Wells Fargo Now Buys Wachovia

Where is your money going to be next? Just a few days after it had been bought by Citigroup with help from the federal government, Wells Fargo has stepped in to buy the company with no help from the feds.

Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich said the deal “provides superior value” to the Citigroup deal and that it will allow Wachovia shareholders to “have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the growth and success of a combined Wachovia-Wells Fargo that will be one of the world’s great financial services companies.”

Yes, this is probably exactly what the bigwigs said when Wachovia acquired any of the 7,000 banks they have over the years. But my meager checking account is safe! Thanks, Wells Fargo!

Update: Ha, ha, not yet, apparently!

Wells Fargo to buy Wachovia [WSJ]

Citigroup To Buy Wachovia

When the economy is in crisis the only one way our nation’s largest financial institutions can survive is to keep buying each other up ’til it passes. In a way, banks are drunken high school kids pairing off for awkward sex (i.e., mergers and acquisitions) on a camping trip. And Citigroup has laid eyes on the quiet brunette with the reputation for putting out: It will buy Wachovia’s banking operations. Make sure to use protection, Citi!

Citigroup will acquire Wachovia’s 200 locations in the Philadelphia area (the bank currently only has 23 around here). Everything else is kind of standard: A bunch of people in government whose job it is to lie to us told us that everything was okay, and praised each other for the great work in helping run our economy into the ground. Wachovia’s shares went way down in premarket trading (91 percent!), the bank was hurt my the mortgage crisis, etc. The usuals.

But forget all that financial stuff. We bloggers roll in so much cash we can sit out any financial crisis the world can offer. Let’s get to the real questions: Does this mean the Wachovia Center will pick up a new name come finalization of the deal? As an upside, the possibly-named Citi Center would maybe confuse out-of-town fans (since it’s not in Center City) and leave more room for Philly sports fans. But since the old building’s being knocked down anyway, why not just go back and call the place The Spectrum?

Update: Joseph DiStefano has more info about the possible change; since Wachovia isn’t being sold, just split up, it could remain the Wachovia Center. Whee!

Citigroup to buy Wachovia banking operations [AP/Philly.com]
Original Wachovia Center Photo by Jason Burmeister used under a Creative Commons License

Report: Wachovia Deal… Something

Yes, but is the Morgan Stanley-Wachovia deal still likely?

Report: Wachovia-Morgan Stanley deal unlikely [Phila. Business Journal]

Local Bank To Change Name (Again)?

With the economy in full “end times” mode and the government handing out billions of dollars, the Philadelphia Business Journal writes that Wachovia might merge with another bank finally. This would be a boon to both the bank and Philadelphia’s noted giant stadium sign industry, as the Wachovia (formerly Corestates and First Union) Center would probably end up with its fourth different name.

Wells Fargo has long been seen as a merger partner given the San Francisco bank’s dominance in the West. But Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs might find themselves seeking to combine with a commercial bank, especially following this week’s buyout of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.

Steel said the bank has a big advantage in working through its problems because it has a direct relationship with mortgage borrowers that allows the bank to work out problem loans with borrowers.

“We have lots of flexibility to figure out how to do this,” Steel said. “If we just owned securities, we would have two choices: hold or sell. We have lots of choices.”

Of Wachovia’s $500 billion in loans, only $10 billion are “problematic,” Steel said. “We have a lot of very good loans that are doing well, and we’re going to focus like crazy” on those problem loans.

Goldman Sachs Center? Morgan Stanley Arena? Ehh, whatever. I’ll keep calling it the F.U. Center — and, for that matter, continue saying that I’m going to see the Phillies at “the Vet.”

Wachovia merger speculation heats up [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Wachovia Loses Almost $360 Mil

Hmm, maybe this is the reason the PNB sign in the sky hasn’t been replaced just yet: Wachovia — the PNB building’s tenant — lost a staggering $359 million in its first quarter.

Sadly, economic troubles for my bank doesn’t do much for me besides Schadenfreude. And people are going to lose their jobs, though there’s no word on whether any Philadelphia jobs will be cut.

“I’m deeply disappointed with our first quarter results, but I am confident we’re taking prudent and appropriate actions in this challenging period to restore Wachovia to a more profitable path,” Wachovia President Kenneth Thompson said. Whatever that means.

Wachovia loses $393M in 1Q [Phila. Biz Journal]

YIKES!!!! Wachovia Sued For… Something

Hey, so little underdog financial services company Wachovia is apparently in a little bit of trouble. No, it’s not that confusing slavery thing; the company is alleged to have let telemarketers steal millions of dollars from its customers!

According to the lawsuit, filed last month in Philly, oh… this is super confusing, too:

The plaintiffs accused Wachovia of allowing some “payment processors” to create authorized, unsigned checks on behalf of telemarketers to withdraw funds from customer accounts between 2003 and 2006, court papers show.

They also accused Wachovia of trying to win or retain business from companies that it knew were accused of telemarketing fraud, despite being alerted by other banks about the deceptive activity, the papers show.

More »

Pat Croce, Wachovia CEO Go For The Gold

As far as major things to happen in Philadelphia, getting the freakin’ Olympics would be pretty huge. Regardless of how one feels about the bid, having the 2016 Olympics in Philadelphia would be a tremendous undertaking for the city.

Well, Pat Croce and Hugh Long (the Wachovia State CEO for Pa. and Del.) really, really, really want the Olympics to be in Philadelphia, and they think it would be perhaps the biggest thing to ever happen:

Where would Philadelphia - indeed the nation - be today if the framers of the Constitution heeded those who said it wouldn’t work, and they were dreamers?

Where would we be today if Ben Franklin listened to those who said Philadelphia didn’t need and couldn’t afford a free library, a hospital, a volunteer fire company, each the first of their kind in the nation?

And you certainly wouldn’t be reading this online if the creators of ENIAC, the world’s first computer, invented at the University of Pennsylvania, paid attention to those who said they were crazy, and the machine, while clever, had little practical application.

And, where, indeed, would we all be if God hadn’t decided to make the world? Certainly not bidding for the Olympics, that’s what!

Also: did the scientists who created ENIAC really have a jeering section while they were making it?

OLYMPIC DREAM: A PHILLY-STYLE CHALLENGE [Daily News]