Goldman Sachs

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The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: GS)
Industry	Banking Financial Services
Founded	1869
Founder(s)	Marcus Goldman Samuel Sachs
Headquarters	New York City
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Lloyd Blankfein (Chairman and CEO) Gary Cohn (President and COO)
Products	Investment banking Prime brokerage Investment management Commercial banking Commodities
Revenue	▼ $51.673 billion (2009)
Operating income	▲ $19.829 billion (2009)
Net income	▲ $13.385 billion (2009)
Total assets	▲ $883.000 billion (2Q 2010)
Total equity	▲ $73.529 billion (2Q 2010)
Employees	34,100 (2Q 2010)
Website	GS.com

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a global investment banking and securities firm which engages in investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is headquartered at 200 West Street in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City, with additional offices in major international financial centers. The firm provides mergers and acquisitions advice, underwriting services, asset management, and prime brokerage to its clients, which include corporations, governments and individuals. The firm also engages in proprietary trading and private equity deals, and is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market.
Former employees include Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton and under George W. Bush respectively.

Contents [show] 1 History 1.1 1869–1930 1.2 1930–1980 1.3 1980–1999 1.4 Since 1999 1.4.1 Actions in the 2007–2008 subprime mortgage crisis 1.4.2 TARP and Berkshire Hathaway investment 2 Corporate affairs 2.1 Investment banking 2.2 Trading & principal investments 2.3 Asset management and securities services 2.4 GS Capital Partners 2.4.1 Major private equity assets 2.5 Predictions 2.6 Corporate citizenship 2.7 Tax contributions 3 Controversies 3.1 First Quarter 2009 and December 2008 financial results 3.2 Involvement with the bailout of AIG 3.2.1 Firm's response to criticism of AIG payments 3.2.2 Final AIG meetings on September 15 at the New York Federal Reserve 3.3 Former New York Fed Chairman's ties to the firm 3.4 $60 million settlement for Massachusetts subprime mortgages 3.5 Abacus mortgage-backed CDOs 3.6 Goldman Sachs Commodity Index and the 2005-2008 Food Bubble 3.7 SEC civil fraud lawsuit, filed in April 2010 4 List of officers and directors 5 Worldwide Headquarters 6 Alumni 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 1869–1930

Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by German immigrant Marcus Goldman.^[1][2] In 1882, Goldman's son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm.^[3] In 1885, Goldman took his son Henry and his son-in-law Ludwig Dreyfuss into the business and the firm adopted its present name, Goldman Sachs & Co.^[4] The company made a name for itself pioneering the use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs and was invited to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1896.
In the early 20th century, Goldman was a player in establishing the initial public offering (IPO) market. It managed one of the largest IPOs to date, that of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1906. It also became one of the first companies to heavily recruit those with MBA degrees from leading business schools, a practice that still continues today.^{[citation needed]}
On December 4, 1928, it launched the Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. a closed-end fund with characteristics similar to that of a Ponzi scheme. The fund failed as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, hurting the firm's reputation for several years afterward.^[5] Of this case and others like Blue Ridge Corporation^[6] and Shenandoah Corporation^[7] John Kenneth Galbraith wrote: The Autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves.^[8]