Irish Eyes Frown on Capital One
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book: A company announces a big acquisition just before it hits a rough patch so that it can divert attention from its troubles and cloud its financial results.
With perfect timing, Capital One (COF Quote) is playing that trick with its planned purchase of southern bank Hibernia (HIB Quote), a deal that was announced Monday.
Capital One, arguably the nation's most aggressive credit card lender, reported a weak fourth quarter, in which it blew over $500 million on marketing and got surprisingly puny account growth in return. It was a stark sign that Capital One is finding it very hard to compete against much bigger credit card lenders, such as Citigroup (C Quote), Bank of America (BAC Quote) and J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM Quote). ...
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