Piper Jaffray Companies

ABOUT THIS COMPANY:

Beyond Minneapolis

Piper Jaffray focuses on investment banking, asset management, institutional brokerage, and equity research. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the firm serves middle-market corporations, private equity firms, government entities, and institutional investors. It operates more than 30 offices across the U.S., and offices in London, Zurich, and Hong Kong. Services include advisory, public finance, capital markets products, and institutional equity and fixed income sales and trading.  The firm’s proprietary research covers 600 companies and its analysts regularly receive awards for their stock-picking prowess. Piper Jaffray’s history can be traced back to 1895, when it established a commercial paper brokerage in Minneapolis, servicing grain elevators and milling businesses. Following subsequent mergers, the firm’s shares debuted on the NASDAQ exchange in 1986; in 1992, the firm name was trimmed to Piper Jaffray Inc. A $730 million acquisition by U.S. Bancorp in 1997 marked the end of Piper Jaffray’s independence, but the tie-up was short-lived: in 2003, Piper Jaffray spun off, becoming an independent public company. A final restructuring came in 2006 when Piper Jaffray sold its private client business to UBS for $510 million. Today, Piper Jaffray is led by Andrew Duff, who serves as CEO and chairman. The firm employs more than 1,000 people.