The Goldman Sachs Company is one of the oldest and largest financial intermediaries and brokerage firms in the United States. Goldman Sachs began in 1869 as the sole business of Bavarian immigrant Marcus Goldman who bought promissory notes from New York merchants at a discount, giving them the money to operate their businesses, and then sold those notes to commercial banks for a small profit. or “spread”. After thirteen years of personal activity in the merchant paper trade, in 1882 he took Samuel Sachs, the husband of his eldest daughter, as a partner (Ellis, 2008). The company's partnership structure lasted 117 years until 1999, when Goldman Sachs sold shares in an IPO. Today, it trades under the symbol "GS" and as of December 10, 2010, it had a market value of $86 billion and had more than 35,000 employees worldwide. As stated in its 2009 Annual Form 10-K, Goldman Sachs is a "global investment bank." , a securities and investment management company that provides a broad range of financial services to a large and diverse client base including corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net worth individuals. » (Goldman Sachs Form 10-K, 2009) The three main business segments are investment banking, asset management, and trading and principal investments. Investment banking involves capital raising, mergers and acquisitions advice, and valuation engagements from which Goldman receives fees and underwriting revenue. Asset management (often used interchangeably with the term wealth management) involves the management and investment of financial assets of large institutions such as pension funds and corporations as well as high net worth individuals. Goldman's middle paper uses the level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity within society. A high uncertainty avoidance ranking indicates that the country has a low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. This creates a rule-oriented society that institutes laws, rules, regulations and controls to reduce the degree of uncertainty. A low uncertainty avoidance ranking indicates that the country is less concerned about ambiguity and uncertainty and demonstrates greater tolerance for diversity of opinion. This is reflected in a society that is less rule-driven, more accepting of change, and increasingly takes risks. Long-term orientation (LTO) (formerly called “Confucian dynamism”) focuses on society's degree of acceptance or participation. not embrace, a long-term devotion to traditional values. http://www.goldmansachs.com/investor-relations/financials/archived/10k/docs/2009-10-k-doc.pdf