Wells Fargo & Citi Battle for Wachovia

How bad can things be if two banks are fighting to buy 'toxic waste'? Either they see a good deal, or they believe they'll profit from a bailout.

Wells Fargo announced a deal to buy Wachovia, snatching the struggling bank away from Citi. The merger between Citi and Wachovia was planned earlier this week, but Wells Fargo claims to have a better deal. They'll do a stock merger, and they won't require any FDIC backstop. I'm glad to see private companies settling things themselves without putting more taxpayer money at risk.

Citi has filed suit against Wells Fargo to try and stop the deal from moving forward.