Piper Sandler Companies is an American multinational

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

and

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

company, focused on

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

, financial restructuring, public offerings, public finance, institutional brokerage, investment management, and securities research. Through its principal subsidiary, Piper Sandler & Co., the company targets corporations,

institutional investors An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase security (finance), securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, s ...

, and public entities. Founded in 1895 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Piper Sandler has more than 60 offices spanning across five countries.

History

Piper Sandler's roots can be traced back to 1895 when George Lane established George B. Lane, Commercial Paper and Collateral Loans & Co., a

commercial paper Commercial paper, in the global financial market, is an Unsecured debt, unsecured promissory note with a fixed Maturity (finance), maturity of usually less than 270 days. In layperson terms, it is like an "IOU" but can be bought and sold becaus ...

brokerage, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. In 1913, Piper, Jaffray & Co. was established as another commercial paper business by H.C. Piper Sr. and Clive Palmer Jaffray. In 1917, George B. Lane & Co. merged with Piper, Jaffray & Co. to form Lane, Piper & Jaffray. The firm first obtained a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1931 with the acquisition of Hopwood & Company, which had been devastated by the

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often fol ...

. In 1971, Piper Jaffray & Hopwood became the first regional brokerage firm to offer its own stock for public sales, becoming a publicly held corporation. Later, in 1986, Piper's common stock began trading on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

under the ticker symbol PIPR. In 1992, the name of the broker-dealer changed from Piper Jaffray & Hopwood Incorporated to Piper Jaffray Inc. In 1998, the firm was acquired by

U.S. Bancorp U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American multinational financial services firm headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and incorporated in Delaware. It is the 5th-largest bank in the United States as of 2025. As the largest bank i ...

, also based in Minneapolis, for $730 million in cash. From 1999 to 2003, the firm was known as U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. In 2003, U.S. Bancorp spun off Piper Jaffray in a stock dividend to its shareholders, making the company independent once again under the symbol PJC. In 2006, the company sold its brokerage business to

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

-based

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

for $510 million in cash.UBS to Buy Wealth Management Unit of Piper Jaffray
/ref> The business had approximately 800 brokers at that time. On July 9, 2019, Piper Jaffray announced the purchase of leading financial services investment bank

Sandler O'Neill Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., (Sandler O'Neill) was a full-service investment banking firm and broker-dealer specializing in the financial services sector. It was headquartered in New York City, and had offices in Boston, Chicago, San Franc ...

for $485M; the new combined firm is named Piper Sandler Companies. Piper Jaffray CEO Chad Abraham would continue to lead the combined company.

Acquisition history

2004: Piper Jaffray acquired Vie Securities, LLC. 2007: Piper Jaffray acquires FAMCO, acquires

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

–based investment bank Goldbond Capital Holdings Limited 2010: Piper Jaffray acquire
Advisory Research, Inc.
2013: Piper Jaffray acquires Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation, acquires Edgeview Partners, L.P. 2015: Piper Jaffray acquires River Branch Holdings 2016: Piper Jaffray acquires Simmons & Company International 2019: Piper Jaffray acquires Weeden & Co., L.P. 2020: Piper Jaffray acquires

Sandler O'Neill + Partners Sandler () is a Yiddish family name. A rarer variant is Sendler. Notable people * Adam Sandler (born 1966), American actor and comedian * Barry Sandler (born 1947), American screenwriter and film producer * Boris Sandler (born 1950), Yiddish-langu ...

, becoming Piper Sandler Companies. Piper Sandler acquires The Valence Group, acquires TRS Advisors 2022: Piper Sandler acquires Cornerstone Macro, acquires Stamford partners LLC, acquires DBO Partners

Regulator fines

In 2002, Piper Sandler was fined $25 million by state and federal regulators to settle charges of providing biased

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

ratings as part of the

Global Analyst Research Settlements The Global Analyst Research Settlement was an enforcement agreement reached in the United States on April 28, 2003, between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (NASD), New York Stock E ...

. Other firms, including

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, and

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

, were fined for similar reasons. Piper Sandler agreed to implement structural changes to its research and investment banking programs to restore confidence in its business.Piper Jaffray Agrees to Settle Charges on Ratings of Stocks
– ''The New York Times''.

References

External links

* * The
Piper Jaffray Corporate Records
are available for research use at th
Minnesota Historical Society.
{{Authority control U.S. Bancorp Companies based in Minneapolis Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Investment banks in the United States American companies established in 1895 Financial services companies established in 1895 Banks established in 1895 1895 establishments in Minnesota 1980s initial public offerings