KUHN, LOEB & CO.
Thanks for dropping by.	KUHN, LOEB & CO. Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was an investment bank founded 1867 by Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb. Under the leadership of Jacob H. Schiff, it grew to be one of the most influential investment banks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, financing America's expanding railways and growth companies, including Western Union and Westinghouse, and thereby becoming the principal rival of J.P. Morgan & Co. In the years following Schiff's death in 1920, the Firm was lead by Otto Kahn and Felix Warburg, men who had already solidified their roles, in the eyes of their clients and the world, as Schiff's able successors. However, the Firm's fortunes began to fade in the years following World War II, when it failed to keep pace with a rapidly changing investment banking industry, where Kuhn, Loeb's old-world, genteel ways, did not seem to fit. Sadly, the days of the gentleman-banker had passed. The Firm lost its independence in 1977 when it merged with Lehman Brothers, to create Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc., which was itself absorbed in 1984, and with that, the Kuhn, Loeb name was lost forever. History Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was an investment bank located in New York City, founded by Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb in 1867. Kuhn and Loeb had created a successful merchandising business in Cincinnatti, Ohio, when they decided to move east, to New York, to take advantage of the country's burgeoning economic expansion. Company records indicate that by time Kuhn and Loeb established their partnership, they were able to capitalize it at $500,000. On January 1, 1875, Jacob Schiff (1847-1920), Solomon Loeb's son-in-law, joined the Firm and began a remarkable reign as leader of the Firm, during which it grew to be the most prestigious investment bank in the United States, perhaps, second only, to J. Pierpont Morgan's, J.P. Morgan & Co. Schiff famously sided with E. H. Harriman in 1901 against Morgan and James Jerome Hill in the battle for the Northern Pacific railroad. Famous partners of the Firm included Otto Kahn, Paul Warburg, Felix Warburg, Mortimer Schiff, Benjamin Buttenweiser and Lewis Strauss. Sigmund Warburg, founder of S.G. Warburg, served as an Executive Director of the Firm. At the time, intermarriage among the German-Jewish elite was customary. Consequently, the partners of Kuhn, Loeb were closely related by blood and marriage to the partners of J & W Seligman, Speyer & Co., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Lehman Brothers. A particularly close relationship existed between the partners of Kuhn, Loeb and M. M. Warburg & Co. of Hamburg, Germany, through Paul, Felix and Sigmund Warburg, who were Kuhn, Loeb partners. In 1977, Kuhn Loeb merged with Lehman Brothers to form, in the United States, Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. However, internationally, the merged firms were known as Kuhn Loeb Lehman Brothers Incorporated, in recognition of the fact that Kuhn Loeb's international reputation was clearly superior to that of Lehman's. A period of bitter internal strife ended in 1984 when the Firm sold itself to Shearson/American Express, itself the product of a recent merger between American Express and Sandy Weill's, Shearson Loeb Rhodes. Later, the combined firm purchased disgraced E.F. Hutton, becoming Shearson Lehman Hutton. Having failed to successfully create the country's first financial services supermarket, American Express sold its retail brokerage operations to Primerica in 1993 and in 1994 spun off a beleaguered Lehman Brothers as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., in an initial public offering. Although the Kuhn, Loeb name is likely lost forever, the Firm's legacy is not. Former Kuhn, Loeb employees remain in senior positions both within Lehman Brothers and throughout Wall Street. Vestiges of the firm survive in the form of Lehman Brothers' extensive fixed income capabilities, including many of their bond indices, such as the Government/Credit index. This index, originally birthed in 1973 by Kuhn, Loeb, as the Government/Corporate index was among the first generation of bond index data to measure the fixed income market. It is still the preeminent benchmark in its class. Kuhn, Loeb and Company Building history@kuhnloeb.com http://my-account-manager.com/