The story
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 brokerage, in Minneapolis. 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. 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 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, 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-based UBS for $510 million in cash. 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 for $485M; the new combined firm is named Piper Sandler Companies. Piper Jaffray CEO Chad Abraham would continue to lead the combined company.
In 2026, discussions for an all-stock merger with financial services company competitor Perella Weinberg Partners were ended, following a year of negotiations.
From Wikipedia’s article on Piper Sandler Companies, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5