A.G. Edwards: Wachovia's Purchase Has Handsomely Increased Its Value

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Fresh from buying Golden West Financial, Wachovia (WB) is now buying A.G. Edwards (AGE) for $6.8 billion in cash and stock. This will create the second-largest U.S. retail brokerage.

In September 1974, you could have picked up shares of AGE for less than nine cents a share--after factoring many, many stock splits. The stock is currently trading around $87. That's a gain of nearly 100,000%. Not bad.