Organization and Business

Cowen Inc., a Delaware corporation formed in 2009, is a diversified financial services firm that, together with its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, "Cowen" or the "Company"), provides investment management, investment banking, research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing and commission management services through its two business segments: the Operating Company (“Op Co”) and the Asset Company (“Asset Co”).

The Op Co segment consists of four divisions: the Cowen Investment Management (“CIM”) division, the Investment Banking division, the Markets division and the Research division. The Company refers to the Investment Banking division, the Markets division and the Research division combined as its investment banking businesses. Op Co’s CIM division includes advisers to investment funds (including privately placed hedge funds and private equity structures) and registered funds. Op Co's investment banking businesses offer investment banking, research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing and commission management services to companies and primarily institutional investor clients. Op Co's investment banking businesses’ primary target sectors ("Target Sectors") are healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, information and technology services, consumer, aerospace and defense, industrials, energy and transportation.

The Asset Co segment consists of certain of the Company’s private investments, private real estate business and other legacy multi-sector long/short equity strategies. The focus of Asset Co is to drive future monetization of the invested capital of the segment.

Change in Segments

As noted in the prior reporting period, the Company continually monitors and reviews its segment reporting structure in accordance with authoritative guidance to determine whether any changes have occurred that would impact its reportable segments. Because of the change in the Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) of the Company at the end of 2017, the Company experienced a strategic shift to refocus the Company’s businesses on a set of differentiated products which are aligned to the content and insight within the Company’s domain of expertise.

During the second quarter of 2019, the Company realigned the business and reportable segment information that the CODM regularly reviews to evaluate performance for operating decision-making purposes, including evaluation and allocation of resources. As a result, the Company changed its segment reporting structure based on the Company's domain expertise as a driver of balance sheet harmonization and repeatable revenues for its operating business versus the Company’s long-term monetization strategies.

As a result of the change in segments, effective for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, the Company has the following business segments:


•	The Op Co segment consists of four divisions: Cowen Investment Management, Investment Banking, Markets, and Research. Each of Op Co’s four divisions leverage the Research division’s core domain expertise to drive harmonized repeatable revenue for the segment.

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The CIM division offers innovative investment products and solutions across the liquidity spectrum to institutional and private clients. CIM offers investors access to a number of strategies to meet their specific needs including merger arbitrage, activism, healthcare royalties, private healthcare investing and private sustainable investing which leverage the content and domain expertise that are aligned with the Company's core areas of expertise ("Cowen DNA").


–	The Investment Banking division includes public and private capital raising transactions and providing strategic advisory services.


–	The Markets division includes trading equity and equity-linked securities on behalf of institutional investors as well as a full-service suite of prime brokerage services, cross-asset trading, securities finance, global execution, clearing and commission management businesses.


–	The Research division provides the thought leadership and domain expertise that drives Cowen DNA. The research content that is created helps to facilitate brokerage revenue in the Markets division, drive deal flow in the Investment Banking division and facilitate investor relationships and investing within CIM’s innovative investment products and solutions.


•	The Asset Co segment consists of certain of the Company’s private investments, private real estate business and other legacy multi-strategy funds. While the Asset Co segment is not a reportable segment, the Company will provide segment level information for Asset Co.