E*Trade

TD Ameritrade Holding plans to discuss the possibility to purchase its rival online brokerage company E*Trade Financial Corp, according to the Wall Street Journal, who cited sources with the knowledge of the matter.

The Journal notes that the probable talks would not necessarily involve the offer from TD Ameritrade for E*Trade.

E*Trade Financial's largest shareholder, Citadel LLC, last week pressed the online brokerage to consider a sale of its business.
 

Citadel is selling about 24 million shares in the US online brokerage company E*Trade Corp which sent E*Trade’s shares down 5.9%.

A Citadel investment Group affiliate launched an underwritten offering, set to close March 1, that would reduce the Chicago-based fund's stake to about 18 percent of E*Trade, from about 27 percent currently, according to a regulatory filing late on Wednesday.

Previously Citadel already reduced its 50% stake in E*Trade. Now the move sent shares of E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC.O) down 98 cents to $15.67 -- its lowest level in a month.

E*Trade Financial has astonished analysts, having published first quarterly profit for three years. Analysts had previously expected another loss and sending shares up by 7%.  

E*Trade, that was hurt significantly by the US mortgage crisis, posted second quarter net income of $35 million, or 12 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $143 million, or $2.16 a share, in Q2 2009.

Monday next week is set as the day for the launch of a new brokerage by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The new brokerage called Merrill Edge will target less affluent investors who trade through discount firms like Charles Schwab or E*Trade, a bank spokeswoman said.

Merrill Edge will be serving customers with $250,000 or less in investable assets and will directly rival such online brokerage firms like TD Ameritrade and E*Trade Financial Corp.

Roughly 500,000 existing Bank of America online brokerage clients will be transferred to the new service throughout the summer.

Online brokerage company E*Trade is being sued by an actress Lindsay Lohan over its "milkaholic" baby in a recent TV commercial from the online broker. The actress seeks damages of $100 million alleging that the commercial is based on her.

The commercial features a baby explaining to his girlfriend via a Web cam that he failed to call her the previous night because he was managing his portfolio on the firm's site.

A financial services company E*Trade has purchased social finance company Cake Financial according to the official post of the latter. Cake Financial reported that the site will no longer exist as an independent service. Instead, its features will be incorporated into E*Trade’s website.

According to some sources there were other bidders for the company like The Motley Fool.

Here is the full text of the posting:

To All Members and Users of Cake Financial-

All three Etrade, Scottrade and AD Ameritrade are leading names currently in the field of online brokerage companies. However all suit to different categories of investors. Here I am giving you an overview and comparison between three to help you choose the best for you.

E*Trade