Ameritrade is to buy the online retail accounts of New York-based equity execution outfit BrokerageAmerica.
The acquisition includes approximately 11,500 accounts. The parties intend to close as soon as possible.
For Ameritrade, this latest transaction follows the account acquisition of Mydiscountbroker.com in June, last year's merger with Datek Online Holdings Corp. and the 2001 acquisition of National Discount Brokers Corporation. Ameritrade currently claims three million retail accounts.
Drew Sycoff, chief executive officer at BrokerageAmerica, says the disposal of the retail execution business will enable the firm to focus on the core broker-dealer, institutional investor market.