<p>Lehman Brothers seems to sinking fast. It will likely get kick out of the elite ib club soon. To you smart individuals out there, any informed and/or educated guesses on when?</p>
<p>Aren't the big 4 accounting firms, not banks?</p>
<p>The Big4 are accounting firms and I dont see them shrinking in size anytime soon.
As for Lehman Brothers, I think the recent media coverage of its losses are over hyped, all the IBs were exposed to credit risks due to subprime crisis only that Lehman Brothers were affected by a slightly larger extent than the others. I dont think this would severly damage their reputation. They're much better off than the UK bank Northern Rock which literally hit a rock bottom because of the sub-prime crisis.
Im sure within two years after the current financial situation fully cools off it would be back on track.</p>
<p>^The same post could have been made about Bear Stearns in late February.</p>
<p>LEH at 4.26</p>
<p>The cracks in the US financial system are showing.</p>
<p>Yup......big time for knowing we are living history if you ask me. Are reports of untimely death premature? Certainly no inside talk from my young buddies who are working there in their second year. One of whom was awaiting bonus time before departing. That plan won't happen now.</p>
<p>Lehman is not just "slightly" more exposed than other firms. I don't know if its restructuring plan is going to work, it needs a lot of equity to spinoff its real estate portion, equity that it doesn't have a lot of. Not to mention the shares are continually sliding, it could lose its Tier I status. If that happens, its probably done for.</p>
<p>Maybe they can salvage it, counterparties are still trading (although many are looking to unwind their CDS) which is a positive. This probably isn't going to be another quick death like BSC thanks to the Fed's credit lines, but the end result might end up being the same. Who knows, maybe I'm being pessimistic. If I had extra money though, I'd be long vol for sure.</p>
<p>Goldman may take a 2Billion mark to market loss. Rumble rumble.</p>
<p>The Big 4 are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. They are primarily public accounting firms.</p>
<p>Lehman has hired law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP to prepare a potential bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>We can all read the news, hazmat. Quit trying to overcompensate for the fact that you didn't land a banking gig this summer by spewing your heavily digested crap on a message board infested with kids who know nothing about finance. You're not impressing anyone. Seriously.</p>
<p>
[quote]
**you didn't land a banking gig this summer
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**
Correct I did not. Of course the fact that I didn't have that as a goal factors in.</p>
<p>Lehman is trying to sell itself and break itself up. Pretty hard fall for such a prestigious 150-year-old Wall Street firm. Whoever buys Lehman's lucrative and prestigious IB portion will replace it as one of the "Big 4" even though the term isn't technically correct.</p>
<p>Though it seems increasingly likely now that it may just be left to die. Barclays walked away, BoA says it will only act if the Gov't backs them (which they don't want to do). Should be interesting.</p>
<p>So now they enter the realm of bankruptcy law and shareholders can hold out some hope. It will be very interesting. CDS and all these folks working over the weekend doing their quant magic. Oh the stories that will come of this. How many ways can you spell MERRILL?</p>
<p>Perhaps you won't have to soon, WSJ reporting that BoA is in talks to merge with ML. Interesting.</p>
<p>There may not end up being many IB only entities left in the next few years, without commercial/retail arms. If Lehman fails and ML is consolidated with BoA, that leaves what: MS & GS?</p>
<p>AIG raising 50 Billion before market open Monday. Oh yeah......special live coverage as the CNBC hotties, I mean anchors, called in to brief JQP. Finance becomes sport.</p>
<p>I don't think shareholders will get much out of Lehman filing chapter 11 sadly =( And if they do get any money, it'll be a long time waiting - auctioning off the assets is going to take forever and at very discounted prices. Merril sold its debt at 22 cents on the dollar after all</p>
<p>Agreed, not to mention the debt holders will grab most of that if they can manage to win legal battles. Looks bleak for stockholders.</p>
<p>We now have the Bio O.</p>