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So Lehman is Getting Back the Tables & Chairs

Posted June 15, 2009 by Realty.com Editor

Who owns what?

There’s a big furor between Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, the bank that acquired LB after hitting rock bottom this year. In a report by the New York Post , “Lehman, once the fourth-largest investment bank, asked a bankruptcy judge in New York last week to let it pay Barclays $5.9 million to buy back desks, chairs, tables, cubicles, audio-video equipment and security paraphernalia it currently uses in a building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. The repurchase is necessary because ‘Barclays has asserted that certain of the office furniture, fixtures and equipment that is located in the building and used by the debtors was previously sold to Barclays,’ Lehman said in a June 4 filing in US Bankruptcy Court in New York.”

In September of last year, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and caused quite a stir in the financial world. Barclays Capital purchased $1.5 billion worth of data centers and $1.75 billion worth of investment banking and trading units of the distressed bank. 

So this just tells us only two things. One, there’s too much internal irregularity in the way Lehman was actually acquired by Barclays. Since the company was saved from drowning in $613 billion in debt, we find it an interesting way to demand their belongings. At least, Lehman is willing to pay the price – the hefty price. 

Two, we now know that they’re furniture and equipment cost a fortune. Their reason may legal but it is quite snooping on the other hand. Wouldn’t it be sensible to spend even a quarter of their $5.9 million for other pieces of furniture and equipment? When you’re bankrupt, you don’t need that edgy table from IKEA anymore.

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