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Goldman buys Wit stake
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March 29, 1999: 3:14 p.m. ET
Acquires 22% of brokerage firm specializing in online investors
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Goldman Sachs group said Monday it is buying stock and warrants amounting to about 22 percent of Wit Capital Group, an investment banking firm specializing in online investors.
The value of the transaction wasn't disclosed. But Goldman, one of the biggest investment banking firms on Wall Street, said its stake is independent of the $80 million in shares Wit Capital seeks to sell as part of an initial public offering filed earlier this month.
Goldman said the two firms will cooperate in several areas, including IPOs and making a client's stock available to individuals and firms associated with it. The two firms will maintain a non-exclusive relationship with each other.
"Wit Capital has pioneered the integration of the Internet and the capital markets, and both investors and corporate issuers are benefiting as a result," Goldman Co-chairman Henry Paulson said. "We believe that Wit Capital is both an attractive investment for Goldman Sachs and an important part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the Internet and other new technologies in our business."
Wit Capital, based in New York, began operations in September 1997. The firm specializes in discount brokerage services to individual investors, as well as assisting companies in distributing their IPOs online.
Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, filed for an IPO of its own earlier this month. The investment banking firm seeks to raise $3.5 billion through the offering, and has said it wants to use the money raised through equities for use in making "strategic acquisitions." 
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