Yes, this isn’t some merger of equals. Citi bought the bank operations of Wachovia so most likely, by about 2010 since these types of deals take a long time to get everything integrated, all wachovia branches that survive will be renamed citibank branches.
Same deal with the JPM / Wamu deal.
Basically in less than a week JPM and Citi took out two of its biggest competitors under circumstances so favorable, its highway robbery. The wamu deal was even more favorable for JP. Deal of the century. Only problem now is the cost of integrating the operations, the rebranding of all the branches, retaining the talent (there is a whole lot of pissed off wamu employees who were also big stockholders right now who feel like they have been lowblowed by this deal) and issues like marketing the Chase brand properly in the west coast to keep the majority of the existing wamu big money customers and attract new customers.
And we’re closing in on the end of 2008. They’re saying this will be done by the end of 2010. I’ll believe that when I see it. It’s going to be a ginormous undertaking. Signage is the least of their worries.