A venti soy latte at Starbucks is worth more than a Citibank share....

[marmar]

Citigroup's Pandit Says Bank Won't Be Broken Up as Shares Tumble Below $4 (Update1)

By Bradley Keoun and Christine Harper

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit told employees he doesn't plan to break up the company, aiming to reassure workers as the stock resumed a skid that has erased more than half its value in three days.

Pandit and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden, speaking on a worldwide conference call this morning, also said they don't expect to sell the Smith Barney brokerage unit, said two people who listened to the call and declined to be identified because it wasn't open to the public.

The call came as Citigroup's board, led by Chairman Win Bischoff and independent director Richard Parsons, prepared to meet today at the bank's headquarters in New York, said a person familiar with the company's plans who declined to be identified because the deliberations are private. Bischoff, interviewed at a conference in Portugal today, declined to comment on any potential changes to the board.

Citigroup shares dropped 74 cents, or 16 percent, to $3.96 as of 10:47 a.m. in New York, giving the company a stock market value close to $21 billion.

Once the biggest U.S. bank, with a market value of $274 billion at the end of 2006, Citigroup has now slipped to No. 5 after Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp. A plan Pandit announced this week to cut costs by shedding 52,000 jobs and an endorsement by billionaire Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal didn't assuage shareholders' concern that bad loans and securities writedowns may extend a yearlong run of net losses totaling $20 billion. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEzRwKlMg4xY&refer=home

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. At this point, you'd probably get more out of the latte.

[MorningGlow]

2. Ouch.

And I thought Prudential shares were bad. I'm watching them for my aunt, who inherited a bunch from my uncle (her brother) when he died last year. She was going to sell them off then, but--gasp--they dropped below $100 per, and she wanted to wait till it went back up over the magic three-digit mark.

Today they're worth around $14 per. Better than yesterday, when they were $13... :shrug:

[qb]

3. True, but Starbucks beverages are overvalued. nt