CHARLOTTE, N.C AP – Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, said Thursday it would acquire A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion in cash and stock in a deal to form the second-largest retail brokerage firm in the United States.
The combined brokerage unit will operate as Wachovia Securities, headquartered in St. Louis, and will have more than 3,300 brokerage locations nationwide, more than $1.1 trillion in client assets and nearly 15,000 financial advisers.