Acquisitions

On June 1, 2016, we acquired 100% of the equity of TradeKing Group, Inc. (TradeKing), a digital wealth management company with an online broker-dealer, digital portfolio management platform, and educational content for $298 million in cash. TradeKing, which has been rebranded as Ally Invest, operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc. The addition of brokerage and wealth management is a natural extension of our direct online bank, creating a full suite of financial products for savings and investments. We applied the acquisition method of accounting to this transaction, which generally requires the initial recognition of assets acquired, including identifiable intangible assets, and liabilities assumed at their respective fair value. Goodwill is recognized as the excess of the acquisition price after the recognition of the net assets, including the identifiable intangible assets. Beginning in June 2016, financial information related to Ally Invest is included within Corporate and Other.

The following table summarizes the allocation of cash consideration paid for TradeKing and the amounts of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed recognized at the acquisition date.



($ in millions)
Purchase price
Cash consideration	$	298
Allocation of purchase price to net assets acquired
Intangible assets (a)	82
Cash and short-term investments (b)	50
Other assets	14
Deferred tax asset, net	4
Employee compensation and benefits	(41		)
Other liabilities	(4		)
Goodwill	$	193


(a)	We recorded $10 million and $6 million of amortization on these intangible assets during the years ended December 31, 2017, and 2016, respectively.


(b)	Includes $40 million in cash proceeds from the acquisition transaction in order to pay employee compensation and benefits that vested upon acquisition as a result of the change in control.

The goodwill of $193 million arising from the acquisition consists largely of expected growth of the business as we leverage the Ally brand and our marketing capabilities to scale the acquired technology platform and expand the suite of financial products we offer to our existing growing customer base. None of the goodwill recognized is expected to be deductible for income tax purposes. Refer to Note 14 for the carrying amount of goodwill at the beginning and end of the reporting period.

On August 1, 2016, we acquired assets that constitute a business from Blue Yield, an online automotive lender exchange which we rebranded as Clearlane, as we continue to expand our automotive finance offerings to include a direct-to-consumer option. We completed the acquisition for $28 million of total consideration. As a result of the purchase, we recognized $20 million of goodwill within Automotive Finance operations.