NEW YORK (AP) -- Three online brokerages have agreed to create an investment bank that will offer investors greater access to initial public offerings of technology companies.
Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., TD Waterhouse Group Inc., and Ameritrade Holding Corp., which announced the venture Monday, said the as-yet unnamed investment bank will underwrite, manage and distribute stock offerings of Internet companies and information technology firms.Other partners in the online bank are venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Trident Capital and Benchmark Capital. The bank will be based in California's Silicon Valley and is expected to begin operating in early 2000.
It plans to provide research to individual and institutional investors and offer private placement and strategic advisory services to issuers.
Scott Ryles, formerly a managing director and head of Technology Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, will serve as chief executive officer.
"Many customers of online brokerages own shares in technology and Internet companies going public today. Yet these investors generally have not been able to participate fully in the initial public offering process," said Ryles.
San Francisco-based Schwab, Omaha, Neb.-based Ameritrade, and TD Waterhouse, which has U.S. headquarters in New York, said they expect to be the exclusive distributors of stocks underwritten by the new bank.