Barclays seals Lehman deal

[Jersey Devil]

Source: Financial Times

Lehman Brothers on Tuesday reached a deal to sell certain parts of its business to Barclays, which had been in talks over the weekend to buy the entire investment bank before it filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The two parties reached a deal in the early New York morning, though the exact Lehman businesses involved, and the price at which they will be sold, remained unclear. A deal could be accompanied by a small capital raising by the UK lender.

People close to the matter said it was likely that the deal centered around Lehman’s core US broker-dealer operations, which perform securities underwriting tasks, provide merger advice to lucrative clients, and conduct trading.

Lehman’s European and Asian investment banking divisions had also been part of the discussions between the two banks, sources have said. In the first instance, the transaction is likely to exclude Lehman entities based in Europe, although Barclays is thought to be interested in acquiring some of these subsequently.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5c9dcc26-83f1-11dd-bf00-000077b07658.html

---

It seems to me that talks were broken off during the weekend because Barclays did not want to be saddled with Lehman's bad real estate portfolio but now that Lehman is bankrupt it can buy (subject to approval of the bankruptcy court) assets of Lehman rather than all of Lehman, which is what they were trying to do in the first place.

So say what you want about Dick Fuld, the Lehman CEO, it looks like he may have pulled a rabbit out of his hat once again by having the core of Lehman survive and completely jettisoning the real estate debts from future operations.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Finally an answer to the country's economic woes! Outsourcing!

[Jersey Devil]

2. The important thing is the Lehman jobs stay here

Maybe not all 25,000 of them but according to other estimates I have read this will save at least 10,000 jobs in New York City. That's nothing to be snarky about.

[Hugin]

3. How does this help Lehman's creditors who are now stuck holding an empty bag?

Looks like the money caught the first flight out of town.

[Jersey Devil]

4. It doesn't but at least it saves jobs

You'd rather they just let the whole thing sink and send everyone home with no prospects for jobs? Salvaging something out of this mess is a blessing imo. These employees had nothing to do with greedy high level decisions by the CEO to make all those bad real estate deals.

[nolabels]

5. Saving paper shuffling jobs in an electronic based balanced sheet world?

I wonder how long that will work :freak:

[Hugin]

6. So, you're saying Lehman is now a jobs program.

I thought that was so-called socialism.

I imagine those creditors also supply jobs and may have families to support.

Having lost my livelihood to the failure of the system myself, I am unsympathetic to that line of reasoning.

[Jersey Devil]

7. sour grapes do not make good whine

So those employees should lose their jobs because you lost your job and any kind of deal that saves their jobs without saving the creditors debts is bad, huh?

[Hugin]

8. What I'm saying is that this system has proven itself to be unsustainable.

I guess you don't mind a hidden tax to sustain a few jobs while the lions share of the money lines the pockets
of a few at the top.

[Moonriver016]

9. Sneaky Barclays screwed Lehman Shareholder/Employees

I feel sorry for Lehman Employees, not only their retirement saving in Lehman stocks have been wiped out because Barclays used tricks to get the best deal out of Lehman's misfortune (choosing "walk away" before the bankruptcy and then buy best of everything at firesell), now they have to be integrated into Barclays like orphans. Lehman employees now have to work many more years FOR FREE to Barclays to recover their original retirement savings when Barclays could've just bought the firm before the bankruptcy to avoid their retirement savings being wiped out.

In addition, Lehman employees, Barclays is a really bad bank to work for. They are ruthless and will suck everything out of you and once you're no more value to them, they will find a reason to kick you out of the door. Just take a look what Bob Diamond did to Lehman and you can imagine the strategy they will use on you later when you work for them.

So just get what you can get out of Barclays and then move on!!!! Barclays is not a place where you can settle for most of your career.

[Nihil]

10. BS

Lehman screwed Lehman shareholder & employees, nobody else.

I've just found out that one of my friends lost his job on Monday
when Lehman called them all in and said "Piss off and don't hold
your breath on getting paid".

Lehman management had a chance but they decided (as always) to
bluff it out in the hope of getting a better deal. Like so many
of the content-free bluffs of Wall Street et al, they failed.

Barclays are just another bank - no better for sure but no worse
either - so save the bad-mouthing for the people who deserve it,
the Lehman (mis-)management team.