This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Paine Webber was never the biggest brokerage on Wall Street; the title of top dog was held throughout the years by its rivals, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, E.F. Hutton, Kidder Peabody, Bear Stearns, Salomon Brothers. But it was part of the solid middle, the proud family firms that began to boom in the early decades of the 20th century, many before the Great Depression, and survived for nearly 100 years.

Paine Webber was founded in 1880 by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. The firm expanded slowly in the latter part of the 19th century and by 1930 had expanded to 30 branch offices in 25 cities through the Northeast and Midwest United States. When Paine died in September 1929, his son Stephen had become a partner in the firm, maintaining the family connection. Unfortunately, Stephen got the firm mixed up in a securities fraud case involving Canadian investment trusts in the late 1930s, ending up with his securities license revoked and his firm's proud family name in the dirt.

The firm eventually recovered from the ignomy, and in 1963 moved its headquarter offices to New York City. Throughout the next few decades, it expanded through acquisitions in the Northeast and Southeast U.S. Unfortunately, Paine Webber was a follower of market trends, and in the late 1970s when it became vogue for brokerages and investment banks to combine forces, it bought Blyth Eastman Dillon. The merger turned out to be disastrous, as the company was not prepared for the immediately following bull retail market. Their systems could not support the thousands upon thousands of trades, and the company almost broke under the pressure.

Continue reading Companies that vanished: Paine Webber, proud family heritage

Companies that vanished: Paine Webber, proud family heritage originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.