Founded in 1910 by Arthur, Herbert and Percy Salomon and a clerk named Ben Levy, it remained a partnership until the early 1980s. In 1981, it was acquired by the commodity trading firm Phibro Corporation and became "Salomon Inc." Eventually, Salomon was acquired by Travelers Group in 1998; and, following the latter's merger with Citicorp that same year, Salomon became part of Citigroup. Although the Salomon name carried on as Salomon Smith Barney, which were the investment banking operations of Citigroup, the name was abandoned in October 2003 after a series of financial scandals that tarnished the bank's reputation.