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A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a revised version of Barclays' deal to purchase the core U.S. business of Lehman Brothers. In a Manhattan court hearing that started on Friday and lasted past midnight, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck approved the sale, saying he had found no better alternative for the assets Lehman sought to sell. "This week more than any other week since I was appointed to the bench I have felt the awesome power of this job," Peck told a packed Manhattan court room, at the end of a nearly seven-hour hearing

Lehman Brothers has agreed to sell its North American investment banking and capital markets businesses for $1.75bn to UK lender Barclays, which will use the acquisition to boost its US investment banking prowess without having to assume Lehman’s crippling liabilities.

The possible collapse of one of world's biggest investment banks could be "catastrophic" and lead to the "implosion" of the banking sector, Sky sources say. British bank Barclays had appeared to be the frontrunner to take over the struggling Lehman Brothers but has pulled out of the bidding, a source close to the deal said. And a consortium led by the Bank of America is reported to have also dropped out. ~ snip ~

Unable to find a savior, the troubled investment bank Lehman Brothers appeared headed toward liquidation on Sunday, in what would be one of the biggest failures in Wall Street history.

The fate of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s darkened early Sunday afternoon with Barclays PLC, the sole remaining bidder for the 158-year-old Wall Street firm, telling federal regulators that it is walking away from a transaction, people familiar with the matter say. The situation was rapidly evolving, and it's possible Barclays or another bidder would emerge to save Lehman before markets opened Monday. But with the government balking at putting any taxpayer money at risk for Lehman, the likelihood of a transaction was dimming. That would leave an orderly liquidation as the most likely scenario, a dramatic outcome for a once-powerful...

Barclays PLC, the U.K.'s third-largest bank, is emerging as a leading contender for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. as discussions continued Sunday in London and New York in what is a highly fluid and pressure-charged environment. A sale of Lehman to either Barclays or Bank of America Corp. remained dependent on government financial support, according to people familiar with the situation. According to these people, Barclays appeared to be moving more aggressively in trying to find a way to complete a deal.

Bank of America, JC Flowers & Co, the financial investor, and China Investment Co, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, are considering a possible joint bid for Lehman Brothers, the embattled Wall Street bank. According to people familiar with the matter, the BofA-led group is among those examining a rescue of Lehman, which is racing to find a buyer after shareholders, creditors and counterparties gave a thumbs-down to its efforts to survive as an independent entity. Barclays, the UK bank, is also interested.

There are fewer than a million people in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar and fewer than 200,000 of them are ethnic Qataris. Yet this week a state fund that invests on behalf of the Qatari people and a private fund owned by the country's prime minister and his family agreed to buy nearly 8pc of Barclays, a bank with a market cap of almost £20bn. And for the state fund, a billion or so on Barclays is small change. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) already has $60bn (£29bn) of assets and expects to spend billions of pounds more overseas...

Barclays accused of giving Robert Mugabe 'financial lifeline' By Maurice Gerard Last Updated: 3:06am BST 14/06/2008 Barclays Bank is being accused of giving Robert Mugabe's government a "financial lifeline" in the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential election, it emerged yesterday. A Barclays spokesman said the bank provided essential services to ordinary Zimbabweans Barclays' Zimbabwean subsidiary lent the Mugabe regime $46.4 million (£23 million) last year through its purchase of government and municipal bonds and is one of the main contributors to a government-run loan scheme for farm improvements, the Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility (Aspef). At least five ministers have received...

LONDON - Barclays Group PLC took a US$2.7 billion writedown for losses on securities linked to the U.S. subprime mortgage market collapse - less than the market had expected - in a surprise trading update Thursday. Barclays, which was not due to provide an update until later this month, revealed the loss in its Barclays Capital investment unit following investor criticism over its silence and after market rumors over the past week of a much larger writedown weighed heavily on its share price. Shares in the bank jumped more than six per cent after the update showing a 500 million...

President Robert Mugabe's government has published a bill to move majority control of "public companies and any other business" to black Zimbabweans. The goal is to ensure at least a 51% shareholding by indigenous black people in the majority of businesses. Critics say it could hurt investor confidence in Zimbabwe, suffering from the world's highest inflation and food, fuel and foreign currency shortages. Now the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill will go to parliament.

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A call center employee says he has been dismissed from his job for posting an artist's rendition of the crucifixion during Easter week, even though other employees were allowed to post pictures and art as they chose in their cubicles. Chris Romansky, a former employee of Barclays, told WND he was told there had been a complaint about the picture he put up to remind himself of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, a foundational belief in Christianity. A company spokeswoman, Donna Sokolsky, told WND that the job termination "had nothing to do with anything religious whatsoever." But she said she...

It's spring, and at the Indian Institute of Management - a premier management school in this industrial town - the campus is abuzz with company recruiters offering fat pay packages to new grads. . Bagging a $185,000 per year offer, Manan Ahuja, an affable 26-year-old lad, coyly notes that his salary package offered by Barclays Capital, a British investment bank, is far more than his father, a Delhi government bureaucrat, earned in his entire lifetime. "It feels great to get an international offer," Mr. Ahuja says. "Beyond the salary, this promises an interesting job profile and great growth prospects." Ahuja's...

Investigators into the collapse of the Italian dairy giant Parmalat are turning the spotlight on America's big investment banks. Italian magistrates and officials from the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission are examining the role of lenders to Parmalat - which collapsed into administration last month following the disclosure of an €8 billion (£5.6bn) hole in its finances. These lenders include some of the US's largest financial institutions. An SEC source said that while at this stage an investigation did not imply wrongdoing by the investment banks, it was focusing on placements of notes and bonds in the US. But he...