In the late 1980s, the retail brokerage firm Smith Barney was owned by Sanford I. Weill's Primerica Corporation. Commercial Credit purchased Primerica in 1988, for $1.5 billion ($ today). In 1992, they paid $722 million ($ today) to buy a 27% share of Travelers Insurance and in 1993 acquired Shearson (which included the legacy business of E.F. Hutton from American Express. By the end of 1993, the merged company was known as Travelers Group Inc. although the brokerage business continued to operate under the Smith Barney brand.