Ameritrade Holding Corp - Growth And Expansion, 1999

GROWTH AND EXPANSION (1999)

Ameritrade Holding grew and expanded during fiscal 1999 as revenue increased to $315.2 million. The profitable company had net income of $11.5 million, and the number of accounts rose to 560,000. During the year the company expanded its facilities by opening a customer service center in Fort Worth, Texas, and a technology development center in Maryland. It acquired the online brokerage firm, The R.J. Forbes Group Inc. The company also partnered with banks in Germany and France to offer customers the ability to buy and sell the stocks of major French, German, and European companies. In September Ameritrade began offering extended hours trading.

Ameritrade continued to spend heavily to attract new customers. It launched OnMoney.com, its financial portal, with a $50 million advertising campaign in 1999. The company said it planned to spend $200 million on advertising in fiscal 2000, up from about $60 million in fiscal 1999. Business Week, which ranked Ameritrade Holding Corp. 30th on its list of best performing information technology companies, noted that Ameritrade was facing increased competition. There were some 140 companies offering Internet trading in mid-1999, up from only 24 two years before. By the end of calendar year 1999 Ameritrade averaged 81,000 trades a day, an increase of 142 percent over the previous year's levels. The number of accounts rose from 354,000 at the end of calendar 1998 to 686,000 at the end of calendar 1999.