Goldman Sachs, Gold Investment

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is headquartered at 200 West Street in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City, with additional offices in major international financial centers. The firm provides mergers and acquisitions advice, underwriting services, asset management, and prime brokerage to its clients, which include corporations, governments and individuals. The firm also engages in proprietary trading and private equity deals, and is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market.

Corporate affairs

As of 2009, Goldman Sachs employed 31,701 people worldwide. In 2006, the firm reported earnings of US$9.34 billion and record earnings per share of $19.69. It was reported that the average total compensation per employee in 2006 was US$622,000. However, this number represents the arithmetic mean of total compensation and is highly skewed upwards as several hundred of the top recipients command the majority of the Bonus Pools, leaving the median that most employees receive well below this number. In Business Week's recent release of the Best Places to Launch a Career 2008, Goldman Sachs was ranked No.4 out of 119 total companies on the list. The current Chief Executive Officer is Lloyd C. Blank Fein. The company ranks No.1 in Annual Net Income when compared with 86 peers in the Investment Services sector. Blank Fein received a $67.9 million bonus in his first year. He chose to receive "some" cash unlike his predecessor, Paulson, who chose to take his bonus entirely in company stock.

Goldman Sachs is divided into three businesses units: Investment Banking, Trading and Principal Investments, and Asset Management and Securities Services.

Investment banking

Investment banking is divided into two divisions and includes