Defunct | |
Industry | Brokerage |
Fate | Merged with Shearson Hayden Stone to form Shearson Loeb Rhoades, later Shearson/American Express |
Founded | 1931 |
Founder | Carl M. Loeb, John L. Loeb |
Headquarters | New York City, United States |
Loeb, Rhoades & Co. was a Wall Street brokerage firm founded in 1931 and acquired in 1979 by Sanford I. Weill's Shearson Hayden Stone. Although the firm would operate as Shearson Loeb Rhoades for two years, the firm would ultimately be acquired in 1981 by American Express to form Shearson/American Express and three years later Shearson Lehman/American Express.
The firm was founded as Carl M. Loeb & Co. by father Carl M. Loeb and son John Langeloth Loeb Sr. in 1931, shortly after the onset of the Great Depression. Carl M. Loeb & Co. merged with Rhoades & Company, a white shoe Wall Street brokerage firm, in 1937 to form what became Loeb, Rhoades & Co. Rhoades & Company had been founded in 1905 by John Harsen Rhoades, Jr. (born 1869), formerly a partner of Rhoades & Richmond. The firm operated under the Loeb, Rhoades name from 1937 through 1979 when it briefly used the name Shearson Loeb Rhoades, for two years prior to its acquisition by American Express in 1981.
Carl Loeb, who had built his personal wealth as president of American Metal Company resigned from the company and bought a seat on the , at the urging of his son John in 1931. While on the New York Stock Exchange, he pushed through many reforms. Three years after Loeb left American Metals, the company's stock was nearly worthless. Together with his son, Carl ran the firm for its first 24 years, from 1931 until his death in 1955. John L. Loeb was a partner in the firm from 1931 to 1955 and following the death of his father became the senior partner, a role which he retained through 1977 when the firm was merged. In 1951, John Loeb became a governor of the . In 1956, Loeb Rhoades acquired a controlling interest in the Cuban Atlantic Sugar Company and sells its stake on December 31, 1958, a day before the Cuban Revolution.