Product details

The executive vice president, Investor and Trust Services Division, The Toronto-Dominion Bank, and chairman, Green Line Investor Services, was trying to decide whether he should request the authorization of the bank''s top management to begin negotiations to acquire Waterhouse Investor Services Inc. Waterhouse was the fourth largest discount brokerage firm in the United States, and the acquisition, if consummated, would be the largest acquisition in the history of the bank. The case describes the major strategic moves of Green Line from its establishment in 1984 to the proposed Waterhouse acquisition in 1996. During this period Green Line became the dominant discount broker in Canada. The Waterhouse acquisition would represent its first major move into the global discount brokerage market. One of the issues in the case is trying to understand the reasons for Green Line''s success in Canada and the potential transferability of its customer value and profit creation model to the highly competitive US market.