Wedbush Securities

Wedbush Securities Inc. is a privately held financial services and investment firm that provides private and institutional brokerage, investment banking, equity research, fixed income, public finance, correspondent clearing, and asset management to individual, institutional and issuing clients. Wedbush Securities was founded in 1955 and is headquartered at 1000 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. The firm has over 100 offices, over 125 correspondent offices and close to 1,000 employees nationwide.

History

The firm was founded in 1955 by two high school friends, Edward W. Wedbush and Robert Werner, in Los Angeles, California. They each contributed $5,000 to capitalize their new company, Wedbush & Company. The company was named after Wedbush because neither partner wanted a possible business failure named after them and Wedbush lost a coin toss.

Wedbush opened its first office in 1957 located in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. Three years later, Robert Werner decided to sell his interest in the firm to Ed Wedbush. In 1971, the firm became members of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC). In 1972, the firm began offering correspondent clearing services, providing trade execution for other brokerage firms. The firm also added an Investment Banking group in 1975.

Michael Pachter

Michael Pachter is a video game, social media, digital media and electronics analyst with Wedbush Securities. He is also the Head of Research for the Private Shares Group, a Wedbush division which focuses on companies which have not yet gone public such as Facebook (pre-IPO) and Twitter. Pachter has an MBA & two law degrees. Pachter worked for 16 years at Arco where he was Arco's director of strategic planning until mid-1998.

Opinions & analysis

Pachter is often known for his analysis of video game-related topics. He sometimes comments on specific video games, often with sales projections. With regards to Madden NFL 07, for instance, he said "It could do 1 million units in 5 days." Beyond specific titles, Pachter also analyses specific video game companies. In 2007, he analyzed the state of Electronic Arts by saying "They've made tons of progress." In 2004 he called Activision's sales estimates too cautious, suggesting that investors "[...] like optimism. We don't like conservatism." He once analyzed the future of major Japanese video game companies, suggesting that Nintendo and Sony were in good financial health but that Capcom could face a buyout because of their valuable franchises.