E-Trade Purchase Of BrownCo Extends A Consolidation Trend; Few Major Online Brokerages; The $1.6 billion agreement leaves Fidelity, Ameritrade, Scottrade and Schwab.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

E-Trade said Thursday it will pay $1.6 billion in cash for BrownCo, an online brokerage service of JPMorgan Chase, adding 200,000 high-value customers to its portfolio.

"These customers are very active traders with very high asset levels," Jarrett Lilien, E-Trade's president and chief operating officer, said in an interview.

BrownCo customers average $146,000 in assets per account compared with $31,600 for E-Trade.

Shares of E-Trade rose 5.5% to 17.16, near the five-year high of 17.49 the stock hit Sept. 13. Since early...

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