Piper Jaffray - History

History

Piper Jaffray traces its roots to 1895 when George Lane established George B. Lane, Commercial Paper and Collateral Loans & Co., a commercial paper brokerage, in Minneapolis. In 1913, Piper, Jaffray Co. was established as another commercial paper business by H.C. Piper Sr. and C.P. Jaffray. In 1917, George B. Lane & Co. merged with Piper, Jaffray & Co. to form Lane, Piper & Jaffray.

The firm first obtained a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1931 with the acquisition of Hopwood & Company, which had been devastated by the stock market crash. In 1971, Piper first offered stock to the public and became a publicly held corporation known as Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Incorporated. Later, in 1986, Piper's common stock began trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol PIPR. In 1997, the firm was acquired by Minneapolis based U.S. Bancorp for $730 million in cash. From 1999 to 2003, the firm was known as U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. In 2003 U.S. Bancorp spun off Piper Jaffray in a stock dividend to its shareholders, and today the company is traded independently under the symbol PJC. In 2006, the company sold its brokerage business to Zurich based UBS for $510 million in cash. The business had approximately 800 brokers at that time.