Dick Fuld Surfaces, Sells a Few Shares

History is unlikely to be kind to Dick Fuld. And while he might not be moving to Hooverville any time soon, perhaps his name will some day take on a meaning similar to Hoover, who like Fuld was out of touch with fast moving events, and ultimately made a series of decisions that left a lifetime of work in tatters:

``The past several months have been extraordinarily challenging, culminating in our bankruptcy filing,'' Fuld wrote in a memo distributed internally yesterday. ``This has been very painful on all of you, both personally and financially. For this, I feel horrible.''

Fuld sold shares that were worth $247 million a year and a half ago for less than $500,000 this week after he failed to find a buyer for his firm.

The 62-year-old CEO sold 2.88 million Lehman shares in the last two days at a price of 16 cents to 30 cents, according to a regulatory filing today. He still holds 503,744 shares, the filing said. Bloomberg

Much like Fuld, I clearly underestimate the fact that the firm could implode in the fashion it did. The recent sale of the capital market operations to Barclays Capital, the ongoing auction of asset management operations and the world headquarters in NYC will raise approximately $10 billion.

Fuld also turned down Korean investors who would have pumped in as much as $5 billion for a controlling stake in the firm; they were far apart on price.

Rumor has it he also turned down an asset sale similar to the one John Thain pulled off at Merrill; any of these moves would have bought him more time to come up with a solution.

But Fuld never swung the bat, which I find remarkable given his past history. And the difference between the Korean offer and what he realized, assuming he got the rest off, is approximately $18 million.

Perhaps Bob Diamond can hit a home run with the smoking remains of the firm; the capital markets group had nothing to do with the implosion, and I am sure Fuld will be rooting them on, although he might have a seat in the nosebleed section this time around.

Fuld Tells Lehman Employees He Feels `Horrible’ for Their Pain
Bloomberg

Lehman Spurned Korea Development Bank’s Offer of $6.40 a Share
Bloomberg
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