Home Depot: Deal Salvaged, but Pizza Endured

Think August is boring when it comes to business news?

Think again.

Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld had to send e-mail messages from his BlackBerry at 5 a.m.

Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal was forced to violate club rules by taking calls on the golf course.

JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon had to eat pizza. Late at night. In August. And not at his vacation home.

Those are the gruesome details from the NYT's self-described "tale of bare-knuckled brinksmanship" from Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael de la Merced, which summarizes all the machinations required to salvage the sale of Home Depot Supply.

Gosh, it's a good thing Dimon and the rest of the boys get paid.

A WSJ troika also found the combination of Dimon and pizza irresistible, helping us smell the pepperoni.

"The drama over the revised terms kicked into high gear late last week. With most of Wall Street on vacation, J.P. Morgan's Mr. Dimon huddled with senior banker James B. Lee Thursday night, dining on pizza and wine as they weighed their options. Mr. Lee had canceled a planned holiday on Block Island, R.I."

With Labor Day weekend looming, Jack can only hope that some poor CEO is not forced to eat chicken wings in the middle of the night just because a tightening credit market wants to shave a few billion dollars off the First Data deal.