Dean Witter Reynolds
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Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage catering to the middle class. In 1997, it merged with the Morgan Stanley Group to form Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The amalgamated firm is now known as Morgan Stanley.
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[edit] History
Dean Witter was a retail brokerage firm that began in San Francisco in 1924. In 1938, Dean Witter established its national research department, and by 1945, was one of the first retail securities firms to formally train account executives. In 1962, Dean Witter became the first firm to use electronic data processing — a feat that paved the way for securities handling on Wall Street.
After numerous brokerage firm acquisitions, Dean Witter went public - the largest securities industry merger in history. One year later Dean Witter Reynolds became the first securities firm to have offices in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. It was later acquired by Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1981.
In 1986, the firm launched the Discover Card, a new brand of credit card.
In 1993, 20% of the company was spun off from Sears to shareholders, and subsequently became Dean Witter, Discover and Company.
In 1997, Morgan Stanley Group, Inc. and Dean Witter Discover merged to form one of the largest global financial services firms: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Eventually, to foster brand recognition and marketing, the Dean Witter name was dropped from the retail services division, leaving the current name Morgan Stanley.
In 2000, two Dean Witter Reynolds representatives, John B. Kemp and Lawrence J. Solari Jr. were charged by the National Association of Securities Dealers with misrepresenting the risks associated with closed end products.
The entrepreneur Chris Gardner, whose autobiography was turned into the 2006 feature film The Pursuit of Happyness, interned at Dean Witter Reynolds and began his career there. The firm was featured in the film.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Sears Archives-Sears History - 1980s to today
- A Brief Chronology of Sears
- Morgan Stanley & Dean Witter To Merge February 5, 1996
- Focus On The Forbes 500s: Morgan Stanley DW November 21, 2000
- Kador, John (2005). Charles Schwab : How One Company Beat Wall Street and Reinvented the Brokerage Industry. ISBN 0-471-66058-2
- Stone, Amey and Mike Brewster (2002). The King of Capital: Sandy Weill and the Making of Citigroup. ISBN 0-471-21416-7
