Morgan Stanley MS, -3.32% confirmed Thursday that is acquiring E*Trade Financial Corp. ETFC, +25.06% in an all-stock deal valued at $13 billion. Morgan Stanley will pay 1.0432 of its shares for each E*Trade share, equal to $58.74 based on its closing price Feb. 19. The deal “will significantly increase the scale and breadth of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management franchise, and positions Morgan Stanley to be an industry leader in Wealth Management across all channels and wealth segments,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement. E*Trade has more than 5.2 million client accounts with over $360 billion of retail client assets, adding to Morgan’s existing 3 million client relationships and $2.7 trillion of client assets. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
via Morgan Stanley confirms to acquire ETrade in $13 billion all-stock deal – MarketWatch.
