U.K.-based Barclays Bank plc said Thursday that it has agreed to acquire the U.K. credit card business of Discover Financial Services LLC for about 35 million pounds ($68 million) in cash.
Discover paid 175 million pounds for Goldfish in December 2005, but it plans to build the business that reportedly languished when Morgan Stanley prepared Discover for an IPO in 2007,
notes The Times of London.
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Barclays said it will integrate Goldfish, which consists of about 1.7 million credit card accounts with 2 billion pounds of gross receivables, into its credit card division, Barclaycard. Completion is subject to various conditions, including competition clearance, and is expected to occur during the first half of 2008. Discover is expected to take a charge of $190 million to $210 million in the first quarter on the sale. - Phineas Lambert
See story from The Times of London
See story from TheStreet
See December 2005 story from TheDeal.com
