PNC Financial Services Group Inc. moved quickly in agreeing to acquire National City Corp. for $5.2 billion on Oct. 24. PNC CEO James E. Rohr called Peter Raskind, his counterpart at National City, on Oct. 23 to strike a deal. The troubled Cleveland bank had been in talks with Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp but opted for a better bid from PNC, which had looked at National City in April but passed. Instead of selling, National City back then raised $7 billion by selling stock and convertible equity to a group of investors led by New York-based private equity firm Corsair Capital LLC.

PNC used Edward Herlihy, Lawrence Makow and Nicholas Demmo of longtime counsel Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and tapped Citigroup Inc.'s David Head; Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP's Jimmy Dunne and Emmett Daly; and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s Bill Winters, Tim Main, John Chrin, Fernando Rivas and Erik Warmstein for banking advice.

PNC also said on Oct. 24 that it would receive $7.7 billion from the U.S. government's troubled asset relief plan, or Tarp.