21 Quotes by David Trone

Full-service firms are awash in capital and looking at means of effective deployment. Over the last few weeks, media reports have been fuller than normal with buzz of these firms exploring large deals.

When they say more than half, we're thinking most.

There are substantial synergies and relatively low integration risk.

It gives them a way to get in the game without having to put capital at risk.

Merrill has consistently bought back about $1 billion per quarter since early 2004, a pace that lately has been insufficient in offsetting balance sheet growth.

The online brokerage industry is becoming a bit of an oligopoly.

The rate increases have been going on for quite some time, and it really hasn't had an impact. And in the case of Goldman, you still have sustainable core revenues up very strong.

We believe core income should be slightly higher in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter, excluding one-time charges, reflecting improvement in capital-markets sensitive businesses (trading, investment banking, and wealth management).

The partial quarter effect of the two acquisitions should result in a 17% sequential revenue lift, while core expenses (excluding any one-time restructuring charges) should rise about 23%, as the company only begins to realize both expense and revenue synergies.