Obama is Bush part 3

Smith Barney Math

BTW -- yes, I understood your thinking behind the value of each broker and an estimated "worth" of $8.6 billion... the problem with this thinking is that the most valuable asset of a brokerage walks out the door each night.

Morgan Stanley brokers are not going to tolerate a Citi brokerage culture -- anymore than Merril brokers are going to tolerate the bureaucracy of Bank of America.

In a "produce or perish" rain maker culture like Morgan Stanley, many of Citi's brokers are a liability... someone will have to pay for the severance costs.

If the MS/C venture adopts a "nice" culture, than the rain makers might just walk out the door -- which will cost a lot more.

In all these bank acquisitions, analysts who try to place values on the "new" company always seem to forget to subtract the costs of merging corporate cultures. Ask Morgan Stanley how much fun it was to merge with Dean Witter.