Lehman Brothers Holdings Monday night was negotiating a last-minute plan to sell large portions of itself to Barclays, the UK bank that has been circling the stricken investment bank, reports the WSJ. Lehman’s top executives were huddled at the bank’s Manhattan HQ trying to craft a plan that would preserve many Lehman jobs and operations and an agreement could be reached by Tuesday, said people familiar with the talks. A deal wasn’t certain, and many questions remain, chief among them, the price that Barclays might pay for Lehman, whose holding company is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That structure allows it to sell off other assets without liquidating, and gives it additional time to reach an agreement. The troubled assets, such as mortgage securities, will be left behind in the holding company for creditors to liquidate as they see fit. It is expected that at least 10,000 people would shift to Barclays as part of the transaction that would involve the broker-dealer operation and all of its divisions.
