Has any one seen the letter that opened Washington Mutual for bids? I have it is dated 23 Sep 2008. It leaves open the date for a reply as to be announced later. Were I a bank and interested in making a bid even had I received the offer early the morning of the 23rd it would have taken a day at least to get auditors, several of them, and the plane tickets together just to go see what I would be buying. By leaving the date for the reply open the FDIC gives the impression that there is no great urgency. This is just one small but perceptible sign of deceit. By issuing this letter just 1 day before the seizure and leaving open the reply date of course no other real offers had been made by the time of the seizure, Was it not the night of the 24th the FDIC took into receivership and sold Washington Mutual. If the letter hit the other banks at the end of the day or was emailed then it may not have even been looked at until the 24th and with no sense of urgency and no other banks swarming over WM to look at the books why disrupt lives and pay all the extra money to have it evaluated the next day?
I do not think the letter was ever sent. Why? Because if the other banks had received that letter and there was a sense of urgency to it then the other banks would have been on WM like stink on poop. WMI would have known what was going on and could have stood a chance of stopping its closure and sale.
I also believe the date on that letter was true enough because it would have shown when it was generated on the original source. I believe there may be a conflict in the timing of the offer as to the amount of time between the offer and the acceptance date, meaning the amount of time between the offer of the letter and the amount of time the banks should have been given to reply.
There is a section for regulatory approval from sate and Federal agencies that must be approved before the bid is submitted.
From the letter
INSTRUCTIONS FOR POTENTIAL ACQUIRERS
WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK
HENDERSON, NV
______________, 2008
All bids must be received by the Corporation at the address specified above or by FAX no later than the date and time to be provided later. Any bid received by the Corporation after the time specified and/or at a location other than that specified may not be considered by the Corporation. If a bid is sent via FAX, the signed original of the FAXed Bid Form also must be sent to the Corporation at the address specified above for delivery no later than the next business day.
7. Evaluations of Bids. All bids submitted in accordance with these Instructions and the Bid Form will be compared to one another and against alternative resolution strategies available to the Corporation. The Corporation, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to extend the bid submission date, to approve any bid submitted, to waive any technical or formal defect in any bid, to extend deadlines, to negotiate with some but not all Potential Acquirers submitting bids, to reject any bid that is conditioned upon any change (whether by way of addition or deletion) in the terms of the relevant form agreement or the Bid Form, and without in any way limiting the foregoing, to reject any or all bids.
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BI 022131 Washington Mutual Bank
September 23, 2008, 10:17 AM Henderson, NV
I would submit to you that even JPM had they received this letter on the 23rd to go in blind could not have begun to have put in a bid With a bank this size 10 auditors and a week for a reasonable bid would have been pushing it. and one final piece of the puzzle. When do you suppose JPM was notified they had won the bid and to be ready to take possession Any guesses anyone?
