The planned takeover of US online wealth manager Wealthfront collapses. It is a bitter setback for CEO and digital aficionado Ralph Hamers.
It was all announced with great fanfare at the start of 2022 but now the planned billion-dollar deal won't be happening.
UBS indicated in a statement released late Friday that the $1.4 billion merger agreement with US online wealth manager Wealthfront was being terminated.
According to Switzerland's largest bank, the step was mutually agreed upon, and no further reasons were provided as to why it was scrapped.
Convertible Note
UBS did indicate that it would still buy a $69.7 million convertible note it can exchange for Wealthfront shares. The only other sentence in the sparse media release was that UBS remained «committed» to its growth plans in the US and that it would «continue the buildout» of its digital offering in wealth management.
Wealthfront was planned to be integrated as a subsidiary of UBS in the second half of 2022. The collapse of the deal can only be seen as a bitter setback for UBS CEO Ralph Hamers, given that he has been a strong advocate for digitalization in the banking industry.
