When an activist investor comes knocking, boards like to look busy—particularly if the activist is directly funded by a handful of your existing shareholders.
Barclays of the U.K. is in just such a position, but the idea that one potential answer is a merger of this trans-Atlantic consumer and investment bank with Standard Chartered, a trade-finance-driven emerging-markets bank, as reported in British media, seems unlikely to say the least. The report cited sources close to the bank’s board.
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