How the Wachovia - Citi deal unraveled

Filings outline demise of Citi-Wachovia deal

Excerpt:

The gone-sour deal to sell Wachovia Corp.’s banking operations to Citigroup Inc. began with a 5 a.m. phone call Wachovia’s Bob Steel made to Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit on Sept. 26.

The deal was sealed 71 hours later at 4 a.m. Sept. 29 when federal regulators told Citigroup its $2.16 billion offer had been accepted.

It was dead 92 hours later when Steel called Pandit at 2:15 a.m. Oct. 3 to say he was taking a $15.1 billion offer from Wells Fargo & Co.

Comment: Interesting stuff. 12/30/12 will be the 4 anniversary of Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia

Wells Fargo to finish Wachovia integration this weekend

Wells Fargo to finish Wachovia integration this weekend

Excerpt:

Wells Fargo is completing the largest bank integration in U.S. history, and its 10th market switchover since taking over a collapsing Wachovia in late 2008. The bank said there will be 1.2 million N.C. households and 317 Wachovia branches affected by the change this weekend.

Wells Fargo has kept a major hub of about 2,900 jobs in Winston-Salem, which has come as a relief to local officials because there was no guarantee that Citigroup Inc. — the other suitor for Wachovia in 2008 — would have kept any local presence aside from branches.

"We've taken the best practices from the previous nine conversions and applied them to North Carolina," Leslie Hayes, regional president of the Triad West community banking unit for Wells Fargo, said Wednesday.

But once the weekend is over — and local celebratory events are finished on Oct. 20 — bank officials said they are ready to push forward into the Wells Fargo era of a local financial presence 132 years old.

Analysts expect the branch and software switchover to go smoothly considering there is very little overlap between the banks in North Carolina. By comparison, there was much more anxiety when First Union Corp. conducted its conversion to Wachovia branches in the Carolinas in May 2003.

"The conversion will be a quiet event," said Tony Plath, a finance professor at UNC Charlotte. "Wells Fargo has worked out just about all the conversion bugs."

Comment: My wife has been a part of this big project over the last 2½ years: many nights and weekends. This weekend she works Saturday night from 11:30 p.m. until 10:00 a.m. Sunday

The Wells Fargo / Wachovia Technology Integration

Wells Fargo and Wachovia: The technology integration of two giants

Excerpts:

We had a mantra inside the business organization that we think of as a best practice, which is, select [a Wells Fargo or Wachovia system] A or B, but never [create a new] C. The reason you do that is because you want to make sure you move into a stable platform. If you build a new model in the middle of integration, you’ll run into some burn and bumps, and we didn’t want to impact our customers.
...

Out of 4,000 bundles of applications, we ended up with less than five Cs. Those were things that just couldn’t scale or had functionality problems. When you start changing out the architecture, or building new application code, that’s when you put your customers at risk.

Comment: 4000 applications .... 3 years. Kathee and I are in the middle of this ourselves. It's been interesting.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - Wachovia borrowed $29 billion on Oct. 6, 2008

Fed names banks that drew loans during crisis

Excerpt:

For the first time in its 98-year history, the Federal Reserve on Thursday identified banks that borrowed from its oldest lending program.

The Fed was compelled to name the banks that drew emergency loans during the financial crisis after the Supreme Court rejected a bid by major banks to keep that information secret. It's the latest sign of how the Fed is becoming more transparent -- either by choice or by force.

The central bank lent up to $110 billion through its emergency "discount window" at the height of the crisis. After Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, banks turned to the Fed as a lender of last resort because their credit had frozen up. The Fed argued then that naming those banks could have stirred a panic, leading to a run on those banks and defeating the program's purpose.

The documents released Thursday showed that a range of large and small institutions borrowed from the program from August 2007 through March 2010.

Most of the lending took place in the two-month stretch between September and October 2008. The specific program that the banks drew from has been redacted from the documents, but the data points to most of the loans being through the "discount window." In many cases, those loans were paid back the following day.

Some of the biggest loans were drawn by the nation's largest banks. For example, U.S. Bank took out an overnight loan of $3.35 billion on Sept. 10, Wachovia borrowed $29 billion on Oct. 6, and Morgan Stanley drew more than $3 billion on Oct. 9.

Comment: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (one of my favorite The Band numbers). That day was the date Wachovia was forced into sale by the FDIC ...

Business Week on the Wells Fargo - Wachovia deal

Wells Fargo Sweetened Wachovia Bid for Tax Gain, Bair Told FCIC

Excerpt:

Wells Fargo & Co. aimed to take advantage of a change in tax law that occurred two days earlier when revising a 2008 offer for Wachovia Corp. and trumping a bid by Citigroup Inc., the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair told the panel that Richard Kovacevich, Well Fargo’s chairman, informed her that IRS Notice 2008-83 -- which gave tax breaks to acquirers of struggling banks -- “had been a factor leading to Wells’s revised bid,” according to the report. A previous offer by Wells Fargo had been rejected as regulators rushed to stave off bankruptcy at Wachovia.

Wells Fargo’s offer of $15.1 billion in stock derailed Wachovia’s agreement to sell its banking operations to Citigroup, which was reached a day before the IRS notice, according to the report. That led to two years of litigation among the banks. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo posted more than $20 billion in profit since the deal, while Citigroup required a $45 billion U.S. bailout.

Comment: Nothing new but an interesting recap. We are now 2 years into the merger. I now am on a team all in North Carolina and report to a former Wachovia manager.

Citigroup: "small compensation" for "jilting"

Jilted in Deal, Citi Will Get $100 Million

Excerpts:

Citigroup Inc. was jilted in 2008 when its bid for Wachovia Corp. fell apart and the battered bank fled to Wells Fargo & Co.

The New York bank finally got some revenge for being left at the altar, announcing on Friday that Wells Fargo will pay $100 million to settle "all claims related to this dispute," according to a joint statement by the two banks.

Citigroup had sought as much as $60 billion in damages from Wachovia and Wells Fargo, which announced their takeover agreement just four days after Citigroup thought it had won the Charlotte, N.C., bank.

The battle for Wachovia erupted barely two weeks after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. tumbled into bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch & Co. was sold to Bank of America Corp. Bank stocks were teetering, and rumors surged that customers were yanking deposits from weak banks. Wachovia was crumbling under the weight of bad mortgages.

Citigroup executives were enraged and humiliated by the disintegration of the Wachovia deal, which was hammered out with government assistance hours before Wachovia was set to be seized by regulators. Citigroup rushed in with a cut-rate offer of roughly $2 billion after Wells Fargo, of San Francisco, abruptly yanked its bid of more than $20 billion. The Wells Fargo offer didn't call for the U.S. government to back losses on bad loans.

Citigroup initially bragged that the takeover of much of Wachovia's operations made it a "pillar of strength." The deal would have tripled the size of Citigroup's retail-banking unit.

Within days, though, Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit was mulling the company's legal options. Wachovia agreed to sell itself entirely to Wells Fargo for $15.4 billion without any government aid. Wells Fargo became the largest U.S. bank in branches, though it assumed much more risk from Wachovia's mortgage portfolio than Citigroup had been willing to take.

...

Citigroup also claimed it had an exclusivity agreement with Wachovia not to negotiate or enter into competing bids, which was allegedly violated by Wells Fargo. A Wells Fargo court filing said Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair had indicated to Wachovia that the Wells deal would be "superior" while Citigroup was attempting to finalize the announced agreement with Citigroup.

Citigroup sought more than $20 billion in compensatory damages and more than $40 billion in punitive damages from Wells Fargo for tortious interference.
...

Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Va., said the $100 million payment to Citigroup by Wells Fargo is "small compensation."

Comment: In the end it was better for Wachovia customers (being acquired by Wells Fargo). Hard to believe that was 2 years ago!

Wells Fargo - Citigroup chapter closes

Wells Fargo to pay Citi $100 million over Wachovia

Excerpt:

Wells Fargo & Co will pay Citigroup Inc $100 million to settle multiple lawsuits over the contentious 2008 purchase of Wachovia Corp, closing another chapter in the receding financial crisis.

The banks said the settlement will resolve all claims related to the dispute.

Citigroup had originally sought as much as $60 billion of damages from Wells Fargo for derailing its September 2008 agreement to buy large portions of Wachovia and quadruple its U.S. branch presence.

"This could have dragged on forever, and sometimes I think you're better just settling and moving on," said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, New York, which owns shares of both banks.

"If Citigroup had gotten Wachovia, the financial returns would have been significant," said Schutz. "But it might have made it harder for Citi to do some of the things they're doing now, like getting leaner." He said the $100 million amount seemed low relative to the stakes in the dispute.

Citigroup had initially agreed to buy much of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia for $2.16 billion.

Wachovia was struggling with soaring losses on mortgage loans, and the agreement with New York-based Citigroup called for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to share in those losses.

Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, then bid a much larger sum for all of Wachovia, in a takeover that did not require FDIC support.

The $12.5 billion merger closed at the end of 2008, roughly doubling Wells Fargo's size and giving it the largest U.S. retail branch banking network.

Comment: See previous post from July 2009: Citigroup claim denied

Wells Fargo / Wachovia integration map

Store Integration Map

Comment: Interactive map showing store integration.

The Wachovia branch with Wells Fargo tellers

Wachovia and Wells Fargo put a new spin on bank mergers

One Door, Two Stores

Excerpt:

A Wachovia branch in Phoenix is now home to a completely independent Wells Fargo banking center in addition to its own operations. Two separate banks share one building. Or, as the Wells Fargo-Wachovia Blog calls it, "One Door, Two Stores."

It started when a grocery store closed earlier this year, and the in-store Wells branch found itself homeless. But across the street, recently acquired Wachovia waited with open arms. Now the two banks share the building, but they remain completely independent. Two staffs, two teller lines, two vaults, even two different signs in front of the building.

Wells Fargo and Wachovia still operate their bank branches on different computer systems. When the systems merge sometime next year, the shared bank building will become exclusively a Wells Fargo store.

Comment: Unusual

Charlotte’s banking bust

The bust hits the boomtown that banks built

Excerpt:

A monument to the financial crisis is rising amid this city's thicket of skyscrapers: a gleaming, glass-walled trophy tower that was intended as a fitting headquarters for Wachovia's national banking empire.

It will open instead as the headquarters of a regional power company. Wachovia, unable to survive a run of bad decisions, was swallowed by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo during the depths of the crisis last year.

Few American cities prospered more over the past two decades than Charlotte, its growth propelled and gilded by Wachovia and its crosstown rival, Bank of America. Executives shoehorned gaudy mansions into old neighborhoods around downtown. Workers poured into vast subdivisions on the city's ever-expanding periphery. With coffers overflowing, giddy public officials spent tax dollars on a manmade river for whitewater rafting.

Comment: Of interest to me on several counts: 1.) the WF / Wachovia merger; 2.) Charlotte is a possible retirement location

Citigroup claim denied

Judge rejects Citigroup claim

Excerpt:

A federal judge in New York City rejected the claim by Citigroup Inc. that its unsuccessful attempt to purchase Wachovia Corp. last fall was protected by an exclusivity arrangement.

Wachovia was bought by Wells Fargo & Co., which offered a higher price.

Judge Shira Scheindlin on Wednesday ruled the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act made the Citigroup exclusivity contract unenforceable

Comment: Didn't think it would go far. Earlier post: "While I'm not a lawyer, I think that the Citicorp legal challenge will soon evaporate. "

Updated (thanks to Jeremy Cobb): Federal Judge Finds Bailout Act Voids Citigroup's Bid for Wachovia

Excerpt:

The emergency bailout package passed by Congress in October voided an exclusivity agreement that Citigroup had for buying embattled Wachovia Corp. in a deal that was ultimately trumped by Wells Fargo, a federal judge has ruled.

Rejecting Citigroup's bid for as much as $60 billion in damages against Wells Fargo, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled Wednesday that §126(c) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA), passed on Oct. 3, 2008, renders the exclusivity agreement unenforceable.

The judge's resolution of the issue gets rid of most, but not all, of Citigroup's case for damages pending before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos. The action before Ramos had been stayed pending Scheindlin's decision.

The ruling does not affect a constitutional challenge to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that Citigroup may pursue in federal court, where a conference before Scheindlin is scheduled for July 22.

Citigroup had what it thought were exclusive rights through Oct. 7, 2008, to close a deal for $2.1 billion, or $1 per Wachovia share. The transaction would have been made with some assistance by the FDIC, which was invoking its authority under §13 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to take action where there is the possibility of "systemic risk" to the economy. The FDIC insisted that, unless the deal was closed by Oct. 6, Wachovia would be forced into receivership.

On Oct. 2, Wells Fargo jumped in with a $15 billion offer for Wachovia, approximately $7 per share. Significantly, the deal required no assistance from the FDIC. The merger was announced on Oct. 3, the same day the act was passed.

On Oct. 4, Citigroup sued in state court, charging Wachovia with breach of contract and Wells Fargo with tortious interference with contract. The case was first removed to federal court but later was remanded back to state court and Justice Ramos.

The same day, Wells Fargo and Wachovia filed their own actions in federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that their transaction was valid. Within a week, Citigroup dropped its attempt to block the sale but insisted it would continue its damages claim.

Scheindlin's decision in Wachovia Corp. v. Citigroup, Inc., 08 Civ. 8503, was the first by a federal judge interpreting §126(c), which renders unenforceable an agreement restricting the ability to acquire any insured depository institution where the FDIC exercises its authority under Federal Deposit Insurance Act §§11 or 13.

Archway, phony sales & Wachovia

Oh, No! What Happened to Archway?

Excerpts:

SITTING in his office late one evening in April last year, Keith Roberts, the director of finance for the Archway & Mother’s Cookie Company, stared in shocked silence at the numbers on his desk.

He knew things had been bad — daily reports he had been monitoring for six months showed that cookie sales at the company had been dismal. But the financial data he was looking at showed much more robust sales.

“Where on earth had all of these sales come from?” Mr. Roberts recalls thinking to himself.

Tired, but intrigued, he began digging through orders and shipping and inventory records until, well after midnight, he reached the conclusion that Archway, based in Battle Creek, Mich., was booking nonexistent sales.

He reasoned that sham transactions allowed Archway, which was owned by a private-equity firm, Catterton Partners, to maintain access to badly needed money from its lender, Wachovia. Mr. Roberts’s investigation eventually caused Wachovia to pull its financing lines, helping to push Archway into bankruptcy last fall.

...

Wachovia, for instance, provided tens of millions of dollars in loans and lines of credit backed by assets to Archway despite the fact the company had not had a formal independent audit of its financial statements in three years.

Comment: What was missing? An independent audit!

Odd men out

Wells Fargo not hiring 175 Wachovia employees

Excerpt:

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo recently acquired Wachovia and had been reviewing the employment eligibility of Wachovia's current employees who had previously worked at Wells Fargo.

The 175 employees not offered employment were among more than 2,000 Wachovia employees that had previously worked for Wells Fargo. Those decision to not offer those employees jobs was based on each person's employment history with Wells Fargo, according to a spokeswoman.

Comment: Interesting

The Father of "Pick-A-Pay"

Once Trusted Mortgage Pioneers, Now Pariahs

Excerpt:

Known as an option ARM — and named “Pick-A-Pay” by World Savings — it is now seen by an array of housing analysts and regulators as the Typhoid Mary of the mortgage industry.

Pick-A-Pay allowed homeowners to make monthly mortgage payments that were so small they did not cover their interest charges. That meant the total principal owed would actually grow over time, not shrink as is normally the case.

Now held by an estimated two million homeowners, the option adjustable rate mortgage will be at the forefront of a further wave of homeowner distress that could greatly delay or even derail an economic recovery, mortgage industry analysts say.

The Wachovia Corporation, which bought the Sandlers’ bank two years ago, was so battered by the souring portfolio of World Savings that it began writing off losses now projected at tens of billions of dollars and eventually stopped offering option ARMs.

Through it all, the Sandlers have maintained they did nothing wrong beyond misjudging the real estate bubble.

“I didn’t mislead anybody, and to the best of my knowledge, our company didn’t, though there may have been an isolated case here and there,” Mr. Sandler said. “If home prices hadn’t declined by 50 percent, nobody would be raising these questions.”

Mr. Sandler also finds it incredible that borrowers feel victimized by Pick-A-Pay. “All of a sudden their home is worth half of what it was, and they say they didn’t know.”

Yet the Sandlers embraced practices like the use of independent brokers who used questionable methods to reel in borrowers. These and other practices, critics contend, undermined the conservative lending practices that the Sandlers built their reputations upon.

“This product is the most destructive financial weapon ever deployed against the American middle class,” said William J. Purdy III, a housing lawyer in California who is representing elderly World Savings customers struggling to repay their loans. “People who have this loan are now trapped, and they can’t get another loan.”

Comment: Sounded like a good idea at the time

Wachovia "what ifs"

Wachovia shareholders OK Wells deal

Excerpt:

Wachovia Corp.’s shareholders approved the company’s merger with Wells Fargo & Co. at a relatively sedate shareholder meeting Tuesday morning, clearing the way for the deal to close next week.

The proposal passed overwhelmingly, with 76 percent of the votes cast in favor of the deal. That included preferred stock that Wachovia issued to Wells as part of the deal, giving the San Francisco company 39.9 percent of Wachovia’s voting power.

Security was tight at the meeting, held in a packed ballroom at the Hilton hotel next door to Wachovia’s Charlotte headquarters. Most of the company’s board of directors was absent, however, and Chief Executive Bob Steel told the audience that the day was one of a “variety of emotions,” including disappointment that Wachovia (NYSE:WB) won’t survive as an independent company. He expressed some excitement about the combination, along with some relief that employees could move forward and focus on their jobs “without the overhanging pressure of balance-sheet challenges.”

What ifs: Could sale have been avoided?

Excerpt:

Golden West Financial: Wachovia bought this nontraditional California lender in 2006 at the top of the housing boom. The deal exposed the bank to the faltering housing market and caused investors to worry about mounting losses. Wells now estimates losses of $36 billion, or 29 percent, on Golden West's $122 billion option adjustable rate mortgage portfolio.

Comment: The biggest misstep was Golden West Financial.

Excerpt:

While Wachovia Chairman and CEO G. Kennedy "Ken" Thompson had described Golden West as a "crown jewel", investors did not react positively to the deal at the time. Analysts have since said that Wachovia purchased Golden West at the peak of the US housing boom, and its mortage-related problems would in turn bring down Wachovia

Citigroup issues are not new

Woes at Citigroup Began With Failed Bid for Wachovia

Excerpts:

As the global financial crisis drove Wachovia toward collapse, the government frantically engineered their marriage. At a bargain price of $1 a share, Vikram S. Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive, was happy to oblige: The deal would have greatly enhanced Citi’s retail banking presence and added more stable consumer deposits to a balance sheet staggered by billions in write-downs on bad mortgage loans and related securities.

But like so many other things for Citigroup over the last several years, it fell apart. Less than a week later, Wells Fargo, the powerful San Francisco-based bank, swooped in with a higher offer. Citi was left in the lurch, without a business that was vital to its future.

...

Many analysts argue that the globe-spanning conglomerate, largely built by Sanford I. Weill, had never really worked as a cohesive unit. Different divisions have consistently battled, and promised synergies between units have rarely emerged.

“They never spent the time, the money or the energy to integrate all of the businesses,” said Meredith Whitney, analyst at Oppenheimer. “And so the credit card business speaks Mandarin while the mortgage business speaks Cantonese. It’s not a functional family. And because it’s not a functional family, it’s extraordinarily expensive to operate all the separate businesses, and you don’t get any of the advantages.”

Many of these problems were masked during the credit boom this decade. But with the financial crisis in full swing, the bank’s failure to unite its empire has become more exposed than ever.

“A lot of the issues facing Citigroup are not new issues, they have simply grown greater in severity,” said Michael Mayo, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Comment: The failed to integrate their business lines and thus could not leverage their synergies.

Followup: Here's the reason why!

Wachovia Reports $23.9 Billion Loss for Third Quarter

Excerpt:

The loss totaled $11.18 per share, and stemmed mostly from an $18.7 billion write-down of good will because asset values declined, as well as a big increase in reservesfor soured loans. Wachovia has lost $33 billion in the last two quarters.

Excluding items, Wachovia said the loss was $4.76 billion, or $2.23 per share. Analysts on average expected a loss of 27 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Comment: Followup to Wells Fargo didn't pay anything for Wachovia

Wells Fargo didn't pay anything for Wachovia

Why Wells Fargo Really Wanted Wachovia

Excerpt:

Why was Wells Fargo so eager to ante up a deal that was leaps and bounds sweeter than Citi was willing to pay? After all, Wells Fargo has a stellar reputation of keeping underwriting standards in check, so why would it want anything to do with a shoddy bank drowning in subprime mortgages?

Taxes. It was all about the taxes.

The day after Citigroup made its bid, the Treasury changed a tax rule that lets banks accelerate the losses and writedowns on banks they acquire against their own net income, offsetting the charges as tax write-offs.

Wells plans on writing off some $74 billion of Wachovia's $498 billion loan portfolio -- an insanely large amount that reflects just how poisoned Wachovia's books really were. With the new tax rules, it gets to use all of that $74 billion as a charge against its own net income, which means one thing: Wells Fargo's going to be a tax-write-off machine for years to come.

Just how much will it save? The Wall Street Journal, citing an independent tax analyst, estimates Wells Fargo could reap a tax savings of about $19.4 billion. To put that in perspective, the 0.1991 shares of its own stock Wells Fargo is offering Wachovia comes out to around $6.24 per share, or roughly $13.8 billion. Yes, Wells Fargo gets a $19.4 billion tax break for a company it'll pay just under $14 billion for (if the deal closed today).

In other words, Wells Fargo didn't pay anything for Wachovia: The IRS paid it more than $5 billion to take it. Who ever said you have to fear the taxman?

A couple implications of this: One, it's a good thing that at least some benefits are granted to companies willing to buy failed banks. After all, had Wells Fargo not stepped up to the plate, the existing deal with Citigroup could have stuck taxpayers with tens of billions of dollars in losses.

Comment: Interesting Perspective

Latest on Wells Fargo / Wachovia

Wells Fargo CEO urges calm on Wachovia jobs

Excerpt:

The CEO of Wells Fargo told several hundred Wachovia employees this morning that the merged banking operation will make every effort to retain employees.

John Stumpf also told a crowd that packed the Wachovia Atrium in uptown that the bank will continue to play a strong volunteer role in the community.

"My goal is to keep all of you with the company," Stumpf said in the first of two employee meetings scheduled today in Charlotte.

CEO Steel will bow out after merger

Excerpt:

Wachovia chief executive Bob Steel said at a news conference today that he will have no “operating role” after his bank and Wells Fargo merge later this year.

In the meantime, Steel, who took the helm in July, said his job will be to make sure Wachovia stays focused on its customers and to ensure the merger with Wells goes smoothly. He said other Wachovia executives will have an opportunity to be part of the combined company but did not give specifics.

In earlier remarks to employees in the company's headquarters complex, Steel said he had mixed emotions about selling the company to Wells, saying “a lot of us envisioned an independent Wachovia” emerging from its troubles. But he said Wells was the best alternative once the bank decided to do a merger.

In addition to turbulent times in the financial industry, Wachovia's particular problem with bad loans “made the situation more dangerous for Wachovia,” Steel said.

In perhaps the most telling sign of the times, Steel received a standing ovation from the crowd of employees and public officials, despite selling one of the city's most important local companies to an out-of-town rival.

Comment: I feel for these employees. Kathee was with United Bank (Colorado) that was acquired by Norwest. When Norwest closed our data center in Denver, all there were nervous.

How the Wachovia - Citi deal unraveled

Filings outline demise of Citi-Wachovia deal

Excerpt:

The gone-sour deal to sell Wachovia Corp.’s banking operations to Citigroup Inc. began with a 5 a.m. phone call Wachovia’s Bob Steel made to Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit on Sept. 26.

The deal was sealed 71 hours later at 4 a.m. Sept. 29 when federal regulators told Citigroup its $2.16 billion offer had been accepted.

It was dead 92 hours later when Steel called Pandit at 2:15 a.m. Oct. 3 to say he was taking a $15.1 billion offer from Wells Fargo & Co.

Comment: Interesting stuff