| Cassatt & Company | |
| Type: | Acquired |
| Foundation: | 1872 |
| Defunct: | 1940 |
| Fate: | Acquired in 1940 by E.A. Pierce Merrill Lynch |
| Predecessor: | Lloyd, Cassatt & Company |
| Successor: | Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce and Cassatt Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane (later Smith) |
| Founder: | Robert K. Cassatt |
| Location: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Industry: | Financial services |
| Products: | Brokerage, investment banking |
Cassatt & Company was a Philadelphia-based investment banking and brokerage firm founded in 1872. The firm was acquired by Merrill Lynch in 1940, shortly after Merrill's merger with E.A. Pierce & Co. that created Merrill Lynch, E.A. Pierce & Cassatt.
The Cassatt name was dropped in 1940 when the newly combined firm acquired New Orleans–based Fenner & Beane.
The firm, which was originally known as Lloyd, Cassatt & Company was founded by Robert S. Cassatt, father of railroad executive Alexander Cassatt.[1]
By 1919, the firm had offices in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.[2]
See main article: Merrill Lynch. In 1931, the firm split its investment banking business from its traditional brokerage business.[3]
In 1934, Cassatt began discussions with E.A. Pierce & Co., the largest brokerage firm in the U.S. at the time about a potential merger.[4] In 1935, these discussions resulted in a partnership between the two firms. As part of the deal, Cassatt transferred its brokerage business to E.A. Pierce and focused exclusively on investment banking and merchant banking.[5]
In the late 1930s, E.A. Pierce began discussions with Merrill Lynch about a potential merger. E.A. Pierce was struggling financially in the 1930s and was thinly capitalized.[6] Following the death of Edmund C. Lynch in 1938, Winthrop Smith began discussions with Charles E. Merrill, who owned a minority interest in E.A. Pierce about a possible merger of the two firms. On April 1, 1940, Merrill Lynch, E.A. Pierce & Cassatt was formed when the two firms merged and also acquired Cassatt & Co.