Results tagged “kerrykillinger”

WaMu's bargain-basement stock dropped almost 30% today--it's currently rallied to $2.60 from a low of $2.30--after a 20% fall yesterday. So the market doesn't seem impressed with the WaMu Board's tardy ejection of Kerry Killinger from the executive suite. Bloomberg says: "Credit-default swaps on WaMu are now trading at a price that implies a greater than 90 percent chance the company will default within five years." New accounting rules make selling WaMu and its subprime-mortgage battered portfolio much harder--any acquirer would have to put up extra capital against default--but incoming CEO Alan Fishman says he doesn't even want to sell anyway. So that's lucky.

At long last, struggling Washington Mutual acceded to the inevitable and showed CEO Kerry Killinger the door. Thanks to our local newspapers' canny investments in business coverage, we're hearing about immensely important local news the day after the Wall Street Journal reported on Killinger's exit. The Seattle Times is running an AP story, and the P-I made its whole business staff (i.e., Bill Virgin) come in over the weekend and write something up. The Times did get a special from Jon Talton that recaps the WaMu/Killinger situation, and it's worth reading. If incoming head Alan Fishman's job is to work on WaMu's curb appeal, Seattle may be about to take a hard hit.

Business Week scores yesterday's WaMu shareholders meeting, "activists three, bank zero." The Seattle Times settles for "contentious," while the P-I has this leading question for CEO Kerry Killinger from Lee Lannoye, a shareholder and former WaMu executive vice president: "You have destroyed the company--why are you not being held accountable?" MSN Money captures the executive team in action at Benaroya Hall like so:

"I just want people to calm down and have a little faith," said CEO Kerry Killinger at the company's annual shareholder meeting late Tuesday. "We will get through this."

Subprime mortgages were like steroids for lenders; they ballooned up. Now Washington Mutual is shrinking back down to a regular size. It's exiting the wholesale lending arena, and shuttering all 186 of its stand-alone home loan centers. That means layoffs of 3,000 employees, even though WaMu will still be offering home loans through its retail branches. The AP has the full restructuring story. (Wonder how many of those employees have WaMu mortgages?)