Piper Jaffray

Piper Jaffray Cos. was fined $2.4 million by the NASD on Monday for improper sales of initial public offerings to executives from companies including Liquid Audio Inc. and GoAmerica Inc. The agency accused the securities firm of "spinning" hot IPOs from 1999 to 2002, offering shares to 22 executives to try to win investment banking business. The executives, mostly chief executives and chief financial officers in publicly traded companies, made a total of $2.

IPhone fever is not just an adult affliction. It has trickled down to the younger population as well. Forty percent of U.S. teenagers now own an iPhone, according to a new survey of 7,700 teens by Piper Jaffray & Co. And the ranks of these young iPhone owners are growing rapidly.  Back in the spring of 2011 only 17% of teens said they owned an iPhone. By the fall of 2011 that number had grown to 23%. In the spring of 2012, just six months ago, the number was at 34%. "We are reaffirmed that Apple remains the preeminent technology brand for teens," Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, wrote in the report.

The NASD on Tuesday fined brokerages Quick & Reilly and Piper Jaffray Cos. for giving preferred sales treatment to mutual funds in exchange for commission-generating stock trades and other payments. The fines by the NASD, the securities industry's self-regulatory agency, are the latest in a crackdown on long-standing revenue-sharing deals between brokerages and fund companies. Last week, the NASD accused the distributor of Los Angeles-based American Funds, the No. 3 U.S.

Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold more than 1.7 million of its new iPhones in its first three days, shattering the previous record for sales of the popular smart phone. Sales of the iPhone 4 beat demand for last year's iPhone 3GS, which sold 1 million in the same time period. "This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history," Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement. "Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."

Piper Jaffray Inc., a century-old investment company, was fined nearly $2 million on Wednesday for allegedly failing to fully inform investors about the risks of a fund that lost nearly $140 million. Piper also agreed to spend $1.7 million to improve its supervisory and compliance procedures. The fines announced by regulators are in addition to $67 million Piper paid investors in a court-approved settlement late last year. Piper did not admit wrongdoing.

U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday became the latest big bank to exit the brokerage business, as the Minneapolis company said it would spin off its Piper Jaffray unit to shareholders. The eighth-largest U.S. bank said Piper no longer fits with the parent company's long-term growth plan. Like other brokerages, Piper has been hurt as the three-year bear market on Wall Street has sapped demand for stocks and for merger advice.

Piper Jaffray Cos. said Wednesday that it is planning to reopen to new investors its bond fund that was ravaged by derivative-related losses in 1994. Piper is seeking approval from shareholders to change the name of its Institutional Government Income Portfolio and to expand the list of securities the fund can purchase, the company said.

U.S. Bancorp, the 15th-largest U.S. bank, on Monday agreed to buy Piper Jaffray Cos. for about $730 million in cash in order to lock in Midwestern customers with a broader array of financial services. The transaction values Minneapolis-based Piper at $37.25 a share, or about four times book value--assets minus liabilities--a bigger premium than the already lofty prices that other banks paid this year to buy securities firms. Piper shares rose $6.63 to close at $36.

U.S. Bancorp on Monday said its Piper Jaffray securities arm has agreed to pay $32.5 million to join in the settlement of a wide-ranging probe into Wall Street business practices. Piper Jaffray said it will pay a fine of $25 million and also will pay $7.5 million over the next five years to support independent research options. The agreement comes after regulators and 10 of the world's largest investment banks announced a tentative $1.4-billion settlement on Dec. 20.

EBay Inc. may report lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings because of fewer listings, said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. Excluding certain items, profit may be as much as 2 cents a share, less than the 28-cent average estimate of analysts, Rashtchy said. Shares of San Jose-based EBay fell $1.08 to $29.70.

Apple loyalists by the thousands waited in lines around the world for the company's new iPhone on Thursday, in what has become a boisterous tradition for the company's product launches. Observers across the nation reported sold-out stores, with lines twice or three times the length they were for previous iPhone launches. As the Apple store opened at the Grove in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles at 7 a.m. Thursday morning, Randy Cruz was the first in line to buy the new fourth-generation phone.

With a splashy, musical ad campaign aimed at young buyers, Microsoft Corp. on Monday sought to carve out a piece of the fast-moving smart phone market with a pair of new handsets. In unveiling its Kin One and Kin Two phones, which will be available through Verizon Wireless starting in May, the company focused largely on the social and musical features of its software. The Kin's promotional site featured young people -- many equipped with the new phones -- dancing to live rock music at a local club.

Ending its long search for a corporate parent, Napster Inc. said Monday that it had agreed to be acquired by electronics retailer Best Buy Co. for $121 million. The purchase price of $2.65 a share marked a nearly 100% premium over the Los Angeles-based digital music company's trading price, which has hovered around $1.30 in recent weeks. Napster has struggled to find a winning business model in the uncertain world of digital music, which Apple Inc. dominates with its iTunes store.

EBay Inc. may report lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings because of fewer listings, said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. Excluding certain items, profit may be as much as 2 cents a share, less than the 28-cent average estimate of analysts, Rashtchy said. Shares of San Jose-based EBay fell $1.08 to $29.70.

Swiss banking company UBS said Tuesday that it had agreed to buy the U.S. private client branch network of Piper Jaffray Cos. for $500 million in cash, expanding its wealth management business in the Midwest and western United States. UBS said it would integrate Piper's network into its UBS Wealth Management division. Piper shares soared $5.90, or 11%, to $61.10. UBS shares slipped $1.67 to $110.50.

Baidu.com lost nearly a third of its market value Wednesday after two of the investment banks that managed the Chinese Internet search firm's meteoric initial public offering said the stock price was overblown. The shares plunged $32.27, or 28%, to $81.32. U.S. Internet search leader Google Inc. also slumped Wednesday, before its secondary stock sale. The deal was priced after the close of regular trading. For Baidu.

Computer-game maker Interplay Entertainment Corp. plans to sell 6.25 million shares of common stock to the public, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Irvine-based company, which said in March that it would go public, did not say when the sale will occur. Interplay plans to raise about $72 million in the sale, according to earlier filings. Underwriters for the deal are Piper Jaffray Inc., Bear Stearns & Co. and UBS Securities.

Bank of America Corp. made an undisclosed payment to a securities firm in 1999 to publish research on Just for Feet Inc., a client that filed for bankruptcy protection later that year, people familiar with the matter said. The payment to brokerage U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray came two months after Bank of America's securities unit arranged the April 1999 sale of $200 million in high-yield bonds for Just for Feet, a shoe retailer.

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, a closely held Los Angeles-based investment bank, said it had hired six bankers from Piper Jaffray Cos. to help it win business from technology firms. One of the six, Jason Hutchinson, will be head of technology mergers and acquisitions. Houlihan Lokey was founded in 1970 and focuses on deals involving companies with market values of as much as $500 million.

The NASD on Tuesday fined brokerages Quick & Reilly and Piper Jaffray Cos. for giving preferred sales treatment to mutual funds in exchange for commission-generating stock trades and other payments. The fines by the NASD, the securities industry's self-regulatory agency, are the latest in a crackdown on long-standing revenue-sharing deals between brokerages and fund companies. Last week, the NASD accused the distributor of Los Angeles-based American Funds, the No. 3 U.S.