Goldman Sachs is a publicly traded stock brokerage company.

Does Goldman Sachs own 100% of any discount brokerage company?
Does Goldman Sachs own any percentage of any discount brokerage company?

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 07 Feb 2004 07:55 PST

clicker5-ga:

Thanks for your question! 

Goldman Sachs prefers to call itself a global investment banking and
securities firm, as the brokerage operations are only a minor part of
its operations.

One of the biggest disadvantages that GS had throughout the tech stock
boom was its lack of access to the retail investor market through a
discount brokerage. This situation continues today, with GS still only
offering online research and trading capabilities to its wealthiest
private investors.

GS does, however, own a highly strategic company that provides
research and IPO access directly to retail investors through several
of the major online discount brokerages.

As well, it is likely that GS may have small holdings in some or even
all of the online discount brokerages that are publicly traded.
Unfortunately, as long as the holding remains small, there is no
requirement for either GS or the publicly traded entities to make this
holding known to the public. For example, some of the Goldman Sachs
Funds (mutual funds offered to the public  which may have some
investment by other parts of the Goldman Sachs family) hold shares of
The Charles Schwab Corporation, which in turn operates an online
discount brokerage:

http://www.gs.com/client_services/asset_management/mutual_funds/u_s_funds/pdf/semsh_researchselect.pdf
(see Financial sector holdings, page 6)

Will you accept, as an Answer, the information I can provide regarding
GS' wholly-owned company that provides research and IPO access to
retail investors through several major online discount brokerages?

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by clicker5-ga on 07 Feb 2004 10:15 PST

Hello aht-ga :
I consider your reply a good answer.   
Please post it as the answer.
If you also have any additional information on GS (outside holdings),
I would appreciate it.
After I send you this clarification, I will be away from my computer
until next Monday afternoon.
Kindest regards,   
clicker5-ga

clicker5-ga:

Thank you again for your question regarding Goldman Sachs.

To recap the information I provided above:

-------------------------

Goldman Sachs prefers to call itself a global investment banking and
securities firm, as the brokerage operations are only a minor part of
its operations.

One of the biggest disadvantages that GS had throughout the tech stock
boom was its lack of access to the retail investor market through a
discount brokerage. This situation continues today, with GS still only
offering online research and trading capabilities to its wealthiest
private investors.

GS does, however, own a highly strategic company that provides
research and IPO access directly to retail investors through several
of the major online discount brokerages.

As well, it is likely that GS may have small holdings in some or even
all of the online discount brokerages that are publicly traded.
Unfortunately, as long as the holding remains small, there is no
requirement for either GS or the publicly traded entities to make this
holding known to the public. For example, some of the Goldman Sachs
Funds (mutual funds offered to the public  which may have some
investment by other parts of the Goldman Sachs family) hold shares of
The Charles Schwab Corporation, which in turn operates an online
discount brokerage:

http://www.gs.com/client_services/asset_management/mutual_funds/u_s_funds/pdf/semsh_researchselect.pdf
(see Financial sector holdings, page 6)

-------------------------

The company that Goldman Sachs owns, and which provides research and
IPO access directly to retail investors through the online brokerage
systems of Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, and TD Waterhouse, was called
Epoch Partners Inc., and was originally created in 1999 by the three
discount brokers along with venture capitalists. Goldman Sachs
purchased Epoch Partners in 2001:

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Goldman Sachs to Acquire Epoch Partners, Inc. (June 14, 2001)
http://www.gs.com/our_firm/media_center/articles/press_release_2001_article_918770.html

GOLDMAN GOES RETAIL (The Industry Standard, June 25, 2001)
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HWW/25_4/76586050/p1/article.jhtml
---

As noted in the second article, one main motivation for GS in
purchasing Epoch Partners is to provide them with a greater market for
any initial public offerings that they are underwriting.

I hope this information helps!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher



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Search Strategy

A review of Goldman Sachs' annual report and press releases, followed
by direct Google Searching for additional information about companies
mentioned in the press releases;

A review of several of the Goldman Sachs Funds reports, available on
the gs.com website;

://www.google.com/search?q=%22goldman+sachs%22+online+brokerage

Thank you for the 5 star research.
clicker5-ga