Barclays agrees purchase of Lehman Brothers offshoots
News is filtering into the markets that UK banking giant Barclays has reached an agreement to acquire the investment bank and capital market operations of the fallen star Lehman Brothers. The move has not been officially confirmed, nor has it been agreed by the bankruptcy trustees, but there are suggestions that the price is in the region of $2 billion. A step too far or a clever move?
The camp is really split on this Barclays Bank move with many suggesting that the bank should look towards a period of consolidation for existing businesses and ensure the balance sheet is strong enough to get it through the credit crunch. However, others are keen for the group to acquire what is still a high quality set of assets from Lehman Brothers and plan for the future.
Time will tell whether this is the right move, assuming that the deal goes through, but Barclays Bank does not have the firepower of a Bank of America and has already been through its own troubled time of late. Taking on all of the pressure and extra work which an acquisition of 9,000 staff brings is hard enough in the good times but can be a back breaker in the difficult times.
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