() is an
Investment Bank ,
Retail Broker , and
Credit Card provider with headquarters in
New York City 's
Times Square .
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm, offering a wide variety of products and services. A partial list of these products and services includes:
Despite offering such a diverse array of services, Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in many areas, particularly equity and debt underwriting and investment banking. The company considers its brand name and reputation as a longtime leading financial firm among its most valuable assets.
(See
2004 Annual Report (pdf) ).
Morgan Stanley was founded in
New York on
September 5 ,
1935 , by Henry S. Morgan, and
Harold Stanley of
J. P. Morgan & Co. along with others from Drexel & Co. This split of the commercial and investment banks came as a result of the
Glass-Steagall Act . Within its first year it achieved 24% of market share among public offerings. In 1964 Morgan Stanley created the first computer model for financial analysis. By 1971 the Mergers & Acquisitions business was established along with Sales & Trading. In 1986 Morgan Stanley Group, Inc. became publicly listed.
In 1996, Morgan Stanley acquired
Van Kampen American Capital (
website ), a respected mutual fund company.
On
February 5 ,
1997 , the company merged with Dean Witter, and Discover & Co. (a.k.a.
Dean Witter Reynolds ) the spun-off financial services business of
Sears Roebuck . The merged company was briefly known as "Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover & Co." until 1998 when it was known as "Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co." until late 2001. To foster brand recognition and marketing the Dean Witter name was dropped and the firm became "Morgan Stanley". The merger was controversial, and the firm lost some of its blue chip status with its corporate client base.
Morgan Stanley comprises four main business units:
- Morgan Stanley was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by ''Working Mothers'' magazine.
- ''Family Digest'' magazine named Morgan Stanley one of the "Best Companies for African Americans" in June 2004
- ''Essence'' magazine named Morgan Stanley as one of the "30 Great Places to Work" in May 2004
- ''Asian Enterprise'' magazine named Morgan Stanley as one of the "Top Companies for Asian Americans" in April 2004
- ''Hispanic'' magazine selected Morgan Stanley as one of the "100 Companies Providing the Most Opportunities to Hispanics" in February 2004
- Morgan Stanley is listed in ''The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers'', only recently dropping out of the top 40
- ''The Times'' listed Morgan Stanley 5th in it's ''20 Best Big Companies to Work For 2006'' list
- Former Chairman and CEO: Philip J. Purcell , who headed Dean Witter Discover , was Chairman and CEO since the merger until June 30, 2005. He announced his retirement on June 13, 2005 (see " Recent Disputes (2005) "), and John Mack was ultimately named his successor.
- Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in underwriting Initial Public Offering s of stock worldwide.
- Morgan Stanley reported net revenues of $23.8 billion in 2004.
- In 2004, Morgan Stanley held the #1 industry rank for the following categories: Global Equity and Equity-Related Underwriting Market Share, Global IPO Market Share, and Global Equity Trading Market Share.
- Morgan Stanley had 53,760 total employees worldwide as of August 31, 2005.
- Morgan Stanley is considered the industry leader in .
- Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) were principal underwriters of the 2004 Google IPO .
- As of June 2005 , the firm's Market Capitalization was around $58.5 billion.
- Morgan Stanley was the largest employer in the World Trade Center prior to the Events Of September 11 , 2001. In June 2005 , the company announced it would return 2,300 workers to lower Manhattan , marking the largest return of jobs since the attacks.
''External links for this section:''
Misleading Financial Analysis was disclosed amongst investment banks in the
United Kingdom , but the FSA
Financial Services Authority , decided not to intervene. In criminal activity in the US similar to that alleged in the UK, Morgan Stanley was fined $125 million.
On
July 12 ,
2004 , Morgan Stanley settled a sex discrimination suit brought by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $54 million.
On
January 12 ,
2005 , The
New York Stock Exchange imposed a $19 million fine on Morgan Stanley for alleged regulatory and supervisory lapses.
On May 16, 2005, A
Florida jury found that Morgan Stanley did in fact fail to give adequate information to
Ronald Perelman about
Sunbeam thereby defrauding him and causing damages to him of $604 million. To that $604 million was added punitive damages by the jury for a total of compensatory and punitive
Damages of $1.450 billion. Morgan Stanley has stated the decision will be
Appealed and is confident the decision will be overturned.
Morgan Stanley asserts many rulings in the trial were "unprecedented and highly prejudicial" (from a statement, see links below). It should be noted that Morgan Stanley lost an estimated $300 million on the
Sunbeam collapse, calling into serious question any alleged
Motive on the firm's part. From a
Business Ethics perspective, it is also questionable whether Morgan Stanley, in its
Analyst capacity, was responsible for or even capable of ensuring the accuracy of
Sunbeam financial data, which is generally considered the responsibility of internal and external
Accounting faculties.
''External links for this section:''
Concerned over lackluster performance, eight former senior Morgan Stanley executives sent a letter to the Board on
March 3 ,
2005 requesting immediate replacement of Purcell as
CEO . On
March 29 , Purcell announced that he would be replacing President Stephan Newhouse, a 26 year Morgan Stanley veteran and former Navy officer, with Zoe Cruz and Steve Crawford, two of Purcell's most recognized supporters. Three days later, the so called “Group of Eight” published a full-page advertisement in the ''
Wall Street Journal '' and launched a
website publicising their position.
On
May 12 ,
2005 , dissidents announced a plan to split Morgan Stanley into two firms:
one retail (as former Dean Witter) and one institutional firm (as former Morgan Stanley), saying Purcell's plans to merge these two entities had not worked over the past eight years. (See ''
New York Times '' article,
May 13 ,
2005 .)
On June 13, 2005 Purcell announced that he would retire as CEO when a successor was found, but no later than March 2006. Former President
John Mack was chosen to succeed Purcell and his appointment was made official by the board of directors on June 30, 2005. Mack announced he would forgo the $25 million per year guaranteed him in his rehiring, preferring instead to be paid based on performance. Purcell's exit package was in excess of $113 million.
- Hibbard, J. ( 17 January 2005 ). Morgan Stanley: No stars—and lots of top tech IPOs. In ''BusinessWeek'', 56 – 58.
- Chernow, Ron (Copyright 1990) The House Of Morgan
- Partnoy, Frank ((c)1997) Penguin Books, NY - F.I.A.S.C.O
