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As the online brokerage industry begins to age, the top players are jockeying for position. After this week, there's one less horse in the race.
Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s plan to acquire Datek Online for $1.3 billion was viewed positively on Wall Street, although several analysts remarked that Nebraska-based Ameritrade was paying a steep price for Datek.
The deal, announced April 8, in effect will have Ameritrade paying about $1,540 for each of New Jersey-based Datek's 837,000 accounts.
The market now values Ameritrade at about $800 per account.
Ameritrade has struggled of late, and Datek's strict focus on being an online brokerage for the "active" investor has kept it in the black through a tough market, according to Datek's investors.
"The industry has matured and there's a lack of trust in the market now on the part of retail investors," says Kevin Landry, CEO of investment firm TA Associates and a two-time Datek investor...