Website says BofA will lead Lehman buyout
A Bank of America advertisement is seen outside one of its branches in New York July 21, 2008.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A financial website said a deal has been reached to split beleaguered Lehman Brothers into two entities, with a "bad bank" taking the toxic, real-estate assets amounting to around $85 billion and Bank of America taking the lion's share of the good assets.
A second day of emergency meetings between regulators and Wall Street bankers on the crisis at Lehman ended on Saturday without an announcement, and talks were extended to Sunday.
Dealbreaker.com, whose story could not be independently confirmed, said the deal would be financed without any government backing. Lehman CEO Dick Fuld will resign, it said.
Britain's Barclays Plc and Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings will also play a role, the website said, while an international consortium of financial firms will inject capital for the deal.
Dick Fuld's resignation was demanded by Bank of America, the website said.
Bank of America played a brinkmanship role in negotiations, threatening to let Asian markets open on Monday without a deal, the website said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
"Fuld is said to have taken ... developments very badly," the report said. "He does not believe that the situation is as desperate as others on Wall Street believe it is, and may be trying to negotiate an alternative deal, we're told."
(Reporting by Ted Kerr, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
