Friday, February 1, 2008

Countrywide’s Sambol To Run BofA Mortgage Unit

Bank of America announced that David Sambol, currently Chief Operating Officer at Countrywide, will run the bank’s consumer mortgage business after it acquires the mortgage lender. Sambol is the second highest executive at Countrywide, after the CEO Angelo Mozilo. He doesn’t usually attract much of the media’s attention, probably because he doesn’t spend as much time tanning or cooking scandals, but he seems to be a great executive and BofA must have an eye for talent. Great, get rid of Mozilo and keep Sambol, he’s the smart one.

Just as the soap opera was drawing toward a happy end, a hedge fund called SRM Global, which holds a 5.19% share of Countrywide, announced that it’s not happy with the acquisition price and will vote against the transaction. Hm, doesn’t Countrywide stock trade below the transaction price? And besides, who would pay more for a troubled mortgage lender holding toxic mortgages?