I know I did by buying more Schwab...Friday was nice, SCH was the most active in the S & P for the week, rising 22.5%...So, if there is a pull back today, I can understand it... Here's some news..but I don't have that kind of money......YET!
Schwab Teams With OffRoad Capital to Provide Access to PrivateEquity Investments
Investment Advisors and High Net Worth Investors Gain Convenient Access Through the Internet and Schwab Accounts to the Elite World of Investment
Banking
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (Member SIPC/NYSE) (NYSE: SCH), one of the nation's leading financial services firms, announced today it has joined forces with OffRoad Capital Corporation to make private equity investment opportunities through OffRoad available to Investment Advisors who do business through Schwab Institutional and to Schwab's Signature Services(TM) Platinum clients with a million dollars at Schwab. The alliance allows qualified Schwab clients who also become OffRoad clients to participate in investment financing for emerging, private, growth-oriented companies. Minimum investments start at $25,000.
According to Schwab Chairman and co-CEO Charles Schwab, the alliance with OffRoad Capital helps level the playing field for individual investors, giving them the same type of access to the private capital market previously available almost exclusively to institutions. "It's our goal to continue offering more access and more choice for investors," said Schwab. "Until now, interested investors would have had to call upon quite a few different resources and do a lot of their own leg-work to participate in a private equity investment."
OffRoad Capital uses the Internet to create a community of accredited investors -- defined by the SEC as individuals with a net worth of more than $1 million -- who share an interest in funding private companies. Members can exchange information and talk to company principals on-line as they analyze and debate the merits of each financing opportunity presented. Members' varying backgrounds, geographic locations, experience and perspectives serve to deepen their insights into the merits of each potential investment. OffRoad membership is available for a one-time fee of $1,000 and subsequent annual subscription of $250 ($2,000 and $500, respectively, for investment managers), both of which are being waived permanently for Schwab clients.
According to OffRoad Chairman and CEO Stephen D. Pelletier: "Having an innovator of Schwab's stature make OffRoad's investment opportunities available to its clients is an important landmark in changing forever the way the capital markets work. Our mission is to democratize access to the private equity markets, which have been virtually closed to individuals. Through the communications' efficiencies of the Internet, OffRoad's member investors can interact not only with company management in an 'OffRoad Show Live' Webcast, but also with each other to assess investment opportunities."
Firms targeted for investment have market leadership, previous institutional financing, revenues and customers, and an identifiable liquidity strategy such as an IPO or merger and acquisition. OffRoad members receive information about individual offerings through multiple channels that include e-mail and a secure personal home page, enabling them to perform their own due diligence.
Through its 25-year history, Schwab has pioneered open access to the financial services world. Its most recent innovations, targeted to sophisticated investors, include:
-- Velocity(TM) -- a high-tech trading system designed to meet the needs
of active investors who generally conduct at least 100 trades a year.
-- The CEO speaker series -- bringing customers and industry experts
together in a virtual boardroom. The Speaker Series allows individual
investors to speak directly with and ask questions of notable CEOs.
-- After-hours trading through the REDIbook ECN -- allowing customers to
trade most Nasdaq and select listed stocks in a special after-hours
session from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.
-- The new Schwab Institutional Web site. This new site for Investment
Managers offers improved online equity trading and real-time quotes,
greater speed, more customization, and improved usability.
Founded in 1974, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. today serves 6.3 million active accounts with $595 billion in customer assets. Schwab provides a full-service investing experience to customers through a multi-dimensional offering of the Internet, branch offices, referrals to a national network of fee-based advisors, speech recognition and touch-tone telephone technologies, multilingual and international technologies, and direct access to professionals day or night.*
OffRoad Capital is a new financial services company that has created the first private capital marketplace using the Internet where a community of high net worth investors can provide financing in the $3 million-$15 million range to emerging growth companies. All activities relating to the purchase or sale of securities, including the qualification of and offering to accredited investors, are conducted by a wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary of OffRoad Capital Corporation. OffRoad is located in San Francisco. (0099-5303)
*Access to services or customer accounts may be limited or unavailable during periods of peak demand, market volatility, systems upgrades, maintenance, or other reasons.
SOURCE Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
CO: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; OffRoad Capital Corporation
ST: California
IN: FIN CPR MLM
SU: CON
11/01/1999 07:00 EST prnewswire.com |
