It's common knowledge that the idea of Lehman Brothers becoming part of some homogeneous bank makes Dick Fuld sick to his stomach, and when the CEO is in the room it's a "don't go there topic" that employees can and have been fined for bringing up in his presence. The only conceivable reasons for mentioning it would be if someone either had a death wish or was really intent on taunting the guy. I don't know what he was thinking but Bank of America analyst Michael Hecht went there during this morning's conference call, inquiring about "any talk of an outright sale."
As this thing is his baby gorilla, Fuld grabbed the mic from CFO Ian Lowitt to answer and-- no hyperbole here-- you could feel a rise in blood pressure associated with wanting to kill a person. Barely getting the words out, Fuld told Mikey, "This is a strong cohesive culture...we've been through adversity before...[we 've been] distracted by rumors and comments...but are holding wonderfully." Then he paused for an awkwardly long period of time (probably thinking but not saying "and don't need any meddling bastard company coming in an telling us how to live our lives"), remembered he was on a conference call and added "I have always said that if anybody came with an attractive proposition that made it compelling for shareholder value it would be brought to the board, discussed and evaluated," before ultimately being rejected, with the suitor added to a not so secret "To Maim" list.