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Wells Fargo: The Rise And Fall Of Wells Fargo

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In 1852, Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells Fargo & Co. to serve the West during the American Gold Rush. There was a panic crisis where many business owners saw their doors closing in 1855. Following the survival of Wells Fargo, they were given two advantages. The first advantage being virtually no competition in California, and the second being Wells Fargo had already made a name for itself being reputable and dependable in their work. From 1855 to 1866 Wells Fargo saw exponential growth. Around this time Wells Fargo developed a stagecoach mailing system from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Fast forward to the Great Depression and Wells Fargo just as other banking giants were hit severely however Wells Fargo was able to bounce back. Fast forward to the 70s in particular and Wells Fargo saw immense growth. …show more content…

The company saw millions after millions of losses in its foreign affairs. Towards the end of the 70s Wells Fargo had begun to slow down. And to start off the 80s Wells Fargo was hit with the news of an employee embezzling money. In total the employee had embezzled 21.3 million dollars. This began the fall of Wells Fargo. It wasn't until the 90s did Wells Fargo's luck seem to turn around then in 1995 Wells Fargo became the second largest bank in California and the seventh largest bank in the United States with $51 billion in assets. Later on Wells Fargo faced another huge failure when they merged with First Interstate Bancorp. Both companies were considerably different with Wells Fargo being mite technically inclined than the other and inner disputes over how they would ruin things came to light. After this Wells Fargo entered into a friendly merger with Norwest Corporation taking us into the more modern era of Wells

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