Salomon Brothers

Salomon Brothers was a Wall Street investment bank, a so-called bulge bracket company. Founded in 1910 by three brothers (Arthur, Herbert and Percy) along with a clerk named Ben Levy, it remained a partnership until the early 1980s, when it was acquired by the commodity trading firm Phibro Corporation and then became Salomon Inc. Eventually Salomon (NYSE:SB) was acquired by Travelers Group in 1998, and following the latter's merger with Citicorp that same year, Salomon became part of Citigroup. Although the Salomon name carried on as Salomon Smith Barney, which were the investment banking operations of Citigroup, the name was ultimately abandoned in October 2003 after a series of financial scandals that tarnished the bank's reputation.