What Did Wells Fargo Have in Common with Wachovia Before the Merger?
The Little Sis team is preparing a final package for Spot.Us and all those who contributed but to whet your appetite we wanted to link back to some of the highlights so far.
- Northern California Elite: Interlocks – OK, so wealthy, successful Californians businesspersons share corporate connections. But did you know that many sit on government boards and University Trustee Boards? Can you guess which politicians they donate the most money to?
- In-depth company profiles on: McKesson, Apple, Chevron, and Hewlett-Packard
- Eyes on the Ties Visualizations
And…
Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and the Vulcan Three
Published in Little Sis’ research blog
If you haven’t seen this blog post by Kevin Connor- It’s highly recomended.
Last October, in a stunning turn of events at the height of the Wall Street crisis, Wachovia backed out of a deal with Citigroup and agreed to a $15 billion merger with Wells Fargo — the biggest bank merger ever. The Charlotte-based Wachovia had recently collapsed under the weight of its own mortgage portfolio and Citi had come to the rescue, offering a rock bottom $1/share that Wachovia accepted in order to avoid bankruptcy. A few days later, Wells Fargo swooped down with an offer worth seven times as much, and Wachovia gladly accepted.
The Wells Fargo deal confused most observers, infuriated Citigroup, resulted in weeks of intense legal wrangling, and ultimately went through. It was an odd marriage, pairing a Charlotte-based bank that had financed the sun belt’s housing bubble with a San Francisco-based bank that had largely avoided it.
How did the two banks come together? What was the real story behind this deal?
As it turns out, a Birmingham, Alabama-based construction aggregate supply company appears to have played a key role in this merger. Last week, I blogged about this bizarre discovery (part of our Spot.us research project) without offering too much detail. Today I’ll make my case.
Boards of directors of Wells Fargo & Wachovia, pre-mergerKeep reading Fargo, Wachovia, and the Vulcan Three
Related posts: