B. Riley Financial

In 1997, Bryant Riley founded B. Riley & Co. as a stock-picking firm serving institutional investors by providing research on small companies. The firm was fined $5,000 that year by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for lax record-keeping.[2][4]

Initially Riley did not want the firm being involved in investment banking due to conflict of interest issues. However, in July 2003, the firm acquired Friend & Co., a boutique investment bank where Riley once worked.[2][5]

In 2012, B. Riley acquired Caris & Co., a stock research firm to increase its sales and trading business in the brokerage industry during a slowdown in the industry.[4][6]

In June 2014, B. Riley & Co. merged with appraisal and liquidation service provider, Great American Group to form B. Riley Financial, a company list on the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker "RILY".[3][6][7]

In July 2015, B. Riley was approved to be uplisted to the Nasdaq exchange.[8][9]

In February 2017, B. Riley investment banking company, FBR & Co. in a $160 million deal to further scale its existing business.[10][7]

In May 2017, B. Riley acquired brokerage company, Wunderlich Securities for $67 million to expand its wealth management business.[7][11][12][13]

In August 2018, B. Riley acquired GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group, a restructuring advisory firm to expand its advisory presence.[7][11]

In November 2018, B. Riley acquired 49% stake of broker-dealer National Holdings Corp from Fortress Biotech for $22.9 million. In January 2021, B. Riley acquired the rest of National Holdings Corp. In July 2022, National Holdings Corp's largest subsidiary, National Securities closed down after 75 years with its business being integrated into B. Riley. This came after National Securities was penalized by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).[14][15][16]

In April 2020, it was reported that B. Riley was benefitting from the retail apocalypse especially in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As many brick-and-mortar retail stores closed, this gave B. Riley a lot of opportunities to provide liquation services.[3]

In June 2020, B. Riley acquired Alderney Advisors, a restructuring firm that specializes in the automotive industry.[17]

On April 12, 2021, B. Riley became a constituent member of the S&P 600 index.[18]

In August 2021, B. Riley acquired investment firm 272 Capital.[19]

In January 2022, B. Riley acquired middle market M&A advisor FocalPoint for $175 million.[20]

In February 8, 2023, Wolfpack Research announced it held a short position in B. Riley. It released a report that criticized the company stating during the everything bubble period of 2020 to 2021, B. Riley had overleveraged to buy speculative assets and lent money to companies that have a high likelihood of defaulting. Examples included Exela Technologies which owed B. Riley $75 million and had failed to complete interest payments on another loan on January 17, B Riley Principal 250 Merger Corp, a SPAC that would result in a $175 million loss if it failed to find a target by May 11 and Babcock and Wilcox which owed B. Riley $110 million but was believed by Wolfpack Research to be heading toward bankruptcy. In addition, Wolfpack Research stated that 40% of operating companies in B. Riley's portfolio per its Form 13F had going concern issues. Following the report, B. Riley's stock declined by 11%. [21][22]

In May 2023, it was noted that B. Riley paid a dividend yield of nearly 11% which was much higher than its peers. It was speculated that the big reason for the increase was due to the sell-off of its stock. This was due to the slowdown in investment banking business as well as unrealized losses from investments. There was skepticism on whether paying such high dividends yields was sustainable. The stock had declined by almost 60% since the start of 2022 and the company's revenue in 2022 had declined by $474 million compared to the previous year.[23][24]

• Official website