J. & W. Seligman & Co. - History - The 20th Century

The 20th Century

In the early 20th century the firm backed the construction of the Panama Canal. In this period, J.& W. Seligman & Co. Inc. underwrote the securities of a variety of companies, participating in stock and bond issues in the railroad and steel and wire industries, investments in Russia and Peru, the formation of the Standard Oil Company, and shipbuilding, bridges, bicycles, mining, and a variety of other industries. In 1910 William C. Durant of the fledgling General Motors Corporation gave control of his company's board to the Seligmans and Lee, Higginson & Co. in return for underwriting $15 million worth of corporate notes.

In 1930, Seligman began managing its first mutual fund, Broad Street Investing Co., later known as the Seligman Common Stock Fund. Meanwhile, the firm's investment banking business declined by the 1930s. In 1938, in response to the Glass–Steagall Act, the firm spun off its securities underwriting business as Union Securities. Union Securities was bought by securities broker Eastman Dillon & Co. in 1956 to form Eastman Dillon Union Securities & Co. In 1979, Eastman Dillon (later Blyth, Eastman Dillon & Co.) was acquired by securities broker Paine Webber, which in 2000 became part of financial conglomerate UBS AG. Parts of J.& W. Seligman & Co. Inc. continue as a closed end investment company, Tri-Continental Corporation, and as Seligman mutual funds.

In 1980, Seligman, which had been owned by its employees in a partnership, restructured into a private corporation, owned by 43 employees. In 1989, the company was acquired through a $52.6 million management buyout, led by a number of its directors, most notably William C. Morris, formerly of Shearson Lehman/American Express. The buyout was financed by a consortium of insurance companies.

In 1991, Seligman entered into a joint venture with Henderson plc, one of Europe's largest independent money managers. The venture, known as Seligman Henderson Co., was designed to provide the firm with a more global reach than it had achieved on its own. The firm left behind its downtown offices at 1 William Street and moved to new offices on Park Avenue in 1993. Seligman focused its efforts on institutional investors after selling its high net worth business to U.S. Trust Corp. in 1995. In 1997, Seligman began offering its first offshore mutual funds, Seligman Global Horizon Funds, to non-US investors.

Seligman experienced significant growth in the 1990s on the back of the performance of its star mutual fund investor Paul Wick. The Seligman Communication & Information Fund, managed by Wick, was among the best performing of the mid-1990s, while its mainstay fund Tri-Continental Corporation had languished with poor performance during the bull market. However, the collapse of the internet bubble heavily impacted Seligman. The firm's Communication & Information Fund, which had been a high flier in the 1990s lost nearly half of the $6.5 billion of assets it had at the peak in 1999. The company was nearly sold in 2003, but the existing shareholders insisted on retaining a controlling interest.

In November 2008, Ameriprise Financial acquired J. & W. Seligman & Co. Incorporated for total consideration of $440 million. Today, the company operates under the brand name Seligman Investments using the name Seligman Advisors as a holding company within Ameriprise.