Found this on RB. Reprinted w/o permission of course :}
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Business Week: September 27, 1999
Cover Story -- e.biz -- The e.biz 25
Christos M. Cotsakos
E*Trade Group Inc. is only the second-largest Web trading company. But you wouldn't know it from the stir whipped up by its hyperactive CEO, Christos M. Cotsakos. His in-your-face, ''Boot your broker'' ads made online trading seem ultrahip after Cotsakos arrived in 1996. That was the wake-up call that sent traditional Wall Street firms tearing up old business plans and reaching for the Tums. He's not letting up, either: E*Trade recently began offering after-hours trading and lowered prices for active traders. And now, it's spending $150 million on a new round of ads.
That's just a hint of Cotsakos' blinding ambition. Now, he plans to build an online financial-services empire to rival anything on the Street. Brokerage offerings formed the first building block--letting consumers buy stocks for as little as $4.95 a trade. He's adding online banking and loans and, through partners, insurance, mortgages, and even the ability to buy IPO stocks. For managing all aspects of individual investors' money, ''we'll be the one place you bookmark'' on your browser, vows Cotsakos.
E*Trade can't depend on day traders to pump up its businesses. That's why Cotsakos, 51, is trying to attract the mass of consumers who can't quite bring themselves to use a mouse to buy stocks. That hurdle is ''all about clickophobia,'' says Cotsakos. ''If only we could get people to understand that all the databases of the world won't crash and that your information won't be lost when you send through a trade.'' To combat such fears, E*Trade has a new series of ads to calm nerves. If he can get the message through, he'll be on his way to building a powerhouse that will have Wall Streeters using Pepto-Bismol as a chaser for those Tums.
By Louis
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