Cowen Group Inc plans to buy LaBranche & Co Inc , a former New York Stock Exchange floor specialist, for $192.8 million in stock as the investment bank tries to boost its broker-dealer and asset management businesses. A founding member of the exchange, LaBranche sold its NYSE specialist business to Barclays Plc for $25 million in cash last year, freeing itself from the challenges faced by standalone market makers in a shrinking industry. In 2001, LaBranche shares were worth more than $50. But the company's stock price sagged this decade as floor specialists -- traders who bought and sold shares on exchange floors to keep markets flowing -- saw most of their business absorbed by computers.
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