Charles Schwab rebuffs takeover talk

SAN FRANCISCO — Charles Schwab Corp. reiterated it’s not for sale after the company’s stock soared to a 52-week high Thursday as investors bet the discount stock brokerage pioneer would be swept up in a wave of industry takeovers.

Schwab’s shares surged 15 percent to $13.80 on the New York Stock Exchange before the San Francisco-based company issued a statement vowing to remain independent. After Schwab shot down the takeover talk, the company’s shares fell back to close Thursday at $12.68, a gain of 70 cents, or 5.8 percent.

“We have no interest in selling the company,” said Chairman Charles Schwab, the company’s founder, chief executive officer and largest shareholder.

It marked the second time in a year that Charles Schwab has rebuffed the notion that he wants to sell the company that he launched 34 years ago. He also declared his intention to remain independent last July, just a few days after returning to become the company’s CEO in a shake-up that ousted his longtime management partner, David Pottruck.

Meanwhile, another big competitor, E-Trade Financial Corp., remains on the takeover prowl after a bid to buy Ameritrade was rejected.

Online brokers are under pressure to consolidate to survive fierce price competition amid a downturn in customer activity since the heyday of dot-com stocks more than five years ago. Those dynamics have fed the perception that the long-slumping Schwab might also be ripe for a takeover, despite its founder’s resolve to remain independent.