As promised, broker-dealer services at Lehman Brothers are open for business, with dealer sales starting to offer large blocks of high yield bonds for cash settlement, in attempt to make some pennies by the close. Additionally, we’re told that talks with Barclays continue regarding a sale of the broker-dealer business. Both parties are said to be willing but the Fed is worried about allowing Lehman to sell off its valuable human capital while leaving the toxic securities in place.
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AIG DOWN 70% OUCH
6-9 months of severance is insanely generous for a firm in bk. employees should count their blessings if they get that.
If the FED does not want to help at least they should not hurt. Just move out of the way Paulson!
If the FED does not want to help at least they should not hurt. Just move out of the way Paulson!
If LEH has filed for Chap 11, how can they be selling part of themselves without court approval? Anybody know?
WTF is happening to AIG…
Come again?
So the Fed would rather get 0 (how could broker-dealer survive bankruptcy?) than get cash from Barclay’s to net against the toxic assets? Can someone explain this to me? Because – I was always told that getting money for something is better than getting nothing, but maybe this is the New Economics.
anyone hearing anything abouth their Muni arb?
@5 – you are correct that the Court would have to bless a sale, but they do not have to give pre-approval for any efforts to reach a sale
holdings filed chapter 11, b/d did not file anything yet, sale could go through at any time
Can I please point out that it’s “Barclays”. Not Barclay’s or Barclays’.
For the posh end, BarCap is also acceptable, especially as it applies to bonus payouts. There was a time when that seemed like a mean restriction…
The Ch 11 plan could be to sell the b/d to generate some cash.
WTF should LEH employees get any severance at all? Is that a reward for “a job well done”? Where’s that f’n $200M LEH “Bonus Pool” anyway? Another job well done? What about creditors?
Wall St has to be the only place in the whole world where you can fuck up astronomically, lose $Billions for your employer, drive you employer into bankruptcy, and then still expect a fucking bonus and severance too.
Hopefully, when all the shit settles, the moves led by the Gov’t and by Ken Lewis will have put a decided crimp in the formerly flamboyant Wall St.
The Guy from Delaware
p.s. How many lost Wall St jobs are we up to now? Does anybody have a clue?
@8…can only imagine the arb will be puking up the hundreds of millions of bonds into an already stressed muni market. Would also guess some of the better rated munis in the portfolio will be seized as they could be some of the more valuable securities on the books right now
@11 — make a bid or go away
couple of things:
heard from inside hq at leh, i-bankers are present and accounted for, phones aren’t being used for business purposes (unless, by business you mean talking to recruiters);
barclays is indeed looking again – with the chests pumped out and a little pep in their step, kind of like f-u beyatches…I told you this would happen, now who’s your daddy?
I said it before, I’ll say it again the www is going down (no, not the web: wb, wm and wfc) – check the tape.
@TGFD
you’re surprised at the severance expectation? whhhaaatt?
if you were standing in a full bank vault with these people, they would still pull a gun and say “hand over your wallet!”
Charlotte, NC = the new NY. whoa.
TGFD – big difference between people doing the day-to-day and people making investment and strategic decisions. I’m just sayin’…
Who is this “Guy from Delaware”? What a fucking clown you are. LEH employees are absolutely entitiled to some form of compensation which better include a generous severance as well as a portion of their bonus. It’s not like any of them are going to be able to find a job anytime soon in this market. You sound like a bitter, pathetic human being who was either not intelligent enough or simply not connected enough to get a job on the street. Why are you even on this website? I’ve never heard of any I-banks in Deleware.
hahahha @19 best post of the day!
I’ve always wondered who TGFD is too. TGFD please explain yourself. Are your intentions here honorable?
@TGFD-we’ve said it over and over, but it bears repeating because you have obviously missed the point.
Stop and consider what you’re saying. These people don’t deserve severance? Bull. The vast majority of those employees just did their jobs day in and day out as they were instructed to from the higher ups. It was a select few that got LEH on the wrong track and the bulk of the people that worked there had nothing to do with it. They did what they could with the information they had. A severance isn’t necessarily a reward for a job well done, but rather a means to get on with life in a difficult spot. And with the magnitude of what’s going down today, people are going to be in a difficult spot for a long time to come.
So get off of your high horse, leave people alone, and grow up for just one day as people grapple with the rather dramatic changes that are ahead for everyone.
Gross has a bid for arb munis
let me slam my dick on the table one more time…yee haa..models and bottles baby! you fuckin douchbags how about the riff raff at the co’s you helped ‘rightsized’ and ‘optimized’? what they do? sucks being on the receiving end does it?
@ 16
i have heard the same thing……..
@22…Wall Street profits have in many ways benefitted from outsourcing of jobs in the manufacturing and services sector, and I dont remember any InvBanking jarheads arguing for severance or sympathy for the peoeple that got canned in the heartlands. After all it would have increased unit labor costs. So its fair question to ask why severance should be paid, if that money would otherwise be used to pay back pensioners who own LEH bonds in their managed fixed income accounts. Their lives change too when bonds are priced at 35 cents on the dollar.
@24 – who are you? don’t you know that it’s the consultants who do all the right sizing and optimizing? bankers just structure the deal and walk away. it’s the guys/girls who make all the fancy charts who are “scheming” with management to make sure that just enough people are cut to meet the next quarter’s numbers. and don’t be confused, consultants don’t “implement” jack either…
@ 24
Shouldn’t you be on some consulting website with comments like that?
Well, Lehman is trading at 23 cents. A lot of people must consider it a perpetual call option, since it has traded 340 million shares.
anyone know where the hatchet man is? did the ax finally turn on him? kenny boy and the folks at leh are in need of some assistance – I hear they just want someone on an outsourced basis, need to keep the fte’s down.
#29,
that’s just Ack covering.
Clown@#19…
Who the fuck are you, clown? You sound like an idiot.
When a company makes money, a portion of that money is shared with employees in the form of bonuses. Some get more, some less. Those who personally produced a demonstrated profit get more, but everyone gets something.
LEH: loaded with profit, is it? In that case, Bonuses for all.
In theory, when a company has no available money, ie bankrupt, are not the needs of the employees superceded by those of the creditors? LEH should say to the employees, “Oh well, no money equals no severance. The ballers lost it all. Sorry. Go see them for it.”
Your words…
“You sound like a bitter, pathetic human being who was either not intelligent enough or simply not connected enough to get a job on the street.”
I’ve never applied for a job on “the street”. That may change, though. I already told DB readers about the guy from GS I met while on vacation in August. One of Mr. Blankfein’s inner circle. Gave me his card and said to get in touch if I need anything and if he can be of help. I haven’t called him yet, but I just might. A VP gig for 6 mos at GS might be just what I need. Who knows? obama claims he can get elected president with no experience. Surely landing a VP slot at GS can’t possibly be all that tough, with the right “connections”, you know.
Lastly…
“I’ve never heard of any I-banks in Deleware.”
Most all the major banks have their credit-card operations headquartered here. Didn’t you hear Ken Lewis say “Wilmington, Delaware” in his conference call this morning? The one on CNBC where Thain was sitting next to Lewis? The banks are still here with a large presence. I-B? Who wants them? Wilmington doesn’t need any I-B goons prowling the streets looking for jobs. They can all stay in NYC.
You sound like “a bitter, pathetic human being who was either not intelligent enough or simply not connected enough to” KEEP his job “on the street”. Aren’t you “absolutely entitled”? Hahaha.
The Guy from Delaware
@19 are you retarded?
“entitled…generous severance and bonus”
Give them a month. More than they gave plenty of “normal workers” when advising on M&A deals.
Bonus…NFW…The firm is dead, value was destroyed. Bonuses are paid to winners, not losers. Must stop socializing speculative losses of wall street. I hope creditors file to recover (a portion of) 2007 bonus.
I wish i could short Pink Elephant.
@10
Not even close. the holding company owns the b/d. Everything is subject to court approval now. They can negotiate anything they want, nothing closes without judges approval.
@19
Are you retarded? No judge is going to approve large severance payments to employees when creditors are standing in line. When a firm goes bust, so do all the perks. There is no provision for severance in the BK code, and they are (assuming)damn lucky to have gotten paid today. Take a look at what Enron employees got . Big fat zero. A most kind judge will give LEH employees 2 weeks. 6-9 months? that is both retarded and offensive.
Dear “Guy from Delaware”,
You are a douche. You haven’t a clue. Please go enlighten the tweens on myspace with your inaccurate observations. Leave this post to the adults.
myspace@#36…
It sounds like a number of posters concur with my assessment of the “retard” @#19.
Was that you?
The Guy from Delaware
TGFD, aka Bozo, only posts as guest. A waste of time by all standards as guest signing as TFGD could be the same bozo as as the guest not signing at all.
TGFD, you are a troll.
Please contribute something with intellectual merit instead of these sporadic diatribes.
@ 34
best comment of the day
Btw, you could probably create a synthetic short if you put your mind to it, long domestic brewers, short “luxury” liquor co’s perhaps?
@40
Thanks but what is a domestic brewer ;)
41 has no fucking clue what ITIL is, 34.
@42 34/41 is the same person, me, you loser poser. Get a life.
The “domestic brewer” comment was an allusion to the fact that foreign co’s are buying/merging with all domestic brewers.