Barclays to Buy Lehman’s Units

Hello, there,

After a collapse caused in part by the subprime mortgages crisis, Lehman Brothers assets will be bought by Britain's Barclays Bank plc. What Barclays Bank is acquiring is an institution that employs over 9,000 staff.

Barclays also said it would buy three additional units -- Lehman Brothers Canada Inc., Argentina-based Lehman Brothers Sudamerica SA and Lehman Brothers Uruguay SA. The two South American entities are part of Lehman's money management business. Barclays is not paying extra to get the three units.

In Japan, Lehman Brothers has been in touch with Sumitomo Mitsui banking Corporation to sell its assets in that country.

What an ending for Lehman!

Said the judge who made the ruling to legalise the sale of Lehman's units to Barclays: "Lehman Brothers became a victim, in effect the only true icon to fall in the tsunami that has befallen the credit markets."

Days after the Bush administration injected billions of dollars into the capital markets, there are signs the worst is over. Rising stocks and stablilising currencies are yet another sign that there is so far a favorable response to the cash injection.

In another the acquisition by Lloyds TSB of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) has caused sharp reactions from a cross section of the Scottish community. The anger seems to be directed mostly at hedge funds, whom most banks and regulators accuse of short-selling, the act of pushing a company's stock downwards. There are growing feelings the HBOS was sold for purely commercial reasons, and that this had nothing to do with the bank being unable to meet its obligations.

Alex Neil, a former economic consultant says: "If what appears to be coming out of the Bank of England is true, and this was a purely commercial decision, then we have to ask why HBOS is being sold. If it is true it needed to be rescued, then both the Bank of England and FSA failed HBOS."

Since Prime Minister Gordon Brown had a hand in the sale of HBOS to Lloyds TSB, the deal will definitely ruffle feathers in the political establishment