Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. NYSE: GS (referred to as GS, or just Goldman) is an investment bank. The firm was founded in 1869. Headquartered in downtown New York City at 85 Broad Street ([1]), Goldman operates globally with offices in leading financial centers, e.g. New York City, Frankfurt, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Goldman is mostly involved in wholesale financial services, although it has a newer and growing Private Client Services arm. Its largest area of activity is proprietary trading, that is, executing trades for its own profit with its own money. In fact, investment banking accounts for only 5 percent of Goldman's profits.

Quick facts
Employed 20,722 people at the end of November 2004.
Pre-tax earnings in the 2003 fiscal year ending November 30 were $4.445 billion.
The CEO is Hank Paulson.

Lines of Business
Goldman Sachs is divided into three different lines of business: Investment Banking, Trading and Principal Investments, and Asset Management and securities services.

Investment Banking includes traditional investment banking, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory. Goldman Sachs is one of the leading investment banks, topping the league tables many times, especially in equity operations. In mergers and acquisitions, it gained fame historically by advising clients on how to avoid a hostile takeover. Goldman Sachs, for a long time during the 1980s, was the only major investment bank with a strict policy against helping to initiate a hostile takeover, which increased the firm's reputation immensely. This segment accounts for around 15 percent of Goldman Sach's revenues.

Trading and Principal Investments is the largest segment and profit center for Goldman. This segment consists of the revenues and profit gained from the Bank's trading activities, both on behalf of its clients and for its own account (called proprietary trading). Many trades however are done for both reasons. Most trading done by Goldman is not a "bet" of a particular outcome in the market, but rather attempting to sell something for an incrementally greater amount of money it was forced to buy something for, in the process of acting as a market maker. Like the rest of the Investment Banking industry, this occurs primarily in the bond market. Around 65 percent of Goldman's revenues and profits are from this area. Upon its IPO, Goldman predicted that this segment would not grow as fast as its Investment Banking division and would be responsible for a shrinking proportion of earnings. The opposite has been true, however.

The final segment is Asset Management and securities services. "Asset Management" is an industry term for mutual funds, of which Goldman runs many. This segment accounts for around 19 percent of Goldman's earnings. "Securities services" is mostly a reference to Prime brokerage, which is a stock brokerage for hedge funds that executes many trades and is a particularly profitable division within Goldman Sachs.

History
Goldman Sachs was founded by Marcus Goldman as a business which assisted other businesses in borrowing money via commercial paper (very short term loans). It grew organically from this base, but suffered a major setback when it setup what would be called today a giant hedge fund (Goldman Sachs Trading Co.) in 1929 which crashed in the resulting great depression. This damaged its repuation for a long time.

Sydney Weinberg became the head of Goldman Sachs. He was a relentless salesman, trying to befriend as many leaders of top businesses and governments as possible. His close friendship with the Ford family allowed Goldman Sachs to arrange for the Ford IPO, the largest in the world at that time. This was a major coup for the company which enhanced its reputation greatly. Others at Goldman realized that essentially all new business was brought in from Weinberg, and so instituted an outbound sales force to attempt to become less reliant on Weinberg. This had never been done before in investment banking.

Gustave Levy took over after Weinberg. He came from the firms trading department, and got Goldman Sachs into the business of trading for its own profit (its major source of profit today). John Whitehead and Weinbergs son next took over. They commited Goldman Sachs to expand internationally.

Alumni of Goldman Sachs
Many former partners of Goldman Sachs have gone on to hold prominent public positions including Robert Rubin the United States Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton, Jon Corzine currently a United States Senator from New Jersey, and John Thain currently the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. Also, Steven Friedman was Chairman of George W. Bush's National Economic Council, incidentally the position Rubin held before moving to Treasury.

Another former partner, Jack Ryan (Senate candidate), withdrew from his bid for the open United States Senate seat in Illinois after embarrassing allegations about his sexual past.

Apart from political careers, alumni of Goldman Sachs seek entrepreneurship and excel there:

J Christopher Flowers, a former partner who set up J.C. Flowers & Company, he is a member of the Forbes 400 list.
Edward S Lampert, a former protégé of Robert Rubin and founder of ESL Investments, is a member of the Forbes 400.

Scandals involving Goldman Sachs

Joyti De-Laurey
Joyti De-Laurey was convicted eleven to one in April 2004 by a UK jury for stealing more than £4m by forging cheques.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs described the thefts as "gross abuse of trust and an extremely unpleasant incident for all those affected". The Financial Times called her a "queen of deceit", Scott Mead, the executive whose signature De-Laurey forged, called her a "Picasso of con-men— she was brilliant". Another previous boss of hers, Ron Beller said she was "a very clever con artist". She also worked for Jennifer Beller.

Critics have suggested that the case has been over-stated, as forging cheques does not require exceptional intelligence. Also, claims that forgeries were exceptional are questionable as another witness to the case, Ms. Sophie Pemberton, who is another employee of Mead's, stated that Mead "never signed anything" and that she regularly forged his signature.

De-Laurey's story was made into a television movie broadcast by the BBC on June 8, 2005. Titled The Secretary Who Stole £4 Million, it starred Meera Syal as Joyti De-Laurey, and featured contributions from her friends, family and co-workers.

Misleading analysis of telecommunications companies
In a statement issued by William Donaldson, chairman of the US securities and exchange commission on October 31st 2003, he said Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, Salomon Smith Barney, and UBS Warburg (now known as UBS Securities) ("UBS") issued research reports that were not based on principles of fair dealing and good faith and did not provide a sound basis for evaluating facts, contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims about the covered companies, and/or contained opinions for which there were no reasonable bases in violation of New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") Rules 401, 472 and 476(a)(6), and NASD, Inc., Rules 2110 and 2210 as well as state ethics statutes.

An analyst, Craig Kloner, when asked what his three most important goals for 2000 were, said "to get more investment banking revenue" ([2]) ([3]).

The Financial Times called it "the worst financial scandal in a generation". Donaldson fined Goldman-Sachs US$110m, and the investment banks as a whole $1.4bn ([4]) in the so called "global settlement".

Criticisms against Goldman Sachs
In 2002, Goldman Sachs paid US$ 1.65 million in fines for allegedly violating e-mail record keeping requirements. In 2003, Goldman Sachs paid US$ 110 million as part of the settlement over research improprieties when New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, fined Wall Street for bad behavior. In 2003, the company agreed to pay US$ 4.3 million in restitution and a US$ 5 million in penalty related to improper trading in US Treasury Securities and futures. In 2004, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay US$ 2 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for settling charges of promoting an IPO before the IPO registration became effective. The SEC also alleged that Goldman Sachs spoke to the media about an IPO by PetroChina before an initial registration was filed. Goldman Sachs also raked in hundreds of millions in fees for underwriting companies like PlanetRx.com, Webvan, etc., which later went bankrupt. Spear Leeds, a firm Goldman Sachs bought in 2000 and renamed as Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP, had to pay US$ 45.3 million to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) in 2004 to settle charges that it traded ahead of customers. In 2005, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP was fined US$ 1 million by NASD for hiding IPO allocations from the Depository Trust Corporation.

Diversity
Goldman Sachs received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. NYSE: goldman goldman GS (referred to as GS, or
just Goldman) is an investment bank. The places firm was
founded goldman in 1869. Headquartered in downtown New York City at 85 Broad Street (sachs [1]), Goldman operates globally with offices in leading
financial centers, e.g. New York City, Frankfurt, London, Hong Kong josh and Tokyo.

Goldman is mostly involved in wholesale financial services, although it has a newer successful and growing Private Client Services arm. Its largest goldman sachs european equity fund andrew orchard area
of cap activity is proprietary trading, that is, executing trades index for its own profit with its own money. horn sachs In fact, investment goldman banking accounts for only 5 percent of group employee Goldman's profits.

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goldman Quick facts
Employed goldman 20,722 people at the end of goldman November 2004.
Pre- tax earnings in eddy the best 2003 fiscal year ending
November 30 were $4.445 billion.
The CEO sachs is Hank Paulson.

goldman Lines goldman of Business
Goldman Sachs is divided into three different lines of business: Investment sachs Banking, Trading and Principal
Investments, and Asset Management and securities services.

the Investment Banking includes traditional investment banking, goldman and mergers
and acquisitions (M&A) advisory. goldman Goldman Sachs is
one of the leading investment banks, topping the league tables baracskai many times, especially in equity operations. In mergers and acquisitions,
it credit gained fame historically by advising clients on how to avoid a hostile takeover. Goldman goldman Sachs, for locations

a long time during the 1980s, was the only major investment bank with a strict policy against helping to initiate infrastructure a hostile takeover, which increased the firm's growth reputation immensely. This segment accounts goldman for around 15 kiwi sachs percent of Goldman Sach's revenues.

Trading and Principal Investments goldman is the largest segment and profit paulson center for Goldman. This segment consists of the revenues and profit gained from the Bank's trading activities, both on behalf of its clients and for group its street own account (called proprietary trading). Many trades however goldman hopf are done for both reasons. Most trading year done by Goldman is not a "bet" josh of a particular outcome in the market, but rather attempting to sell something for an incrementally greater amount specialty of money it was forced to buy wilkes
something winthrop for, in the process of acting production as a market maker. Like the rest of the Investment Banking
industry, this occurs primarily in the bond market. Around trust 65 percent sachs of Goldman's revenues and profits are from this area. Upon its IPO, Goldman predicted that this segment would not grow as fast
as its Investment goldman 401k Banking division and would goldman be responsible for a shrinking proportion of earnings. The goldman opposite has been goldman report true, however.

The final
business segment and is Asset Management reinsurance
and securities services. "Asset Management" is an industry term for mutual funds, of which Goldman
runs cogentrix many. This segment accounts for goldman around 19 percent of Goldman's goldman earnings. "Securities david services" sachs is mostly a reference to Prime brokerage, which gpa is a stock brokerage for hedge funds goldman that executes many trades and is beveridge a particularly charles profitable division within Goldman Sachs.

History
Goldman Sachs was
founded by Marcus Goldman as a ft business cornell, which assisted other businesses in and borrowing summers money via commercial paper (very short term loans). It grew organically from this base, sachs but suffered pine a major
sachs setback when it setup what would be called slavery today a giant hedge fund (Goldman Sachs Trading Co.) in sachs henry goldman 1929 which crashed goldman in the resulting great chow depression. This damaged its repuation for
a sachs long sachs time.

Sydney Weinberg became the head of Goldman Sachs. He was a sachs relentless salesman, trying to befriend as many leaders of top oliver sachs
goldman businesses and governments as possible. His close friendship with the Ford mutual family allowed Goldman Sachs to arrange for the Ford IPO, the largest in the world at that time. This was a major coup for the company which enhanced its reputation greatly. Others at Goldman realized that essentially all new national business was brought sachs in from Weinberg, sachs and so instituted an outbound
sales growth force to attempt to become less reliant on Weinberg. This derivatives had never been done before in investment banking.

Gustave Levy took over
brics after Weinberg. He came from to the firms trading department, and got Goldman Sachs into the business of trading for its own goldman profit (its major sachs source of profit today). John Whitehead and Weinbergs son next took over. goldman They sachs commited Goldman Sachs to expand equity internationally.

Alumni of Goldman Sachs
Many former partners
of Goldman Sachs have gone on to hold prominent public positions including Robert Rubin the United States sachs Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton, Jon Corzine bank currently a United States goldman sachs
Senator from sachs New Jersey, and greene John Thain currently the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. scandal Also, Steven Friedman was Chairman of George W. Bush's National Economic Council, incidentally the position Rubin held before moving to and Treasury.

Another former partner,
Jack Ryan (sachs Senate candidate), withdrew from goldman his bid for
the open United States Senate seat in Illinois after embarrassing allegations about
his sexual past.

Apart from political careers, alumni of
Goldman
Sachs seek entrepreneurship and excel there:

sachs J Christopher Flowers, a former partner who set up J.C. Flowers & Company, he goldman is a member of the Forbes
400 sachs list.
Edward funds worst S Lampert, a former protégé is of
Robert Rubin and founder of ESL Investments, is a member of the Forbes 400.

Scandals involving sachs Goldman Sachs

Joyti De-Laurey
Joyti De-Laurey was convicted eleven to one in April 2004 by a UK jury for stealing more than local £4m by forging cheques.

A
bonds spokesman
for Goldman Sachs goldman years described the thefts as india "gross abuse of sachs trust and goldman corp an extremely unpleasant ipo incident president for all those affected". sachs The Financial Times
called her a "queen of goldman deceit", Scott list Mead, the capital executive whose signature 2005 De- Laurey pillsbury forged, cogentrix called her a "Picasso of con-sachs men— she was brilliant". Another previous boss sachs of hers, Ron Beller said she was "a very clever con artist". She also worked for Jennifer Beller.

Critics have suggested that the case has been over-stated, as forging
cheques does not require and exceptional intelligence. sachs Also, claims that forgeries ft were exceptional
are wilkes questionable as another witness to the case,
Ms. Sophie Pemberton, who is another employee of Mead's, stated that Mead "never signed anything" and that she regularly forged his signature.

De-Laurey's
story team was made into a television movie work
broadcast by the BBC on was goldman June 8, 2005. Titled The Secretary Who Stole £4 Million, mark it starred Meera Syal as Joyti De-Laurey, and featured contributions from her friends, australia family and co-workers.

Misleading goldman analysis of telecommunications companies
In a statement issued by William Donaldson, chairman of the US securities and exchange sector commission on October 31st 2003, he said sachs book Bear Stearns, sachs Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Piper miller Jaffray, Salomon Smith
Barney, sachs and UBS Warburg ( now known sachs as UBS Securities) ("UBS") average issued healthcare research reports that
were not sachs based on goldman principles of fair dealing and
good faith and did not goldman provide a sound basis for evaluating facts, contained bournemouth exaggerated or unwarranted claims about the covered companies, and/or contained opinions sachs for which there were no reasonable bases in violation of New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") Rules 401, 472 and 476(a)(6), and NASD, Inc., goldman Rules 2110 and security 2210 as well vice as state ethics statutes.

An analyst, Craig Kloner, when goldman asked what his three most important goals for 2000 were, said "to get more investment sachs banking goldman revenue" ([2]) (international [3]).

The Financial Times called it "the worst financial sachs scandal in a generation". Donaldson fined Goldman-Sachs US$110m, and the investment banks
as a sachs whole $1.4bn ([4]) in the so
called "global settlement".

Criticisms against Goldman Sachs
In researchict 2002, Goldman Sachs paid US$ 1.65 million
in fines for chicago allegedly violating e-mail record
keeping requirements. jill In 2003, Goldman
Sachs paid corzine corzine US$ 110 million as part of the settlement
over research 10 100 goldman improprieties goldman when New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, fined Wall Street for sachs bad behavior. sachs In 2003, the company
agreed to pay sachs US$ 4.3 sachs million in restitution and a US$ 5 million in penalty related sachs to improper trading in US Treasury goldman Securities and futures. In 2004, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay US$ 2 million to the Securities sachs
and Exchange Commission (SEC) sachs for settling charges of promoting an IPO
before the IPO derivatives registration sachs became effective. The SEC also alleged that Goldman Sachs spoke to the technology media sachs about an IPO by PetroChina before an initial registration was goldman filed. Goldman Sachs also raked in hundreds of millions in fees for investec underwriting companies like PlanetRx.sachs com, Webvan, etc., which sachs later went of bankrupt. Spear Leeds, a firm Goldman Sachs bought in 2000
and renamed as Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP, had to pay US$ 45.harvard 3 million conference to the National cypress Association goldman of Securities Dealers (NASD) in 2004 to settle group goldman charges that it traded ahead sachs of customers. In 2005, goldman Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing goldman LP was fined US$ 1 million by goldman NASD for hiding IPO allocations from the Depository Trust Corporation.

Diversity
Goldman Sachs received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released who by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third
year of lending the report. In addition, the company was named sachs one of the 100 Best Companies for Working mid goldman Mothers in 2004 by sachs Working Mothers goldman magazine.

Information provided by Wikipedia.