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01 Feb 2011 22:59

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Biz, Music: Citigroup owns EMI: Will they start selling CDs at bank branches?

  • 2007 In one of the most un-rock-‘n’-roll moves a major label has ever done, private equity firm Terra Firma, led by financier Guy Hands, buys EMI for $6.7 billion, $4.3 billion of which was loaned to Terra Firma by Citigroup in a deal which looks really stupid in retrospect.
  • 2011 A few years after the financial crisis made that deal look like a really stupid idea, the musical home of Radiohead, Blur and The Beatles was just taken over by Citigroup. Which means that the company that runs your ATM also sells the Beastie Boys’ catalogue. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Dec 2010 23:14

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Biz: Did we really profit off Citi, or are we still in the danger zone?

  • So assuming that the banking sector doesn’t suffer another crisis in the next two years, taxpayers might be okay after all. Indeed, even if there is some loss on these guarantees, the assets would have to be pretty rotten to eat up the government’s entire $12 billion profit on the equity sale.
  • The Atlantic associate editor Daniel Indiviglio • Offering some more context on the Citi bailout numbers. While the U.S. no longer owns any shares in Citi, we do have other stakes in the company – most notably, we’re still backing a lot of their debt right now due to a program called the “Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program,” which isn’t as easy to acronym as TARP. But by the end of 2012 at the latest, we’ll be off the hook for that. Still, though, the fact that we might make any money off of TARP is impressive. “Citi was viewed by many as the big bank with the most serious problems,” Indiviglio notes, suggesting that the profit would prove that their bailout in 2008 was warranted by panic and general FUD, not “too big to fail”-type concerns.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Dec 2010 22:54

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Biz: The U.S. sold off its last Citi shares; how’d we do on that bailout?

  • 0 the number of Citi shares the U.S. owns as of today; good riddance
  • $45B the amount of money the U.S. infused in Citi during the great bailout crisis of 2008
  • $57B the proceeds the U.S. made on the bailout investment (golf clap; good show, chaps)
  • $12B the amount the U.S. has profited from Citi – wait, we made money on a bailout? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2010 19:41

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Biz: Citibank’s multifunction credit card design misses the point

  • The new credit card?For the most part we’ve been using the same credit technology for 60 years, at least in the U.S. That magnetic stripe has proven pretty durable. So Citibank is introducing multi-button cards like these starting next month, which (among other things) will allow you to tie multiple accounts to the same card.

    What’s the point?Sorry, but we think that the design of the cards shown here is downright laughable, and technologies like Visa’s Paywave and Square are both out in the wild already and way more useful. We want less, not more, complication at the checkout. The new credit card isn’t a multifunction monster. It’s a cell phone. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Oct 2010 10:32

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Biz: Banking profits: Citigroup has another moneymaking quarter

  • $2.2 billion in profits for the banking giant source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jul 2010 09:35

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Biz: The federal government coming out ahead on Citibank bailout

  • 7.7B number of shares the government owns due to the Citibank bailout
  • $10.5B revenues from selling a third of those shares (around 2.6 billion)
  • $2B amount in profits the government has made from the sales source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2010 10:09

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Biz: Financial crisis-gobsmacked Citi actually has a solid quarter

  • $4.4
    billion     the size of Citi’s profit this quarter, their best period since 2007
  • $100
    billion     the amount the company has lost during the financial crisis
  • 7.7
    billion     the number of shares the government owns due to bailouts source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 Mar 2010 23:35

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Biz: The U.S. could make bank by selling their Citibank bailout stake

  • 27%
    stake     the share of bailed-out Citibank the government currently owns
  • $8
    billion     amount they’d make on their investment if they sold today source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2009 09:23

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U.S., World: Another tension point: The U.S. froze a lot of Iran’s money

  • $2 billion in funds has been held up since June 2008 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Feb 2009 10:44

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Biz, U.S.: You know Citi? Well, you could soon be one of its owners!

  • 40% of Citi’s stock could be owned by the government source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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