Morgan Stanley Bets E*Trade Will Dodge the Dean Witter Jokes
- A quarter-century later, bank takes another run at down market
- Ex-CEO Purcell says all major deals come with ‘blood and pain’
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Morgan Stanley’s merger a quarter century ago with a brokerage that had branches in Sears was met with sneers. Wall Streeters joked it was a deal combining white shoes with white socks.
But with the painful Dean Witter Discover deal now ancient history, the firm is taking another stab at luring mom-and-pop investors: a $13 billion acquisition of E-Trade Financial Corp., the discount brokerage that shot to prominence in the day-trading heyday of the 1990s.