Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. is an American financial services firm that was founded in 1945. It specializes in institutional equity, fixed-income sales and trading, and serving the middle market with investment banking services, prime brokerage, and commercial real estate financing. It is also active in new businesses, including advisory[4] and asset management services, gaming technology, and e-commerce. It has more than 5,000 institutional clients.[citation needed]
Cantor Fitzgerald's 1,600 employees work in more than 30 locations, including financial centers in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Together with its affiliates, Cantor Fitzgerald operates in more than 60 offices in 20 countries and has more than 12,500 employees.[6]
Before 2001, the company's headquarters were located between the 101st and 105th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, just above the impact site of American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 attacks. 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who were present that day were killed, representing the largest loss of life among any single organization in the attacks.
Early history
Cantor Fitzgerald was formed in 1945 by Bernard Gerald Cantor and John Fitzgerald as an investment bank and brokerage business. It later became known for its computer-based bond brokerage, the quality of its institutional distribution business model, and the market's premier government securities dealer.[7]
In 1965, Cantor Fitzgerald began "large block" sales/trading of equities for institutional customers. It became the world's first electronic marketplace for US government securities in 1972, and in 1983, it was the first to offer worldwide screen brokerage services in US government securities.[citation needed]
In 1991, Howard Lutnick was named president and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald; he became chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., in 1996.[8]
1 World Trade Center (North Tower), the building with the antenna to the left, included the corporate headquarters of Cantor Fitzgerald.[9]
Cantor Fitzgerald's corporate headquarters and New York City office,[9][10] on the 101st to the 105th floors of 1 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan (2 to 6 floors above the impact zone of American Airlines Flight 11), were destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. At 8:46:46 a.m., six seconds after the plane struck the tower, a Goldman Sachs server issued an alert saying that its trading system had gone offline because it could not connect with the server.[11][12] Since all stairwells leading past the impact zone were destroyed by the initial crash or blocked with smoke, fire, or debris, every employee who reported for work that morning was killed in the attacks; 658 of its 960 New York employees were killed or missing,[13] or 68.5% of its total workforce, which was considerably more than any of the other World Trade Center tenants, the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department, the New York City Fire Department, or the Department of Defense. Forty-six contractors, food service workers, and visitors in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices at the time were also killed.[14] CEO Howard Lutnick was not present that day, but his younger brother, Gary, was among those killed. Lutnick vowed to keep the company alive, and the company was able to bring its trading markets back online within a week.[15][16]
On September 19, Cantor Fitzgerald made a pledge to distribute 25% of the firm's profits for the next five years, and it committed to paying for ten years of health care for the benefit of the families of its 658 former Cantor Fitzgerald, eSpeed, and TradeSpark employees (profits that would otherwise have been distributed to the Cantor Fitzgerald partners).[17] In 2006, the company had completed its promise, having paid a total of $180 million (and an additional $17 million from a relief fund run by Lutnick's sister, Edie).[18]
Until the attacks, Cantor had handled about a quarter of the daily transactions in the multi-trillion dollar treasury security market. Cantor Fitzgerald has since rebuilt its infrastructure, partly through the efforts of its London office,[19] and now has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. The company's effort to regain its footing was the subject of Tom Barbash's 2003 book On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal as well as a 2012 documentary, Out of the Clear Blue Sky.
On September 2, 2004, Cantor and other organizations filed a civil lawsuit against Saudi Arabia for allegedly providing money to the hijackers and Al Qaeda.[20] It was later joined in the suit by the Port Authority of New York.[21] Most of the claims against Saudi Arabia were dismissed on January 18, 2005.[22]
In December 2013, Cantor Fitzgerald settled its lawsuit against American Airlines for $135 million. Cantor Fitzgerald had been suing for loss of property and interruption of business by alleging the airline to have been negligent by allowing hijackers to board Flight 11.[23]
Recent history
In 2003, the firm launched its fixed-income sales and trading group.[citation needed][24] Three years later, the Federal Reserve added Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. to its list of primary dealers.[citation needed] The firm later launched Cantor Prime Services in 2009. It was meant to be a provider of multi-asset, perimeter brokerage prime brokerage platforms to exploit its clearing, financing, and execution capabilities.[citation needed] A year after, Cantor Fitzgerald began building its real estate business with the launch of CCRE.[citation needed] Cantor's affiliate, BGC Partners, expanded into commercial real estate services in 2011 by its purchase of Newmark Knight Frank and the assets of Grubb & Ellis, to form Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.[citation needed]
On December 5, 2014, two Cantor Fitzgerald analysts were said to be in the top 25 analysts on TipRanks.[25] Cantor Fitzgerald has a prolific special-purpose acquisition company underwriting practice, having led all banks in SPAC underwriting activity in both 2018 and 2019.[26]
Philanthropy
Edie wrote An Unbroken Bond: The Untold Story of How the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald Families Faced the Tragedy of 9/11 and Beyond. All proceeds from the book's sale benefit the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund and the charities it assists.[27]
The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund provided $10 million to families affected by Hurricane Sandy. Howard Lutnick and the Relief Fund "adopted" 19 elementary schools in impacted areas by distributing $1,000 prepaid debit cards to each family from the schools.[28] A total of $10 million in funds was given to families affected by the storm.[29]
Two days after the 2013 Moore tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds, Lutnick pledged to donate $2 million to families affected by the tornado. The donation was given to families in the form of $1,000 debit cards.[30][31]
Each year, on September 11, Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliate, BGC Partners, donate 100% of their revenue to charitable causes on their annual Charity Day, which was initially established to raise money to assist the families of the Cantor employees who died in the World Trade Center attacks.[32] Since its inception, Charity Day has raised $192[33] million for charities globally.[34]
Subsidiaries and affiliates
The firm has many subsidiaries and affiliates, including:
BGC Partners, named after fixed-income trading innovator and founder B. Gerald Cantor, is a global brokerage company that services the wholesale financial markets and commercial real estate marketplace in New York, London, and other financial centers. BGC Partners includes Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the fourth-largest real estate service provider in the US.[citation needed]
TopLine Game Labs is a technology company to create short-duration fantasy sports and entertainment-based social gaming. Headquartered in Los Angeles, TopLine Game Labs was, in 2013, building a platform-agnostic architecture to power game experiences for sports.[35]
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