II. CIBC Oppenheimer In 1997, CIBC Wood Gundy, under the direction of Michael S. Rulle, acquired the American brokerage house Oppenheimer & Co. for $585 million. Subsequently, the merged companies were called CIBC Oppenheimer; Rulle remained the chairman and chief executive of the company while Stephen Robert and Nathan Gantcher of Oppenheimer became vice-chairmen of CIBC Oppenheimer. According to the deal, CIBC paid $350 million and additionally provided a $175 million that was paid in the course of over three years to help retain key executives from the firm. Creating the CIBC Capital Markets platform By 1999, CIBC Oppenheimer changed its name to CIBC Capital Markets and positioned itself as CIBC's international investment bank. The CIBC Capital Markets unit suffered a net loss of C$186 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998 which dragged down the performance of the parent bank's stock by almost one-third. The loss in 1998 was due primarily to very rapid expansion into regions impacted by the various financial crises in 1998. As a result, CIBC Capital Markets refocused its efforts primarily on the U.S. and Canadian markets, despite the seemingly global ambitions implied in the unit's name. CIBC Capital Markets reached a peak in 1999 and 2000, when the investment bank cracked the top ten of U.S. issuers of high yield bonds and the top twenty in mergers and acquisitions advisory. In 1999, CIBC Capital Markets backed Gary Winnick and his company Global Crossing to build optical fiber cable connections under the ocean. In 2000, CIBC realized a gain of $2.0 billion from its relatively small equity investment in Global Crossing, representing more than 20% of the bank's profits. On the back of the success in Global Crossing, CIBC backed the three heads of its CIBC Argosy Merchant Banking funds in a new private equity operation known as Trimaran Capital Partners. Trimaran closed on a $1 billion fund in April 2001, with capital provided primarily by CIBC. In June 2001, CIBC announced the construction of a new $800 million office tower at 300 Madison Avenue (At the corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street). The 35-story, building was originally expected to house up to 3,000 employees, bringing CIBC's entire New York staff under one roof. When the 300 Madison building was completed in 2004, CIBC's diminished workforce took up only a few floors, leasing the remainder to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Challenges at CIBC Capital Markets In