Lehman Bankruptcy Opened Door to Barclays Deal

Barclays will pick up the US capital-markets business of Lehman Bros. in a $2-billion deal worked out today that will go before a bankruptcy judge at 5pm and Lehman creditors shortly after that, the Wall Street Journal reports. Barclays backed away from buying all of Lehman over the weekend, but a deal was salvaged by Lehman's bankruptcy, which made it easier to leave "bad assets" at the holding company to be liquidated by the court.

The UK bank will buy Lehman’s broker-dealer operations, which include M&A and debt advisory services, and will absorb an estimated 9,000 employees. Barclays isn't acquiring  any of Lehman's mortgage-related business; European business will also remain in bankruptcy proceedings, and separate talks are under way to sell Lehman's investment-management unit to private-equity bidders, the Journal reports.
(More Lehman Brothers stories.)