A Slight Technicality
A morale-boosting memo sent to Wells Fargo & Co. managers recently by Chairman Carl E. Reichardt and President Paul Hazen downplaying the impact of BankAmerica’s proposed acquisition of Security Pacific described the deal as “the first merger of two major California banks since Wells Fargo acquired Crocker in 1986.”
Some might quibble with that. In 1988, California First Bank in San Francisco bought Union Bank, also of San Francisco, for more than $737 million. That’s not too far off the $1.08 billion Wells paid for Crocker.
Granted, California First was owned by Bank of Tokyo, which may disqualify the deal as a true California banking merger. Then again, Crocker was British-owned when Wells bought it.
Ironically, both Reichardt and Hazen both spent their early years in the industry working at Union before leaving to join Wells.
Enough With the Surveys
Further evidence that business’ obsession with surveys has gone too far comes in the form of a Valvoline poll published last week. Motorists answering the survey said they would prefer taking a cross-country trip with Barbara Bush than Madonna. They also would prefer traveling with Arnold Schwarzenegger than they would Prince Charles, by a 3-to-1 margin.
More relevant to Los Angeles motorists was the finding that “men are twice as likely as women to express their anger with a hand sign.”
No word on which sex is more likely to express their anger through a freeway shooting.
Big Spender
Convicted Miami businessman and former Los Angeles trucking executive Leonard A. Pelullo, sentenced to 24 years in prison Friday in Philadelphia for defrauding Stockton-based American Savings, has always had unusual spending habits. Last year, he bought Transcon Lines, now a defunct Los Angeles trucking concern, for $12.
A sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia says he spent more liberally on other items using two American Express Gold cards, all while he was pleading poverty to a federal judge in New Jersey in a separate court case. From August, 1990, to February, 1991, the memorandum shows, Pelullo used the cards for:
* A Jaguar automobile, $25,937.
* More than $20,000 in airline tickets.
* $50,000 for room, food and lounge expenses at Donald J. Trump’s Plaza Hotel in New York.
* A diamond woman’s watch, $44,150.
The memorandum goes on to say the cards were canceled with an unpaid balance of $160,000.
Briefly . . .
R&D; pays off: Swissair is boasting that its recently refurbished 747s offer “state of the art textiles” . . . First Interstate Vice President Michael A. Rosen, in an analysis of the financial markets published last week, titled his report “Ain’t No Cure For the Summertime Coups” . . . No respect: The name and title of controversial Comptroller of the Currency Robert L. Clarke is listed as “Robert L. Clark, Controller of the Currency” by a banking trade group announcing that he will address its annual conference.
