How Goldman Sachs grew up: 25 years since Wall Street’s elite firm went public

Goldman Sachs this week celebrated 25 years as a public company. The Wall Street investment bank has not always wanted to act like one. In the early years after the initial public offering, longtime chief financial officer David Viniar was said to privately joke that “disclosing the weather is too much information”. Goldman’s IPO in May 1999 was a seminal moment for the then 130-year-old investment bank, and its 221-strong partnership, which had already spent almost 15 years debating whether to seek public equity capital. The firm plans to mark the occasion by assembling a replica of the New York Stock exchange balcony where then-chief executive Hank Paulson rang the opening bell, so employees can take their own picture. “The need for permanent capital made it inevitable we would go public,” said Lloyd Blankfein, the second of just three chief executives of the bank since its IPO, and a partner before the float. “We feared we would lose our distinctive partner culture that had propelle

Goldman Sachs this week celebrated 25 years as a public company. The Wall Street investment bank has not always wanted to act like one. In the early years after the initial public offering, longtime chief financial officer David Viniar was said to privately joke that “disclosing the weather is too much information”. Goldman’s IPO in May 1999 was a seminal moment for the then 130-year-old investment bank, and its 221-strong partnership, which had already spent almost 15 years debating whether to seek public equity capital. The firm plans to mark the occasion by assembling a replica of the New Y