Northern Rock: The Bidding Heats Up

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Market Movers

by Felix Salmon

Main

Merrill: Your Questions Answered Why Magazine Circulations Are Like C...

Oct 29 2007 1:21PM EDT

If Chris Flowers thought he was going to have little competition in his quest to buy Northern Rock, he's been comprehensively disabused of that notion at this point. The Virgin bid might sound a bit lightweight (a rebranding to Virgin Money), but it's backed by AIG, which gives it serious heft. And now it turns out that GMAC has joined the Cerberus bid – not necessarily surprising, given that Cerberus owns GMAC, but formidable all the same. Against that competition, Flowers's bid almost looks like the lightweight of the bunch: he has some first-rate executives lined up, but less in the way of copper-bottomed financial sponsors. Expect a fully-fledged takeover battle.

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