Post Tagged with: "mergers"
Citigroup gets $7.8 Billion for Japanese unit
With the stress test results coming out, it is a wonderful thing for Citigroup that it has been able to sell its Japanese brokerage unit to Sumitomo Mitsui, and at a good price of $7.8 billion. Here’s an excerpt of the FT story: Citigroup on Friday sold its Japanese brokerage and some parts of its
Bof A’s MAC clause was as porous as swiss cheese
Over the past few days, I have written two posts regarding the increasingly acrimonious sparring surrounding Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The horrible self-dealing of Ken Lewis and the principal-agent problem BofA CEO Lewis investigated by SEC BofA saga continues as John Thain calls Lewis a liar The latest news is stunning: Bank
Daimler washes its hands of Chrysler
The German car maker Daimler wants to put the Chrysler chapter behind it, so it will give up its remaining 19.9% stake and forgive all remaining loans. See BBC story
BofA saga continues as John Thain calls Lewis a liar
The Wall Street Journal is running a front-page story about John Thain today in which he accuses Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis of lying about events surrounding the Bank of America – Merrill transaction and the ouster of Thain as a top Bank of America executive. Thain spent most of his career at Goldman
The horrible self-dealing of Ken Lewis and the principal-agent problem
I don’t much like Ken Lewis. It should be fairly obvious to everyone that he is a man who has only his own interests at heart. But, his revelation that BofA bought Merrill Lynch for the agreed-upon September price, despite Merrill’s having an additional $7 billion in losses is grounds for legal action. Let’s review
BofA CEO Lewis investigated by SEC
Ken Lewis, the embattled CEO of Bank of America, has recently admitted to being coerced by U.S. Government officials to consummate the Merrill Lynch acquisition. The problem for Lewis is he may have neglected his fiduciary responsibility to shareholders in bowing to this pressure. The SEC is now investigating. See the video below for details
German Press: Fiat to sign a deal with Opel, not Chrysler
I want to make clear the significance of the Treasury’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan for Chrysler if Fiat pulls out. It will mean massive job losses and and a huge down-tick in consumer demand. There will be no second half recovery. Geithner and Obama will look very much like greenhorns and lose a lot of
BofA CEO confirms government coerced him into Merrill deal
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis is fighting to keep his job because earnings at his company have plummeted. BofA’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch has been a large part of the problem. Now, understanding that he is being made out to be the fall guy, he has fessed up that BofA was coerced into the
Nationwide: Press release on Dunfermline acquisition
Dunfermline, the largest uilding society in Scotland was forced into the hands of the Nationwide. This happened only after the U.K. government was forced to pony up 1.6 billion pounds – not the best of news for Gordon Brown before a major world summit. As the Times Online says: The state-backed rescue brings to six
Where are the perp walks?
Last summer, as a number of sinister revelations were made about the goings-on in the financial services sector, I speculated that we would definitely see the government going after individual executives for illegal activities. I saw Angelo Mozilo, the man with a tan, as the most likely scapegoat – a mortgage industry Ken Lay, if you will (see my August post “Ex-Countrywide CEO is the new Ken Lay“). Yet, none of this came to pass.
Quote of the day: Wells and BofA are choking on acquisitions
Chris Whalen, a well-regarded bank analyst, ran an interview piece with Nouriel Roubini on Barry Ritholtz’s site. The conversation was very illuminating and I highly recommend reading the whole post linked below. However, I wanted to point out a quote from Chris in the piece that I find significant in light of the recent dividend
Mea Culpa: I was too bullish on the BofA-Merrill deal
Merrill Lynch is looking like a real dog these days — much more than I realized back in September. As bearish/cautious as I have been on the economy and the financial sector, obviously I was not cautious enough. When the deal got done I had this to say