TD Ameritrade
 |
 | |
| Company type | Public (Nasdaq: AMTD) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Brokerages |
| Founded | Omaha, Nebraska (1971) |
| Headquarters | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
Key people | Joe Moglia, CEO J. Joseph Ricketts, Chairman William Gerber, CFO Chris Armstrong, EVP, Client Group Kevin Finn, CIO Fred Tomczyk, COO |
| Products | Stock Brokerage |
| Revenue |  $1.803 Billion USD (2006) |
| $526.76 Million USD (2006) | |
Number of employees | 3,947 (2006) |
| Website | www.amtd.com |
TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AMTD) is the owner
of TD AMERITRADE Inc., the largest online brokerage in the world
in number of online equity trades placed per day.
TD AMERITRADE traces back its lineage to a small investment
banking firm and First Omaha Securities, Inc. (later Accutrade) in
Omaha, Nebraska. Ameritrade Clearing Inc. was established as a
clearing broker in 1983, and by 1987 TransTerra Company became the
holding company for Ameritrade, and the company was subsequently known
as TransTerra Company. In 1988, the company introduced the first quote
and order entry system via the touch-tone phone. In 1995, the company
acquired K. Aufhauser & Company, Inc. and its WealthWeb, the first
firm to offer online securities trading, receiving the first order in
August 1994. In October 1995, Ameritrade acquired All American Brokers.
In January of 1996, TransTerra's Accutrade launched "Accutrade® for
Windows®," the first online investing system that let individuals
partake in program investing and basket trading. By May of 1996,
TransTerra launched an Internet only broker called eBroker™, and by
November, TransTerra Company became Ameritrade Holding
Corporation.
In March of 1997, Ameritrade
became a publicly held company, and its IPO opened at $15 per share.
Ameritrade formed Freetrade in November of 2000, which provided
commission-free equity market orders. Freetrade has since been replaced
by Ameritrade Izone, which now offers $5 equity market orders. In 2001,
Ameritrade made two acquisitions: the February acquisition of
TradeCast, giving Ameritrade a presence in the business-to-business
arena, and the September acquisition of National Discount Brokers
Corporation, adding $6.3 billion in client assets. In 2002, Ameritrade
merged with Datek Online Holdings Corporation, and changed commissions
to $10.99 from $8 for market orders and $12 for limit and stop orders.
Ameritrade purchased Mydiscountbroker.com in June 2003, and client
accounts reached 3 million. In 2004, Ameritrade completed the purchase
of Bidwell and Company in January, BrokerageAmerica in February,
Investex in May and JB Oxford and Company in October. Recent reports
suggest that TD Ameritrade is engaged in merger talks with E*TRADE.
Acquisition of TD Waterhouse USA
Ameritrade Holding Corporation acquired TD Waterhouse USA from TD Bank Financial Group. Following the acquisition, it renamed itself TD AMERITRADE. TD AMERITRADE is one of the largest online brokerages, with 6.3 million client accounts and $300 billion in client assets. Revenue and net income are expected to increase to $1.8 billion and $557 million, respectively. TD Bank now owns 39% of TD AMERITRADE, and purchased Ameritrade's Canadian brokerage operations for $60 million cash. As part of the acquisition, Ameritrade investors received a special one-time $6 dividend, funded from Ameritrade borrowings and excess cash contributed to TD Waterhouse USA by TD Bank. TD Bank will limit their ownership of TD AMERITRADE to 45% for up to ten years after the acquisition, while J. Joe Ricketts will limit his family's ownership of TD AMERITRADE to 29% for ten years after the acquisition. Ameritrade CEO Joe Moglia became the CEO of TD AMERITRADE.
Awards
- Technology Company of the Year from The AIM Institute, April
2007
- #1 Web-Based Online Broker to TD AMERITRADE from Barron's 2007
Review of Online Brokers, March 2007
- Best Big Companies from Forbes Magazine, December 2006
- Certified Customer Call Center from J.D. Power and Associates,
May 2004, June 2005, July 2006
- Reader's Choice Award from Stocks and Commodities magazine,
February 2004
- Best of the Web from Forbes, 2003, 2004
- Top Choice from the Wall Street Journal, May 2002
Sponsorship
As of May 31, 2006, TD AMERITRADE has been a title sponsor for ESPN's Monday Night Baseball.
Security breach and resulting spam flood
In October 2005, several nanae posters reported spam to the disposable email addresses they'd given (only) to Ameritrade that were not the result of a Directory Harvest Attack. TD AMERITRADE staff reported that it was investigating the matter.
Reports of an ongoing problem continued. For example, on March 30th 2007, a Slashdot article reported that unique email addresses provided only to TD AMERITRADE were frequently becoming targets for spammers. [1]. Recent speculation indicates that one of TD AMERITRADE's affiliated companies [2] is the source of the leaks.
In mid-September 2007 British tabloid IT-news portal The Register reported that TD Ameritrade had disclosed that it had fallen victim to a backdoor-based network attack, and that a database containing all customer Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and email addresses had been compromised. The Register alleges said breach was only disclosed after a class action lawsuit [3] started against the TD Group. [4]
Data
- [5] Yahoo! - TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation Company Profile
- [6] Hoover's Online - TD AMERITRADE Fact Sheet
- [7] TD AMERITRADE Company Fact Sheet