Ameritrade Holding Corp - Revenue More Than Doubled In Fiscal 2000

REVENUE MORE THAN DOUBLED IN FISCAL (2000)

Ameritrade's revenue more than doubled in fiscal 2000, reaching $654.4 million. However, heavy advertising and marketing expenses resulted in a net loss of $13.6 million for the year. In the first quarter alone the company spent nearly $60 million on advertising in an effort to build market share. Trading volume averaged a record 173,000 trades a day in March 2000, but then declined throughout the rest of the year. Also contributing to Ameritrade's losses was its financial services portal, OnMoney.com. After spending $90 million on the portal, Ameritrade only realized revenue of $602,000 from OnMoney.com during fiscal 2000.

New products and services introduced during 2000 included the Ameritrade Online Investor Index, a daily index that reported the top 10 stocks traded that day by Ameritrade's customers. The index also reported whether customers were net buyers or sellers. Through separate marketing agreements with Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless Services, and Nextel Communications, Ameritrade began offering wireless access to customer account information and allowed customers to place trades and get real-time quotes over their wireless devices. Through a strategic alliance with NetB@nk, Ameritrade applicants were able to apply for a NetB@nk account without having to enter any additional information. In addition, NetB@ nk customers gained access to Ameritrade's brokerage services. Another strategic alliance between Ameritrade and MBNA America Bank, N.A., resulted in MBNA's credit card services being provided to Ameritrade's customers, with Ameritrade offering its brokerage services to MBNA customers. Finally, a partnership with 1stUp.com Corp. of San Francisco gave Ameritrade's customers free unlimited Internet access.