Just months ago, Rio Tinto was a behemoth swaggering from the huge run up in commodity prices. This is a company that had revenue of nearly $30 billion and net income of nearly $8 billion in 2007. It was worth over $160 billion by May as the commodities boom took shape.

They were everywhere: building projects in Saudi Arabia, resisting a takeover by BHP Billiton and operating across the globe. Most of that is history now, except for the debt.

I wrote a few weeks back about how your bailout money was being used for mergers and acquisitions to line bankers’ pockets instead of for making loans to desperate homeowners. After receiving $25 billion in bailout funds, Citigroup attempted to buy Chevy Chase Bank despite the fact it was near collapse. Luckily this deal was scuppered as Capital One has now acquired Chevy Chase, just as the Wachovia deal was canceled when Wells Fargo stepped in.

PNC, down only 13% this year-to-date, very good for a bank stock, is acquiring beleaguered Ohio bank NCC for $5.5 billion. The price represents a huge discount to the prevailing market price before open today and NCC was down 34% in early trading. PNC is issuing $7.7 billion in stock and warrants to the [...]

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has pulled through the credit crisis with a much higher profile than ever before. I was initially skeptical that the firm was hiding huge losses at it had exposure in Spain, the UK and the US, all terrible bubble markets. Yet, it has seemed to come through swimmingly [...]

Fortis, the nationalised Belgo-Dutch bank and largest private employer in Belgium. This is a good thing as I have a distinct preference for mergers over bankruptcy or long-term nationalisation as a way to hep consolidate and rationalize the global financial services industry. Let’s hope that the new BNP Paribas, an amalgamation of Banque [...]

The deal everyone first expected to happen is now likely to proceed. Wells Fargo is set to buy Wachovia. Earlier this week, we heard that Wachovia was to be acquired by Citigroup, the beleaguered corporate behemoth that has written down over $50 billion during this credit crisis. What’s more is that Citigroup [...]

The price tag was less than one would have liked, but these are desperate times for sellers of financial assets. Lehman Brothers secured a sale of its crown jewel investment management division for $2.15 billion in a sale to private equity buyers.
When Lehman Brothers first proposed a sale weeks ago while still a solvent [...]

Wachovia Corporation has agreed to be bought out by Citigroup in a deal supported by the U.S. government. Exact terms of the deal are still forthcoming, but this could be seen as a best case scenario for a bank which was increasingly under stress due to the global credit crisis.
In 2006 Wachovia’s shares changed [...]

JP Morgan Chase has taken over the deposit taking subsidiary of Washington Mutual. The transaction is effective immediately, meaning it has closed. This is the biggest deal in FDIC activity yet.
Note: I originally heard this story just before 9PM ET and Yves Smith at naked capitalism has her take on the news.
Obviously, this is [...]

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bust, a number of major players were stung as the value of Fannie and Freddie preferred shares plummeted. Principal amongst these players was Gateway Bank, which had a huge percentage of bank capital tied up in the preferreds.
Now Gateway has arranged a takeover by a rival smaller [...]