Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. In 800 offices, Financial Advisors service 9.6 million domestic client accounts representing $1.562 trillion in client assets worldwide. Clients range from individual investors to small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as large corporations, non-profit organizations and family foundations.

Origins

Smith Barney & Co. was formed in 1938 through the merger of Charles D. Barney & Co., founded in 1873, and Edward B. Smith & Co., founded in 1892. In the late 1980s the retail brokerage firm Smith Barney was owned by Primerica Financial Services. Commercial Credit purchased Primerica in 1988, for $1.5 billion. In 1992, they paid $722 million to buy a 27 percent share of Travelers Insurance. By the end of 1993, the merged company was known as Travelers Group Inc. In September 1997, Travelers acquired Salomon Inc. (parent company of Salomon Brothers Inc.), for over $9 billion in stock, and merged it with its own investment arm to create Salomon Smith Barney.

In April 1998 Travelers Group announced an agreement to undertake a $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, creating the largest single financial services company in the world. It now has over one trillion U.S. dollars in assets.

On January 13, 2009, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup announced the merger of Smith Barney with Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group, with Morgan Stanley paying US$2.7 billion cash upfront to Citigroup for a 51 percent stake in the joint venture. The joint venture will operate under the name Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Acclamation

BusinessWeek ranks Smith Barney No. 1 in customer service among full-service brokerage firms.

External links

• Smith Barney