Why are people so willing to show in public how misinformed they are? Wells in order to make this deal had to raise $20 billion of their own vs Citi's $15 billion. Wells expense savings plan for this deal is planned to be $5 billion vs. Citi's $3 billion (
meaning more job cuts!) and this was before Citi's rightful legal challange (whether we like or not), which at best -if all of you end up getting what you want (a Wells win, talk about you get what you wished for case) will certainly mean a huge compensation to Citi's
due to WB's incredibly IRRESPONSIBLE manner in dealing this since there was no apparent cause for them to wait until TODAY (!!!!)
to avert the legal implications of the exclusivity breach (or at least no causes they are telling us b/c the whole way they've handled this is very, very fishy).
Wells did not have "money of their own" (all these banks are overleveraged). In fact it was reported last quarter they were cooking the books after all banks had shown writedowns -making use of questionable accounting tactics. I mean think about where is the foreclosure epicenter of the world located? California!! Don't you think Wells has more exposure to all this mess than they have declared so far??
I understand we as Charlotteans are letting our hearts speak for us b/c the huge implications of this matter since so many employees of WB live here and b/c of the snowball effect this will have to our businesses, etc. But let's put all facts together before we rush into conclusions. I think any deal would have sounded better than the one Citi proposed. But Citi itself had thought last Wednesday to increase their offer to $5 /share. But GREEDY Wachovia's management and especially its BOARD (see the 3 "invited" members to join Wells board) preferred to go behind everyone's back and took the $7/share deal fully knowing this would implicate very serious consecuences for everyone ranging from the shareholders to the employees and Charlotte.
Please do not celebrate WB's board and its management,
look at their RECORD!!!! They only care about themselves. I'm not going to defend Citi here either but they did what they had to do and took the best deal for their shareholders. It wasn't their fault
Wachovia was about to FAIL twice a week an half ago as Robert Steel had stated on a sworn affidaivit. They stepped in after Wells pulled out and if they "lowballed" is b/c there was no one else willing to take on SAVING Wachovia. Had they not stepped in WB would have FAILED and the shareholders would have lost everything.
As chicagocubs have stated -although no one knows for sure which deal was best for Charlotte- there was the potential for Citi to keep a large portion of significant decision making positions here in Charlotte b/c Citi's has never specialized in retail banking. Our proximity to NYC was a serious plus for them. Think about it, a 1.5 hr flight there, cheaper cost of leasing, lower salaries, and wages to pay, etc, etc. The possibilites if anything were exciting since Citi is a worldwide brand and international business at some point could have been brought here.
The new proposed deal to split WB will be disastrous b/c it will make Charlotte unusable for any big purpose for both Wells and Citi. Way to go WB!
As always I hope whichever outcome of this turns out to be the best for the hard working people I personally know at Wachovia. They are the heroes of this story we all need to root for.
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