sees 1 million new accounts
By Brenon Daly, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:35 PM ET Feb 22, 1999
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Online broker E-Trade said Monday
it expects to add at least 1 million accounts within 18 months, the
company's chief financial officer said Monday.
Leonard Purkis told the BancBoston Robertson
Stephens Tech '99 Conference that the company
(EGRP) will target an estimated 10 million to 15
million investors that follow their portfolios online
but trade offline. E-Trade currently has about
676,000 accounts.
To attract the investors, E-Trade will spend a
projected $100 million in the coming year on
marketing, Purkis added.
Online trading has boomed in recent years, and
now for every one in seven trades. Investors use
"click trades" primarily because they are cheaper.
Separately, Purkis declined comment on a report in
The Wall Street Journal that suggested E-Trade
might form an alliance with Goldman Sachs.
"Maybe Goldman will be buying them, or maybe
[E-Trade] will buy Goldman," quipped Keith
Benjamin, Internet analyst for BancBoston
Robertson Stephens.
Speculation about a Goldman pairing boosted
stocks of other online traders, and helped the
broader Net sector higher. See related story.
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