J.C. Bradford & Co.
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Fate | Acquired by PaineWebber (later UBS AG) |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Founder | James Cowdon Bradford Sr. |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Headquarters |
Nashville, Tennessee, United States 81 offices in 14 states |
| Products | Investment banking, Brokerage |
|
Number of employees
|
2,400 |
J.C. Bradford & Co. was a Nashville-based investment banking and brokerage firm founded by James Cowdon Bradford Sr. in 1927. The firm was the first from Nashville to buy a seat on the .
The firm was acquired by PaineWebber in April 2000 for $620 million to gain access to its network of 900 brokers. Just a month after the acquisition of the firm closed, PaineWebber announced the closure of the investment banking unit of J.C. Bradford & Co. in May 2000. Immediately subsequent to this, PaineWebber was acquired by Swiss banking fire UBS AG.
Prior to its acquisition, the firm had 2,400 employees in 81 offices located in 14 states, focused primarily in the southern United States.
J.C. Bradford & Co. was founded in May 1927, with the $10,000 purchase of Joe B. Palmer Co., a small securities firm in Nashville. Prior to founding J.C. Bradford & Co., Bradford had worked in insurance, managing the Davis, Bradford & Company insurance agency until 1923 when he was brought in to save the Memphis-based grocery store Piggly Wiggly. Bradford served as president of the grocery retailer from 1923 to 1926. Bradford led the company's corporate restructuring after its founder had nearly bankrupted the company in an effort to corner the market for the company's .
Despite the , in 1930 J.C. Bradford & Co. purchased its seat on the for $400,000. By 1940, the value of this seat was estimated to be approximately $19,000.
Following the end of World War II, the firm expanded into new markets throughout Tennessee in 1946, including Memphis and Jackson. Then, in the 1950s, the firm continued to expand, opening offices in New York and Atlanta. In 1966, the firm merged with Elder & Co., based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and then expanded for the first time to the West Coast with an office in La Jolla, California in 1973.
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