Wit Capital Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WITC) rose 1 5/16 to 11 9/16 Monday after the investment banking company said it will acquire E*Trade Group, Inc.’s E*Offering subsidiary.
E*Offering shareholders will receive about 32 million Wit Capital shares, or about 25 percent of the total, fully diluted. E*Trade, General Atlantic and Softbank together will own more than 25 million of Wit Capital’s shares, with 20 million of those shares subject to a three-year restriction on sales.
Wit SoundView will be the exclusive source of IPOs, follow-on offerings and other investment banking products to E*Trade, and E*Trade will acquire Wit SoundView’s retail brokerage business.