Bailout Merger No. 1: PNC and National City

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I believe this buyout of National City Bank was in the mill for a long time. unbeknown to those who believed in, and invested in the bank. We were led to believe that the bank was solvent and would eventually get back on track. If the "bailout money" was available, why didn't NC take advantage of it. I believe that this sale should be put on hold, and that an investigation be conducted. I don't like the idea that my tax money was used to buy my out my stock investment. This was a pretty neat trick and someone should have to answer for it. This whole transaction has a foul odor to it. This is a perfect example of how we got into this economic mess in the first place.

Chuck Burack of PA 9:55AM October 29, 2008

If you really believe this is a democracy you have a lot of learning to do, the way it works is pretty simple: The government wanted the bailout, Bush personally called over a dozen house and senate republicans to personally ask for their favorable vote on this bailout.
That being said, who do you really believe your congressmen and women are going to listen to? their phone has an ignore button just like yours, the only difference is they have the president on speed dial and you dont.

of OH 5:13PM October 28, 2008

Im ashamed as a PNC bank account holder. I just signed on with PNC after hearing about the national city collapse since they are both local banks in my area but I did not know PNC was using tax payer dollars to do this. PNC employees have been very sarcastic and full of themselves when you talk to them about the current bank situation pretending that PNC has taken all the right steps.
I know alot of the banks have told paulson to take his socialization to the 'bank' literally however for PNC to use the money to buy up another bank is an insult to all business people in this country.
This is like an episode of the sopranos where you have a city of struggling businesses and all of a sudden the mob comes in and gives a handful of cash to one so they can buy up all the others. Even that would be better then using tax dollars to do this. As a business owner myself I sure could use some tax payer money to buy up some of my competition, couldn't you?
I live in the united states, the greatest country in the world, we have votes, how come the people didn't vote for this bailout, how come when the people called and wrote letters the mail was stopped and the phone calls were silenced, is this really a democracy?

James Paul Woods of PA 2:20PM October 28, 2008

The executives at NCB are basically criminal! As a former 20+ year employee and stock holder, I am appalled at the salaries and bonus money paid to executives, especially Dabreko. Dabreko is a crook, and took the company down with his greediness!!!! He and others made money and received large parachute payment at the expense of employees.
Something must be done to executives of companies that pay out the top dogs and then file bankrupcy etc.

former28yearemployee of IN 6:37PM October 27, 2008

Keith Horowitz, a banking analyst at Citigroup, said National City did not need capital but had found itself vulnerable as a result of the bail-out.
"We believe [the bail-out] in a perverse way pushed/forced National City's management to sell the bank into a buyers' market," said Horowitz in a note to clients.

amiablesweetie of OH 5:16PM October 27, 2008

Below is a quote from the Pittsburgh Business Times this morning. This dosen't even speak of the fallout to follow in small business with lines of credit with NCC that use these to survive.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s pending acquisition of National City Corp. means considerable branch overlap in Cincinnati, Louisville and, largest of all, Pittsburgh.
Though PNC (NYSE:PNC) has deposits of more than $26 billion in the Pittsburgh area, it operates 96 branches, more than 50 percent less than National City (NYSE:NCC), which has 158 branches and deposits of almost $11 billion.
“They’ll be selling branches,” said Greg Melvin, chief investment officer at C.S. McKee LP, Pittsburgh-based institutional investment firm.
The question is how many. States set their own regulations on how large of a deposit market share one bank can hold. But it’s certain that PNC will neither need nor want more than 250 branches in a region where less than 100 have given it the biggest percentage lead in southwestern Pennsylvania history.

Rick of PA 10:43AM October 27, 2008

The little guy get hit agian.What about the little guy with all his money ($3000)in ncc stocks?

Erbia Merritt of OH 10:33AM October 27, 2008

How do we check facts when the OCC nor NCC are giving any information. This was nothing more than a government directed bank failure. You can stand on a soapbox all day long and tell me how honerable these folks are without impressing me or any other shareholder. Listen to the 3rd qtr cc and tell me why we are having this discussion. Thousands of investors poured tons of money into NCC because of this report. NCC gets no quarter from us.

Rick of PA 10:27AM October 27, 2008

I also bought NCC shares due to the 3rd qtr report where the CEO stated the bank had sufficient capitalization to "go it alone". This wasn't a Warren Buffet injection but I bought thinking the government would not be determining who lives and who dies and using my tax dollars to allow competitors to start eating each other rather than start loaning this TARP money out. Goodbye free markets...hello socialism. If this is democracy I'm relocating to France.

Rick in Pittsburgh of PA 10:14AM October 27, 2008

I also bought NCC shares due to the 3rd qtr report where the CEO stated the bank had sufficient capitalization to "go it alone". This wasn't a Warren Buffet injection but I bought thinking the government would not be determining who lives and who dies and using my tax dollars to allow competitors to start eating each other rather than start loaning this TARP money out. Goodbye free markets...hello socialism. If this is democracy I'm relocating to France.

Rick in Pittsburgh of PA 10:14AM October 27, 2008