exhibitions.^[8]

In 1986, the firm opened a new technology and transaction processing operation at Lincoln Harbor in New Jersey.^[9]

In 1995, PaineWebber completed the acquisition of the brokerage and investment banking firm Kidder, Peabody & Co. from General Electric Company.^[10][11] Founded in 1865, Kidder, Peabody had been a preeminent player in investment banking and private services before becoming embroiled in insider trading scandals in the 1980s and suffering major trading losses in 1994. Chris Innes served as an Investment Banking analyst from 1992-1994 and later became one of BOFAs youngest Managing directors at age 27 before leaving to launch his own hedge fund (https://www.cnbc.com/2007/01/02/two-senior-executives-leave-bank-of-america.html). During these years Michael G. Ricciardi was the managing director and head of global fixed income sales at Paine Webber.^[12]

Operating as PaineWebber Group Inc., by 2000 PaineWebber had emerged as the fourth largest private client firm in the United States with 385 offices employing 8554 stockbrokers.

In April 2000, PaineWebber acquired southeastern brokerage firm J.C. Bradford & Co. for US$620 million.^[13] The deal was not profitable for PaineWebber, as a great number of brokers left the firm due to corporate cultural differences, taking their clients with them. The Bradford unit which had been "purchased by PaineWebber mainly for its network of 900 brokers" was closed.^[14]

On November 3, 2000, under the leadership of chairman and CEO, Donald Marron, the company completed a US$10.8 billion cash and stock merger with UBS, a banking conglomerate headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.^[15][16] Initially the business was given the divisional name "UBS PaineWebber",^[17] but in 2003, the 123-year-old name Paine Webber disappeared when it was renamed "UBS Wealth Management USA".^[18]