There have been few deals in corporate America that have been debated as intensely as the one that formed Citigroup, in 1998.

A mistake from day one? Or is it a sleeping giant whose potential has yet to be awoken?

John Reed of Citicorp, who forged the merger with Sandy Weill of Travelers, describes the deal as "a mistake" in an extraordinary interview with Francesco Guerrera of the Financial Times.

Also on Portfolio.com: The Bloated Legacy What Sandy wrought. Who’s to Blame? When former C.E.O.’s snipe at each other, you know things can’t be good.

"The stockholders have not benefited, the employees certainly have not benefited, and I don't think the customers have benefited, because our franchises are weaker than they have been," Reed says.

Weill tells the paper that he disputes the notion that the merger was a mistake. But he is critical of Citi's management in recent years—an interesting comment given that his hand-picked successor, Chuck Prince, was running the bank and dealing at first with problems left behind by Weill.

The finger-pointing at management reminds DealBreaker of "those horrendous conversations kids have in college about whether communism could ever work if only it had the right leaders."

Felix Salmon says, "Given that they were the people charged with managing a financial behemoth the likes of which this country had never seen, one wonders how much either of them blame themselves."

Eric Dash in the New York Times on Thursday reported that "even within Citigroup, many have rejected Mr. Weill's grand vision of a globe-spanning financial supermarket, an agglomeration of investment and commercial banking, insurance and fund management that could prosper in both good times and bad."

Even the famous red-umbrella logo has been abandoned, he notes.

Shares of Citigroup are trading today above $23—nearly $10 less than they were in April 1998.

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