NEW YORK — One week after Lehman Brothers filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, a big chunk of its workforce is getting used to the idea of working for someone else.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 a week ago Monday, and since then Leh man has sold its North American banking business to Barclays and its Japanese and Australian units to Nomura. An announcement on the sale of Lehman’s U.S. money-management arm, Neuberger Berman, is expected soon.
“Things are happening extra fast, but that’s due to the nature of the assets,” said Evan Flasch en, head of restructuring at Bracewell & Giuliani. “If these are not sold quickly, there will be nothing left to sell.”
Barclays said Monday it had offered jobs to more than 10,000 Lehman employees in the U.S., many of whom had spent the past week wondering about their professional future. Lehman employs a total of about 25,000 people globally.
Meanwhile, Lehman employees in Asia and Australia learned Monday that their units would be bought by Japan’s largest brokerage, Nomura Holdings Inc. Nomura said the deal was “a once-in- a-generation opportunity.” Lehman has 3,000 employees in Asia, many of whom work at the bigger regional offices in Japan and Hong Kong.
The deal was valued at around $225 million, one person familiar with the matter said. Nomura said the deal would not include any trading assets or liabilities.
