AXA vs Morgan Stanley: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: AXA and Morgan Stanley side by side

1. 1817AXA

   Founding of the Compagnie d'Assurances Mutuelles contre l'Incendie

   Jacques-Théodore le Carpentier and 17 other property owners in Rouen set up a mutual fire insurance company, the earliest predecessor of AXA. It stayed a Normandy mutual, later called Ancienne Mutuelle, for more than a century.

2. 1935Morgan Stanley

   Morgan Stanley Founded

   Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley officially launch the top investment bank following the historic Glass-Steagall split.

3. 1975AXA

   Claude Bébéar becomes chief executive

   Bébéar, recruited in 1958 by André Sahut d'Izarn, took over the Anciennes Mutuelles group in 1975 after Sahut d'Izarn's death and the settlement of a strike that had paralysed the company in April 1974.

4. 1982AXA

   Takeover of the Drouot Group

   Bébéar took control of the Drouot Group, then the leading private French insurance group, and became its chairman alongside his role at Mutuelles Unies.

5. 1985AXA

   Creation of the AXA name

   The group adopted the invented name AXA, short and pronounceable in any language, and Bébéar moved from running the insurance companies to chairing the group.

6. 1986AXA

   Acquisition of the Présence Group

   AXA bought the Présence Group in April 1986, continuing the consolidation of French insurers.

7. 1988AXA

   Merger with Compagnie du Midi

   The merger with Compagnie du Midi made AXA the second-largest French insurance group behind UAP and brought Equity and Law, then the sixth-largest life insurer in the United Kingdom. Bébéar was elected Manager of the Year the same year.

8. 1991AXA

   Control of The Equitable in the United States

   After a failed attempt to buy Farmers, AXA agreed in July 1991 to demutualise and take control of The Equitable, then the fifth-largest life insurer in the United States, which also brought Alliance Capital Management.

9. 1996AXA

   Acquisition of UAP

   AXA bought UAP, a French insurer twice its size, doubling its French business and reaching critical mass in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany. The merger took effect in 1997.

10. 1996Morgan Stanley

    Acquired Van Kampen American Capital

    Morgan Stanley acquired Van Kampen American Capital in 1996.

11. 1997Morgan Stanley

    Merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co

    Morgan Stanley merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co in February 1997.

12. 1999AXA

    Guardian Royal Exchange and Nippon Dantai

    Guardian Royal Exchange joined AXA in early 1999, adding scale in United Kingdom property, casualty and health insurance, and AXA took control of Nippon Dantai, then the thirteenth-largest life insurer in Japan.

13. 2006AXA

    Acquisition of Winterthur

    AXA agreed to buy Winterthur from Credit Suisse for ~$14.8 billion (CHF 12.3 billion), about $8.93 billion (EUR 7.9 billion) in cash, strengthening its position in Switzerland, Germany and central and eastern Europe.

14. 2008Morgan Stanley

    Bank Holding Company Conversion

    Facing total catastrophic collapse, the firm converts into a traditional bank holding company to survive the global financial crisis.

15. 2009Morgan Stanley

    The Smith Barney Acquisition

    then-CEO James Gorman masterminds the acquisition of Smith Barney, instantly creating a dominant retail wealth management leader.

16. 2011AXA

    Sale of AXA Canada

    AXA sold its Canadian operations to Intact Financial Corp. for ~$1.87 billion (C$2.6 billion) as part of a portfolio review.

17. 2018AXA

    Acquisition of XL Group

    AXA bought XL Group for $15.3 billion in cash, shifting the group toward commercial property and casualty lines and creating the AXA XL platform.

18. 2018Morgan Stanley

    Acquired Mesa West

    Morgan Stanley acquired Mesa West in March 2018.

19. 2020Morgan Stanley

    E*TRADE Acquisition

    Morgan Stanley dominates the self-directed brokerage market by acquiring E*TRADE for $13 billion.

20. 2021Morgan Stanley

    Acquired Eaton Vance

    Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance for $7 billion. Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance for about $7B, completed in March 2021, adding Parametric, Calvert, and Atlanta Capital.

21. 2024AXA

    Launch of the Unlock the Future plan

    With its 2023 results in February 2024 AXA presented a 2024 to 2026 plan targeting underlying earnings per share growth of 6% to 8% a year, an underlying return on equity of 14% to 16% and a new capital management policy.

22. 2024Morgan Stanley

    Ted Pick Appointed CEO

    Following a competitive internal succession, Ted Pick takes the helm to heavily drive the integration strategy.

23. 2025AXA

    Sale of AXA Investment Managers to BNP Paribas

    AXA completed the sale of AXA Investment Managers to BNP Paribas Cardif on July 1, 2025 for ~$5.76 billion (EUR 5.1 billion) in cash, a total transaction value of ~$6.1 billion (EUR 5.4 billion), and signed a long-term agreement for BNP Paribas to manage a lar…

24. 2025AXA

    Death of founder Claude Bébéar

    AXA announced on November 4, 2025 that Claude Bébéar, its founder and Honorary Chairman, had died at the age of 90. He ran the group from 1975 to 2000 and created the AXA name in 1985.

Acquisitions

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