Morgan Stanley To Buy E*Trade For $13B

Morgan Stanley MS is buying E*Trade Financial Corp. ETFC in an all-stock $13 billion deal with the aim to reshape the investment bank.

E*Trade will bring 5 million retail customers and $360 billion in assets and an online bank with cheap deposits that Morgan Stanley can funnel into loans, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The bank aims to take on Charles Schwab SCHW and Fidelity.

"Since we created the digital brokerage category nearly 40 years ago, E*TRADE has consistently disrupted the status quo and delivered cutting-edge tools and services to investors, traders, and stock plan administrators," said Mike Pizzi, CEO of E*TRADE. "By joining Morgan Stanley, we will be able to take our combined offering to the next level and deliver an even more comprehensive suite of wealth management capabilities."

Morgan Stanley shares were trading down 3.57% at $54.30 in Thursday's pre-market session. The stock has a 52-week high of $57.57 and a 52-week low of $38.76.

E*Trade shares were trading higher by 6.19% at $47.71 in Thursday’s pre-market session.

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