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Omar Amanat

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Omar S. Amanat is a U.S. businessman and entrepreneur who has had his name mentioned in Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times in connection with Tradescape. He is an occasional public speaker. Named one of Wall Street's "Top Ten Most Influential Technologists" nearly a decade ago, Amanat was once a pioneer in the electronic brokerage industry.

Family life

Born in Queens, New York to Muslim parents who had emigrated from India, Amanat was an athlete in school.

Career

Amanat began his career working at Datek Online, one of the pioneers in online brokerage services, which was sold by Jeff Citron to Ameritrade. He left Datek to be one of the first employees of CyberBlock and worked on the design of the trading platform CyberTrader on which he was trading. After Amanat left CyberTrader to become the founder, CEO and, with his family and family-controled trusts, the majority shareholder of Tradescape Corporation, the owners of CyberTrader sold CyberTrader to Charles Schwab in 2000.

As the founder, CEO and controlling shareholder of Tradescape Corporation, a next-generation brokerage and technology firm, Tradescape and subsidiaries at their peak processed over 10% of NASDAQ's daily trading volume and was one of the largest electronic brokerage firms in the United States (by trading volume) in 2002 when the Amanat family sold Tradescape to E*Trade in a deal initially valued at $280 million including $180 million in contingent consideration. This deal was to make him one of E*Trade's largest shareholders with a 3.3% stake in E*Trade. Tradescape was named as one of the "Top 50 Private Companies" in the United States by Red Herring Magazine.

After selling Tradescape Corporation and related securities companies to industry giant E*Trade in 2002 and becoming one of its largest shareholders with a 3.25% stake, Amanat was sued by E*Trade and then he countersued E*Trade by seeking $1.5 billion in damages that far exceeded even the initial deal valuation. Both sides claimed breach of contract among other claims. Amanat was later subjected to bankruptcy proceedings in court.

Media production

Amanat was involved early on in Bridges TV, the Muslim television network headed by indicted murderer Muzzammil S. Hassan which premiered in 2004. According to Amanat:

I realized that the only way to undo misconceptions was to create our own media forum from which our stories and culture would be shared with the world. Other cultural groups have gained acceptance and increased understanding through the forum of media. Why can't Muslims do the same?

Also involved with producing films, Amanat was most recently an Executive Producer, Co-Founder, and Founding Chairman of Groundswell Productions with Michael London, which financed and produced two Academy Award nominated films in 2009 including The Visitor which received a nomination for Best Actor (Richard Jenkins) and Milk which received 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Gus Van Sant) and Best Actor (Sean Penn). He also Executive Produced with Ebay Founding President Jeff Skoll, via his film company Participant Productions several socially conscious films including The Visitor and Darfur Now featuring George Clooney. Other films Amanat was Executive Producer of or that his companies have helped to produce include 2008's Smart People, Appaloosa, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh among other films.

References

  1. Schwartz, Nelson D. (February 19, 2001). "Can't Keep A Good Day Trader Down Online brokers like Charles Schwab, E*Trade, and Ameritrade may be suffering, but day traders are still partying like it's 1999". FORTUNE Magazine.
  2. "Omar Amanat". Alacra Wiki. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
  3. "Omar Amanat Bio". classicalmusicconsortium.com. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  4. Kaspar, Mary Alice (November 7, 2003). "Schwab affiliate moving: CyberTrader to leave Loop 360 for Research Park offices". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
  5. "E*Trade Shareholder Filing: S.E.C 10-Q Quarterly Report" (PDF). shareholder.com. June 30, 2002.
  6. "Top 50 Public and Private Companies in the United States". Red Herring Magazine. April 19, 2001.
  7. "Bridges TV (May 7, 2003 )". Sign On San Diego. 2003-05-07. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  8. WorldNetDaily.com: Muslim TV coming to America(May 02, 2003)
  9. "News aljazeerah.info: First American Muslim Television Channel Announced by Bridges Network". Aljazeerah.info. 2003-05-02. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  10. "Omar Amanat". IMDB.com.
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