Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. is a global alternative asset manager with approximately $250 billion of assets under management, focusing on the real asset sectors of property, renewable energy, and infrastructure. The company's headquarters is located in Toronto and they also have corporate offices in New York City and London.

The company was founded in 1899 as a builder and operator of electricity and transport infrastructure in Brazil; the company's earlier name of "Brascan" reflected this history ("Brasil" + "Canada"). The company provided electricity and tram services in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian side after the split is still known as "Light", short for Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Co. Ltd. Over the next century, the company expanded and is now an investor in and operator of approximately $220 billion of real assets, with 70,000 employees in over 100 offices in 30 different countries. Its major public subsidiaries include Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable Partners, Brookfield Property Partners, and Brookfield Business Partners.

The company's asset management offerings for institutional investors are focused on real assets, but also include alternative-type investments, structured financial products, traditional fixed income and equities and finite-risk reinsurance. In addition, Brookfield Asset Management owns a significant stake in a real estate services company offering home relocations, property appraisals, move-in services and home transaction closing services, and capital market services, including financial advisory, securities underwriting, and property brokerage. Brookfield Asset Management invests through public, listed companies and through private funds. The company's institutional clients mainly include governments, sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

Brookfield has $23 billion of assets under management in Canada, $138 billion invested in the United States, $19 billion invested in Asia Pacific, $20 billion in South America and $32 billion in the UK, Western Europe and the Middle East. Its major real estate investments include Brookfield Place (formerly known as the World Financial Center) in New York, Brookfield Place in Toronto, Canary Wharf in London (owned with Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund), Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, the Bank of America Plaza in Los Angeles, Bankers Hall in Calgary, Darling Park in Sydney, and Brookfield Place in Perth.

Brookfield's infrastructure assets include utilities: electric and gas distribution; transport: railway and coal terminals and ports; energy transmission and communications infrastructure.

Brookfield's renewable power assets include hydroelectric power plants and wind power assets.

Brookfield’s private equity business focuses on real assets through owning and operating in the business services, industrial operations and residential development services industries.

J. Bruce Flatt is senior managing partner and chief executive officer. Mr. Flatt was appointed to this position in February 2002 after having served as chief executive officer of Brookfield Properties since 2000. He was trained as an accountant at Clarkson, Gordon and Company, which is now part of Ernst & Young. As of fiscal year 2014, his basic compensation was $6.65 million.

Mr. Flatt is senior managing partner and chief executive officer of the corporation, and on behalf of the corporation is the chairman and a director of GGP. Mr. Flatt previously served as a board member to Fraser Papers and Norbord Incorporated. Mr. Flatt holds a business degree from the University of Manitoba.

In 1899 the São Paulo Railway, Light and Power Company was founded by William Mackenzie, Frederick Stark Pearson and others. (The word "Railway" would later be changed to "Tramway.")

In 1904 the Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Company was founded by Mackenzie's group.

In 1912 Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited was incorporated in Toronto as a public company to develop hydro-electric power operations and other utility services in Brazil, becoming a holding company for the two previous companies.

In 1916 Great Lakes Power Company Limited was incorporated to provide hydro-electric power in Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District in Ontario.

In 1966 Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited changed its name to Brazilian Light and Power Company Limited.

In 1969 Brazilian Light and Power Company Limited changes its name to Brascan Limited (BL)

In 1979 the company's Brazilian assets were transferred to Brazilian ownership (e.g., Eletropaulo and Light S.A. - now AES Eletropaulo), the company meanwhile having diversified to other areas.

In 2005, the company changed its name to Brookfield Asset Management (BAM). As part of a number of purchases in 2007, Brookfield acquired Multiplex for $6.1 billion and renamed it Brookfield Multiplex. In 2016 the company was re-branded as Multiplex. It also acquired Longview Fibre Company, expanding its timberland platform to 2.5 million acres (10,000 km²). In 2008, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners was spun out of the holding company, and subsequently merged with Australia's Prime Infrastructure in a $1 billion transaction.

The Birch Mountain class action lawsuit has consistently been dismissed, with judges finding in favour of Brookfield and against the plaintiffs. In a process supervised by the Alberta courts, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was appointed receiver of Birch Mountain Resources in November 2008 after Birch Mountain had defaulted on its debts. Birch Mountain’s assets were transferred to Tricap Partners Ltd, now operating under the Hammerstone Corporation, a subsidiary of Brookfield Special Situations Group, for approximately $50 million.

A group called Birch Mountain Shareholders for Justice filed a lawsuit against Brookfield Asset Management on September 22, 2010 with the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada. The lawsuit challenged the acquisition and transfer of assets from a public company, Birch Mountain Resources, to the Hammerstone Corporation.

The case was dismissed in its entirety, after the judge ruled it had no legal merit in April, 2015. On May 25, 2015, the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal in the case, in McDonald v. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in the Court of Appeal Alberta. The appeal was heard on June 15, 2016 over the Hammerstone Project MegaQuarry in Alberta. On Dec. 5, 2016, the Court of Appeal of Alberta again dismissed the case, ruling that the appeal was without merit.

In 2010, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners was launched as an exchange-listed global renewable power company, with a portfolio of hydroelectric and wind power plants in Canada, the United States and Brazil.

Also in 2010, Brookfield led a successful restructuring of General Growth Properties, the second largest owner of U.S. shopping malls, out of bankruptcy after rebuffing Simon Property Group's attempt to acquire GGP. In 2011, the company increased its share of General Growth Properties to 38%. By 2012, Brookfield's stake in GGP grew to 42% which prompted investor activist William Ackman to request that GGP create a special committee unaffiliated with Brookfield to consider a sale to Simon. On Dec. 31, 2012, Pershing Square agreed to sell a portfolio of its stake in GGP to Brookfield and struck a four-year agreement to be a passive investor in the shopping mall company. By May, 2014 Pershing Square had sold all of its shares in GGP.

In January 2012, two hedge fund creditors, Trilogy Portfolio Co. and Canyon Value Realization Fund LP, in a loan with Brookfield, filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington asking that the court restrain Brookfield's attempt to acquire the Kerzner International properties from closing. In the lawsuit, the hedge funds alleged that Brookfield engaged in "brazen self-dealing" and collusion with junior lender PCCP and servicer Wells Fargo to complete the deal in violation of the loan agreement. The court granted a temporary injunction pending a hearing. Brookfield consequently cancelled its offer to acquire the property. Brookfield walked away after a Delaware judge issued the injunction. The two hedge funds subsequently agreed to a restructuring that allowed Brookfield to acquire the One&Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas, Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas, and the One&Only Palmilla Resort in Mexico. Brookfield subsequently sold the One & Only Ocean Club to Access Industries for $140 million.

In 2012, Brazilian authorities announced that they were investigating allegations that an executive at Brookfield bribed São Paulo building officials to secure permits required for renovating three shopping malls. The allegations were made by Daniela Gonzalez, the former chief financial officer of a Brookfield subsidiary in Brazil, who was fired by Brookfield in 2010. The alleged bribes reportedly totaled $789,851. Silvio Antonio Marques, a São Paulo state prosecutor confirmed the civil and criminal investigations to the Wall Street Journal and added that the reporting individual also provided documentation of the misconduct by Brookfield employees. A former Brookfield employee, who is being sued by Brookfield for embezzlement and is being investigated by Brazilian authorities, reported the alleged bribes to both the authorities in Brazil and to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Brazilian authorities say they are questioning a company controlled by Brookfield Asset Management as part of an investigation into allegations that São Paulo officials engaged in extortion. In the continuing SEC inquiry, the agency has been looking into allegations made by a former Brookfield executive, who says she was ordered to bribe city officials to obtain permits required for shopping malls and says she was fired for refusing to do so. In June, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission informed Brookfield Asset Management that it had concluded its investigation and would not be bringing charges over alleged bribery in Brazil.

In 2012, the company announced plans to spin off its global property holdings to shareholders in Brookfield Asset Management by distributing units in a new entity, Brookfield Property Partners.

In June 2012, Brookfield Office Properties announced plans to acquire a portfolio of three office buildings and a development site in the City of London for $829 million from Hammerson Inc., a British real estate company focused on retail developments.

In July 2012, Brookfield and Spanish toll road operator Abertis announced plans to acquire a toll road network in Brazil. At the same time, Brookfield acquired full control of toll road assets in Chile. In December, 2012, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners agreed to acquire a portfolio of 19 hydroelectric power stations in Maine from Nextera Energy Resources LLC for $760 million.

On April 26, 2013, Brookfield Office Properties made an offer for MPG Office Trust Inc. and announced plans to create a new $1.15 billion fund that would hold seven MPG and Brookfield office buildings in Los Angeles.

In June 2013, a Brookfield private equity fund acquired two Canadian refrigeration facilities, in Toronto and Calgary, from Millard Refrigerated Services, launching a new national company, Brookfield Cold Storage.

In June 2013, Brookfield also announced two separate transactions totaling $3.65 billion that saw the sale of its Longview Timber unit to Weyerhauser for $2.65 billion, and the sale of Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging to Kapstone Paper and packaging for $1 billion. Brookfield purchased the companies in 2007 with $1 billion of equity. In commenting on the transaction, Kapstone chairman and CEO Roger Stone said: "The Longview team orchestrated a transformation that is truly, in my experience, the most amazing that I've actually ever seen in my 55 years in the industry."

In July, 2013, the New York Times ran an article by short seller Carson Block of Muddy Waters LCC that cited Brookfield as one of a number of companies that had miscalculated the risks of investing in Brazil.

In August 2013, Brookfield Property Partners, acquired Industrial Developments International, an Atlanta-based owner of distribution facilities, from Japanese construction company Kajima Corp. in a $1.1 billion transaction.

Brookfield was revealed to be a significant creditor in an arm of bankrupt Texas Utility Energy Future Holdings, as a holder of debt in the company’s Texas Competitive Electric Holdings subsidiary.

In March 2014, Brookfield Renewable Energy acquired a portfolio of Irish wind farms for $680 million as part of a privatization by the Irish government.

Brookfield Property Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority acquired the parent to the Canary Wharf real estate development in London for ₤2.6 billion. Brookfield was the biggest buyer of European real estate in 2015.

Brookfield’s private equity arm, Brookfield Capital Partners, acquired a number of industrial companies, including GrafTech International, North American Palladium and Armtec.

Brookfield Property Partners acquired apartment owner Associated Estates for $1.7 billion after the company put itself up for sale.

In August, 2015, Brookfield Infrastructure bid approximately $6.6 billion for Australian rail, port and logistics company Asciano.

On January 13, 2016, Brookfield acquired 57% of the power generation company Isagén, in Colombia, for a sum of $6.48 trillion (COP) ($2.03 billion USD). The company subsequently increased its interest to 100% by the end of the year.

In early 2016, Brookfield announced that it partnered with Korea Investment Corp. to purchase a major chunk of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, acquiring a total of 17 buildings. The total acquisition price was $1.41 billion. In announcing the transaction, Brookfield Property Partners chairman Ric Clark said the company is looking for additional world class assets.

On May 10, 2016 Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. changed its name to Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. The stock symbol (TSX: BEP.UN - NYSE: BEP) and CUSIP remained the same.

In June 2016, Brookfield completed the spin-off of Brookfield Business Partners, the primary public vehicle through which Brookfield will own and operate the business services and industrial operations of its private equity group.

Brookfield Infrastructure announced in September that together with its investment partners, they would acquire a 90 percent stake in a Brazilian natural gas pipeline from Petróleo Brasileiro SA.

In October, Brookfield Business Partners and its institutional partners bought a 70 percent stake in the largest private water and sewage company in Brazil, Odebrecht Ambiental, in a transaction valued at $908 million. Under its new ownership, the business was renamed BRK Ambiental.

Brookfield Business Partners and its institutional partners agreed to acquire a 85 percent controlling stake in Greenergy Fuels Holdings Ltd , a leading provider of road fuels in the U.K. The company also reached an agreement to sell Maax Bath, a bathroom-fixtures company, to American Bath Group.

In April 2017, the company announced an agreement to purchase 100% of the gas station operations of Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest retailer.