Monday Morning Merger Madness

Today was one of the rare mornings when the rest of the family left to house on time. This meant I could enjoy about 15 minutes of quiet before heading out the door to work myself.

I made myself a bowl of cereal, and flipped on the TV to CNBC as I tend to do each morning.

News came across that Barclays was finally buying ABN Amro - which had been brewing for weeks. Not a surprise, aside from the price tag of $91 Billion.

The shocker, though, that made me almost choke on my Raisin Bran was that it was apparently a three-way deal, as ABN was selling Lasalle Bank (based in the Midwest, mostly Chicago) for $21 Billion.

To who?

Take a wild guess.

This makes the bank's share of U.S. Deposits right at 10%. So, this is the last merger for a few years - it has to be. After U. S. Trust, MBNA, Sallie Mae, and now Lasalle, that's enough to integrate at once.

Come 2010, though, who the hell knows.

Wonder if any of us will be sent to Chicago to help with integrating. I'm sure Chicago would be more interesting than Connecticut.