FleetBoston FINALLY purchased

FleetBoston Financial was finally purchased by Bank of America. There were a lot of rumors about nibbles here and there for takeovers, some fairly strong ones from CitiBank in 2002.

Say what you will about Fleet, but I think that Chad and his team have done an exceptional job in preparing the bank for sale. BoA/Fleet appears to be a good matchup with no retail overlap, strongly diversified businesses, and superior products.

Undoubtedly, people in both organizations will lose their jobs where there is overlap. I would just like to say that there are a number of Fleet employees that I have an enormous amount of professional respect (and fondness) for still there now. I hope that they are treated fairly and wind up in a place they want to be when the merger takes place 18-24 months from now.

They are in my thoughts and prayers.

~ by kinshay on 2003-10-27.