The worst M&A deals of all-time

As the financial industry further unraveled yesterday, Mathieu Robbins of the Irish Indendent asked a worthwhile question: Was RBS the idiot company of all-time in buying ABN Amro at the top of the market? Robbins says no and offers up nine other equally monstrous deals that all went seriously pear-shaped to prove it

Countrywide is the real problem at Bank of America

Now that the government has bailed out Bank of America, I want to remind you that this Bank is a serial acquirer and that the Merrill acquisition is not the only boneheaded move by Bank of America

Meredith Whitney: “I would diversify out of financials here”

The statements coming from Meredith Whitney in this video interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo could not be more blunt: the financial serves sector is weak, needs bailout money and investors will be diluted. As a result, she expects selling pressure to continue. She also mentions that a number of shotgun weddings are likely in order to stave off bankruptcy amongst weaker firms – the unstated quid pro quo obviously being bailout money for the acquirer.

This is a very good video to get a broad sense of the state of financial services

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley: the City Morgue is now open

It’s a done deal. The Citigroup – Morgan Stanley dance is now over. The price for a 51% stake Smith Barney was $2.7 Billion. The seems like a very low valuation here but I haven’t looked through the terms of the deal in depth.

This is the press release that Morgan Stanley released for the deal

GM finding no takers on Saab?

General Motors, struggling under the weight of a mountain of debt, is finding it difficult to raise cash. For one, the U.S. automaker is finding no buyers for its Swedish Saab unit, according to Swedish Daily “Dagens Nyheter.”

Nevertheless, GM executives are putting on a brave face with the news media. In fact, I found an article in another newspaper, the Australian daily “Sydney Morning Herald” claiming the opposite under the title, “No problems in finding Saab buyers: GM.”

Rio Tinto: all kinds of trouble

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

Capital One buys Chevy Chase Bank: Another bailout freebie

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

National City sold

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 U.S.

Sovereign Bancorp: Santander looking to buy regional bank

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 and is

BNP takes over Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis

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 Nationale de

Wells Fargo to buy Wachovia

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 was only going

Lehman gets $2.15 billion for Neuberger Berman

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