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Data Centers Crucial To Lehman Sale

Posted by kdawson on from the gilt-edged dept.

miller60 writes "What assets retain value in the midst of a financial panic? Data centers. When assets of bankrupt Lehman Brothers were sold to Barclays Tuesday for $1.75 billion, Lehman's data centers and headquarters accounted for $1.5 billion of the value in the deal. That echoes the JPMorgan-Bear Stearns fire sale, in which Bear's two data centers and HQ represented much of the sale price. Amidst financial turmoil, Wall Street's high-tech data centers become the crown jewels for buyers of distressed assets."

14 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Asset valuation programmer seeks job by tjstork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hi! I'm a programmer for Lehman brothers and I'm looking for work. I was the designer of Assett Manager 1.0, a powerful tool that allowed our brokers to get values of our contracts....it's not a bad program, but it had a couple of bugs in it that I would like to have fixed.

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    1. Re:Asset valuation programmer seeks job by db32 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hey...where are your empathy circuits?! I can't believe you would call Republicans seriously handicapped...

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    2. Re:Asset valuation programmer seeks job by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was the designer of Assett Manager 1.0, a powerful tool that allowed our brokers to get values of our contracts....it's not a bad program, but it had a couple of bugs in it that I would like to have fixed.

      Unfortunately it appears that some people missed your important email (subject line:"important Tech news..") about positive and negative values being displayed the wrong way round if the application is started between 7 and 9.30AM. I suspect that many also missed your 284-line MSN message reminding them of the "isolated few dozen places" where they had to watch out for decimal points being a digit or two out of place.

      Other than that your software was excellent, and it's a real shame we won't be able to give you your bonus of -$2.347 this year.

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      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    3. Re:Asset valuation programmer seeks job by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Take the infamous NINJA loan: No Income, No Job, No Assets. That is, you're given a mortgage based on nothing but good looks and your credit score. Nothing else is verified.

      The big problem with the NINJA loans was that the interest rates given on them did not reflect the risk. Typically NINJA loans were made with just a 1-2% premium over standard loans. They should have been assigned a Phenomenally Increased rate (at least a 5% premium), or PIRATE -- which would have held them in check.

      However, because the NINJAs were allowed to go unchecked, we still have a dearth of PIRATES, and thus heavy global warming in addition to the credit crunch.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. No DR Site? by Black-Man · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess this is one 'disaster' Lehman Bros couldn't failover?

  3. All you really need are... by rodney+dill · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your towel and your thumb.

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    Use your head, can't you, use your head,
    You're on earth, there's no cure for that     - S. Beckett
  4. Free by C_Kode · · Score: 2, Funny

    Using Linux could have saved millions. ;) :P

    1. Re:Free by C_Kode · · Score: 2, Funny

      Saved millions of blue screens of death? :D

  5. Re:Suprising? by AndersOSU · · Score: 4, Funny

    You know what else retains value in the midst of a financial panic? Skyscrapers.

    That's true... Unless there's a real estate crisis coincident with the financial panic.

    Sure, a sky scraper isn't going to lose all it's value, but it could be worth less than you paid for it - especially if companies are failing by the dozen and your prospects for new tenants aren't good.

    Also from the irony department: Lehman didn't own it's London offices, and the rent Lehman paid for the space was 15% of the landlords total income. The landlord, thinking ahead carried insurance to protect against the eventuality that one of their major tenants would vacate. Their insurance company: AIG.

  6. but by toby · · Score: 4, Funny

    People are born with compassion and empathy circuits in our brain for a reason, and those that don't have them or can't use them are seriously handicapped.

    ...But will probably get elected anyway. :(

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    you had me at #!
  7. What else is valuable? by symbolset · · Score: 2, Funny

    Intellectual property. Why just last Friday I patented "A business process and related methods to leverage instability in financial markets and raid the US treasury."

    I don't expect to deploy the process myself, but licensing should be worth a good bit.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  8. Re:Suprising? by Deadplant · · Score: 3, Funny

    Come on now, you can't use Japan as an example when talking about real places.
    Everyone knows Japan is from an alternate (cooler) dimension and is protruding into our world as a space-time anomaly.

  9. Re:There's a difference between 'dumb' and 'trusti by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have to point it out: dumb people do not DESERVE to be taken advantage of by smart people. Social Darwinism is an inherently fascist, evil, and anti-social philosophy that destroys societies and people's lives. Don't subscribe to it. Society works because of trust, and social Darwinism destroys that trust.

    Quoted because it deserved to be posted three times.

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    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  10. Re:Suprising? by jason8 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Be very careful not to click on the "[Purchase]" links on that page. If it's a one-click process like Amazon's you could suddenly find yourself in a world of pain.