The situation may not be so bad for Lehman Brothers as some suitors are still in the race to acquire certain assets of the troubled investment bank. British bank Barclays is in talks with Lehman Brothers to buy some of its operations, according to media reports.
This comes two days after Barclays withdrew from the talks to acquire Lehman, which led the latter to file for biggest bankruptcy in history. Barclays is in talks to acquire Lehman's US broker-dealer business, including equity, fixed income, M&A advisory and other parts. This part of the business did not form part of the chapter 11 filing in any case.
Lehman said that it had listed assets of $639 billion when it filed for the bankruptcy. The deal, if it goes through, would save a lot of jobs at Lehman. The sale does not include Lehman's asset management and wealth management arms.
The report says quoting sources that the deal would mainly involve the core US business, which has 8,000 to 10,000 staff, but could also include some global businesses. Lehman team in India includes around 175 people in its core investment banking team and around 2,200 employees in its BPO. Also Lehman's brokerages, including Lehman Brothers Inc. and Neuberger Berman LLC, are not a part of firms Chapter 11 filing.
