NEW YORK — After several days of negotiations, Citigroup has walked away from its efforts to secure portions of Wachovia. The New York-based bank said in a released statement, “The dramatic differences in the parties' transaction structures and their views of the risks involved made it impossible to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.”
Citigroup also announced that it is no longer asking that the Wells Fargo-Wachovia merger be enjoined, but the banking giant plans to seek legal claims against Wachovia and Wells Fargo for breach of contract and for tortuous interference with contract.
Wachovia has reaffirmed its intentions to acquire Wachovia as a whole, including all banking assets, its brokerage business and its investment management business, in a stock-for-stock transaction. Unlike the initial Citigroup offering, the Wells Fargo transaction will not require financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.
Wells Fargo has submitted an application to the Federal Reserve Board in hopes of expediting the approval of the merger. The combined company will have $1.42 trillion in assets, $787 billion in deposits, 48 million customers, $258 billion assets under management in mutual funds, 10, 761 stores, 12,227 ATMs and 280,000 team members.