The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a bank holding company that engages in investment banking, securities services, investment management and other financial services primarily with institutional clients. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered at 85 Broad Street, in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City. The firm has offices in all major international financial centers, and provides mergers and acquisitions advice, underwriting services, asset management, and securities services to its clients, which include corporations, governments and high net worth individuals around the world. The firm also engages in proprietary trading and private equity deals. It is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market.
Former Goldman Sachs employees Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson served as United States Secretary of the Treasury after leaving the firm; Rubin under President Clinton and Paulson under George W. Bush.
History
1869–1930
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by German immigrant Marcus Goldman. In 1882, Goldman's son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm which prompted the name change to Goldman Sachs. The company made a name for itself pioneering the use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs and was invited to join the New York Stock Exchange in 1896.
In the early 20th century, Goldman was a player in establishing the initial public offering market. It managed one of the largest IPOs to date, that of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1906. It also became one of the first companies to heavily recruit those with MBA degrees from leading business schools, a practice that still continues today.
On December 4, 1928, it launched the Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. a closed-end fund with characteristics similar to that of a Ponzi scheme. The fund failed as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, hurting the firm's reputation for several years afterward. Of this case and others like Blue Ridge Corporation and Shenandoah Corporation John Kenneth Galbraith wrote: The Autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves .
1930–1980
In 1930, Sidney Weinberg assumed the role of senior partner and shifted Goldman's focus away from trading and towards investment banking. It was Weinberg's actions that helped to restore some of Goldman's tarnished reputation. On the back of Weinberg, Goldman was lead advisor on the Ford Motor Company's IPO in 1956, which at the time was a major coup on Wall Street. Under Weinberg's reign the firm also started an investment research division and a municipal bond department. It also was at this time that the firm became an early innovator in risk arbitrage.
Gus Levy joined the firm in the 1950s as a securities trader, which started a trend at Goldman where there would be two powers generally vying for supremacy, one from investment banking and one from securities trading. For most of the 1950s and 1960s, this would be Weinberg and Levy. Levy was a pioneer in block trading and the firm established this trend under his guidance. Due to Weinberg's heavy influence at the firm, it formed an investment banking division in 1956 in an attempt to spread around influence and not focus it all on Weinberg.
In 1969, Levy took over as Senior Partner from Weinberg, and built Goldman's trading franchise once again. It is Levy who is credited with Goldman's famous philosophy of being "long-term greedy," which implies that as long as money is made over the long term, trading losses in the short term are not to be worried about. That same year, Weinberg retired from the firm.
Another financial crisis for the firm occurred in 1970, when the Penn Central Railroad Company went bankrupt with over $80 million in commercial paper outstanding, most of it issued by Goldman Sachs. The bankruptcy was large, and the resulting lawsuits threatened the partnership capital and life of the firm. It was this bankruptcy that resulted in credit ratings being created for every issuer of commercial paper today by several credit rating services.
During the 1970s, the firm also expanded in several ways. Under the direction of Senior Partner Stanley R. Miller, it opened its first international office in London in 1970, and created a private wealth division along with a fixed income division in 1972. It also pioneered the "white knight" strategy in 1974 during its attempts to defend Electric Storage Battery against a hostile takeover bid from International Nickel and Goldman's rival Morgan Stanley. This action would boost the firm's reputation as an investment advisor because it pledged to no longer participate in hostile takeovers.
John Weinberg (the son of Sidney Weinberg), and John C. Whitehead assumed roles of co-senior partners in 1976, once again emphasizing the co-leadership at the firm. One of their initiatives was the establishment of the 14 business principles that are still used to this day.
1980–1999
In the 1980s, the firm made a move by acquiring J. Aron & Company, a commodities trading firm which merged with the Fixed Income division to become known as Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities. J. Aron was a player in the coffee and gold markets, and the current CEO of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, joined the firm as a result of this merger. In 1985 it underwrote the public offering of the Real Estate Investment Trust that owned Rockefeller Center, then the largest REIT offering in history. In accordance with the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the firm also became involved in facilitating the global privatization movement by advising companies that were spinning off from their parent governments.
In 1986, the firm formed Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which manages the majority of its mutual funds and hedge funds today. In the same year, the firm also underwrote the IPO of Microsoft, advised General Electric on its acquisition of RCA and joined the London and Tokyo stock exchanges. 1986 also was the year when Goldman became the first United States bank to rank in the top 10 of mergers and acquisitions in the United Kingdom. During the 1980s the firm became the first bank to distribute its investment research electronically and created the first public offering of original issue deep-discount bond.
Robert Rubin and Stephen Friedman assumed the Co-Senior Partnership in 1990 and pledged to focus on globalization of the firm and strengthening the Merger & Acquisition and Trading business lines. During their reign, the firm introduced paperless trading to the New York Stock exchange and lead-managed the first-ever global debt offering by a U.S. corporation. It also launched the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) and opened a Beijing office in 1994. It was this same year that Jon Corzine assumed leadership of the firm following the departure of Rubin and Friedman. The firm joined David Rockefeller and partners in a 50-50 join ownership of Rockefeller Center during 1994, but later sold the shares to Tishman Speyer in 2000. In 1996, Goldman was lead underwriter of the Yahoo! IPO and in 1998 it was global coordinator of the NTT DoCoMo IPO. In 1999, Henry Paulson took over as Senior Partner.
1999–present
One of the largest events in the firm's history was its own IPO in 1999. The decision to go public was one that the partners debated for decades. In the end, Goldman decided to offer only a small portion of the company to the public, with some 48% still held by the partnership pool. 22% of the company was held by non-partner employees, and 18% was held by retired Goldman partners and two longtime investors, Sumitomo Bank Ltd. and Hawaii's Kamehameha Activities Assn (the investing arm of Kamehameha Schools). This left approximately 12% of the company as being held by the public. With the firm's 1999 IPO, Henry Paulson became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the firm. Today, after further stock offerings to the public, Goldman is 67% owned by institutions (such as pension funds and other banks).
In 1999 Goldman acquired Hull Trading Company, one of the world's premier market-making firms, for $531 million. More recently, the firm has been busy both in investment banking and in trading activities. It purchased Spear, Leeds, & Kellogg, one of the largest specialist firms on the New York Stock Exchange, for $6.3 billion in September 2000. It also advised on a debt offering for the Government of China and the first electronic offering for the World Bank. It merged with JBWere, the Australian investment bank and opened a full-service broker-dealer in Brazil. It expanded its investments in companies to include Burger King, McJunkin Corporation, and in January 2007, Alliance Atlantis alongside CanWest Global Communications to own sole broadcast rights to the CSI franchise. The firm is also heavily involved in energy trading, including the oil speculation market, on both a principal and agent basis.
In May 2006, Paulson left the firm to serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Lloyd C. Blankfein was promoted to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Former Goldman employees have headed the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury Department, the White House staff, and firms such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.
Actions in the 2007-2008 subprime mortgage crisis
Goldman Sachs' Alternative Mortgage Products
In 2006, Goldman Sachs’ mortgage-bond division - Alternative Mortgage Products (known as GSAMP for short) - issued 83 home-loan-backed bonds, valued at $44.5 billion. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, that made GSAMP the
Same Day Approval, Home Loans, Richmond, Virginia Mortgage, Richmond ...
Top Rated Mortgage Lenders & Home Loans in Richmond approval in your mortgage within hours. Reputable National lender and real estate network Low Mortgage Interest Rates Refinance ...
Mortgage Richmond Virginia
Mortgage Richmond Virginia and surrounding areas Jay Lambert. ... Apply for a Loan Free Pre-Approval Current Rates ... Welcome to The Home Loan Team, of Mortgage Bankers of Virginia.
Same Day Approval Home Mortgage Loans, Richmond, Virginia Mortgage ...
American Brokerage Richmond home loan lender for zero down Richmond mortgage homes loans and Low Rate Richmond refinances. No Upfront Costs. Serving the greater Richmond area and ...
Low Rate Mortgage Loan in Richmond, Petersburg, Fredericksburg ...
Looking For A Low Rate Mortgage in Richmond, Virginia? For A Low Rate First or Second Mortgage, ... Don't assume you will not get a loan approval, it is worth checking with us ...
HCI Mortgage - Richmond Branch
HCI Mortgage began brokering operations in August 1983 from a single office in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania. The Richmond, Virginia Branch is managed ... are based upon credit approval
Bank of America jobs in Richmond, VA - CNNMoney.com
Responsibilities include one or several types of mortgage lending (conventional, government-backed, etc.) May respond... more: Approval Officer: Bank of America: Richmond, VA
Richmond VA First Time Home Buyer - Solutions Mortgage Inc Offers ...
These loans feature low down payments and approval guidelines that make it easier to ... At Solutions Mortgage Inc our Richmond VA mortgage brokers offer a wide variety of first time ...
Mortgage Lender Richmond, VA - Rosado Funding Group
... from our mortgage company website. Rosado Funding Group, your mortgage consultant for life in Richmond, VA. ... Apply online today for a no-cost, no-obligation pre-approval!
Florida Home Refinance - Home Purchase | Mortgage Fort Lauderdale FL
The condominium needs to be HUD approved or receive HUD spot approval. This can be ... HA VA, orlando home refinance mortgage FHA VA, Fort laderdale home refinance mortgage FHA Va ...
Richmond Real Estate in VA: Information and Listings
... our mortgage company Prosperity Mortgage. Online Pre-approval ... home of the Virginia Derby—and NASCAR racing at the Richmond ...