JustRalph
12-21-2008, 09:47 AM
I won't comment on the fact that these people should have never been buying their own stocks, and that is obviously the real reason they are in trouble......... but this is an interesting article.........more pain in Ohio.
http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/12/longtime_natcity_stockholders.html
Longtime National City stockholders bemoan sale to PNC
WASHINGTON -- Marianne Cosgrove's family has been socking away stock of National City Bank since the 1880s.
Fifteen years ago, the 96-year-old great-grandmother in Atlanta inherited 3,620 shares from her sister, Betty Lawrence, a former fashion illustrator at the old Shillito's department store in Cincinnati, who made her promise never to sell it.
The first shares of the prized investment were originally purchased by the Cincinnati family of Betty's long-deceased husband, Shirley Lawrence. Subsequent owners added to the stake. Every family member who owned the stock made their heirs pledge to keep it.
The retired federal worker kept the vow she made to her sister as she watched the stock's value plunge from more than $100,000 to about $6,300. The healthy quarterly dividend that she once relied on to make ends meet has dwindled to a pittance.
Cosgrove's situation came to light when the Federal Reserve recently sought comments from the public on the proposed acquisition of National City by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh. Ninety-six people weighed in, including Cosgrove's granddaughter, Melanie Allgood. She wrote about how her family planned to use the stock money someday to help pay for her grandmother's care.
But the ledger is about to close on the bank that generations of Marianne Cosgrove's family looked to for financial security. Shareholders of both banks are likely to sign off on the sale Tuesday when they vote in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Approval will mean the end of a 163-year-old Cleveland institution. If the deal closes as scheduled Dec. 31, National City's time will be up. PNC is buying National City, brought down by billions in bad loans, for the bargain price of $5.6 billion.
That's just $2.23 a share for a bank worth 15 times as much last year. And it means stockholders like Cosgrove are some of the biggest victims of National City's rapid decline and impending demise.
"This has really hurt me financially," Cosgrove said. "My husband is dead, and I don't have that much income, and things have gotten so expensive."
In her letter to the Federal Reserve, Allgood wondered what would become of her grandmother.
"This old lady suffers in a state-run nursing home while CEOs leave with millions from the money her family made for them," she wrote. "How sad."
None of the 96 public comments sent to the Federal Reserve endorsed the potential sale. Many expressed anger that Treasury Department officials told National City Bank it wouldn't get any of the money that Congress approved to bail out troubled financial institutions, and that PNC would instead get National City's share of the bailout money.
"I could be wrong, of course, but National City Bank seemed to be in good enough shape to have survived if PNC hadn't come along like greedy old Mr. Potter in 'It's a Wonderful Life' and squashed its little competitor," wrote Priscilla Hefner of Cleveland. "I feel like Cleveland is trapped in some giant Monopoly board game and is about to become the least valuable property."
Rollin Ross of Lakewood told the Federal Reserve how his father had retired as a security guard at National City's East Sixth Street and Euclid Avenue branch in downtown Cleveland.
"Never would he have imagined that the entire bank would have been stolen with the U.S. government at the helm of this robbery," Ross wrote.
Lenny Toth of Cleveland said he felt it was unfair for PNC to use tax dollars to acquire National City Bank.
"Conceivably, a Cleveland taxpayer would be paying for their own unemployment," he wrote. "How ludicrous is that?"
much more at the link
http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/12/longtime_natcity_stockholders.html
Longtime National City stockholders bemoan sale to PNC
WASHINGTON -- Marianne Cosgrove's family has been socking away stock of National City Bank since the 1880s.
Fifteen years ago, the 96-year-old great-grandmother in Atlanta inherited 3,620 shares from her sister, Betty Lawrence, a former fashion illustrator at the old Shillito's department store in Cincinnati, who made her promise never to sell it.
The first shares of the prized investment were originally purchased by the Cincinnati family of Betty's long-deceased husband, Shirley Lawrence. Subsequent owners added to the stake. Every family member who owned the stock made their heirs pledge to keep it.
The retired federal worker kept the vow she made to her sister as she watched the stock's value plunge from more than $100,000 to about $6,300. The healthy quarterly dividend that she once relied on to make ends meet has dwindled to a pittance.
Cosgrove's situation came to light when the Federal Reserve recently sought comments from the public on the proposed acquisition of National City by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh. Ninety-six people weighed in, including Cosgrove's granddaughter, Melanie Allgood. She wrote about how her family planned to use the stock money someday to help pay for her grandmother's care.
But the ledger is about to close on the bank that generations of Marianne Cosgrove's family looked to for financial security. Shareholders of both banks are likely to sign off on the sale Tuesday when they vote in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Approval will mean the end of a 163-year-old Cleveland institution. If the deal closes as scheduled Dec. 31, National City's time will be up. PNC is buying National City, brought down by billions in bad loans, for the bargain price of $5.6 billion.
That's just $2.23 a share for a bank worth 15 times as much last year. And it means stockholders like Cosgrove are some of the biggest victims of National City's rapid decline and impending demise.
"This has really hurt me financially," Cosgrove said. "My husband is dead, and I don't have that much income, and things have gotten so expensive."
In her letter to the Federal Reserve, Allgood wondered what would become of her grandmother.
"This old lady suffers in a state-run nursing home while CEOs leave with millions from the money her family made for them," she wrote. "How sad."
None of the 96 public comments sent to the Federal Reserve endorsed the potential sale. Many expressed anger that Treasury Department officials told National City Bank it wouldn't get any of the money that Congress approved to bail out troubled financial institutions, and that PNC would instead get National City's share of the bailout money.
"I could be wrong, of course, but National City Bank seemed to be in good enough shape to have survived if PNC hadn't come along like greedy old Mr. Potter in 'It's a Wonderful Life' and squashed its little competitor," wrote Priscilla Hefner of Cleveland. "I feel like Cleveland is trapped in some giant Monopoly board game and is about to become the least valuable property."
Rollin Ross of Lakewood told the Federal Reserve how his father had retired as a security guard at National City's East Sixth Street and Euclid Avenue branch in downtown Cleveland.
"Never would he have imagined that the entire bank would have been stolen with the U.S. government at the helm of this robbery," Ross wrote.
Lenny Toth of Cleveland said he felt it was unfair for PNC to use tax dollars to acquire National City Bank.
"Conceivably, a Cleveland taxpayer would be paying for their own unemployment," he wrote. "How ludicrous is that?"
much more at the link