We are not the only classless vultures trying to make a little $$$ off of the stuff happening over at LEH. DealBook reports that as of this morning, the domains bofalehman.com, barclayslehman.com, hsbclehman.com and hsbclehmanbrothers.com have all been purchased. As for the first, we're fine with a little competition, especially when that competition doesn't hold a candle to bankofbrothers.com. Regarding the last two--I'm going to pass on this bit of anecdotal evidence we received last night, which probably proves nothing but which we are clinging to for dear life, as we've already put in our two weeks in anticipation of flipping this baby for an amount that will afford us the luxury of not needing a job:
....a friend of mine works in M&A at HSBC and he hasn't been working late or going in early this week. And with that I can officially knock down any "HSBC is buying LEH" rumors.
Betting on a Lehman Merger in Cyberspace [DealBook]
Posted by guest, Sep 12, 2008 12:04PM
Agreed- HSBC is barely an investment bank- their comfort level is with retail and merchant banking not investment banking and in particular they have little appetite for capital markets risk. The only area where they take meaningful trading risk is FX and that is because they are in bed with HKMA and Bank of England. The 2 cultures could not be farther apart. I am starting to think that while several firms might want Nuberger Berman but no one really wants Lehman