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Wachovia CEO: Not looking for major acquisitions Wachovia CEO said the company will look to make small, additive buys but nothing significant for the next two years. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wachovia is out of the acquisition game for the near future as the company works to integrate its proposed $25 billion merger with Golden West Financial. Speaking at an industry conference in New York, Wachovia (Charts) CEO Ken Thompson said he expects the company to steer clear of any significant buys for at least the next two years. But he added that Wall Street may see some smaller deals that would help grow Wachovia's product lines or improve its technology platforms. Wachovia may look for small acquisitions such as "general banking kind of deals" Thompson said. He said the company would also consider small acquisitions to bolster its asset management business if it found an attractive deal. In the meantime, he said the Golden West merger will not only contribute deposits for the company but will also help Wachovia ride out the weakness in the mortgage market. "There's no question that mortgage applications are going down," he said. "There will be weakness for some period of time." But Thompson said Golden West's mortgage business will provide a number of mortgage channels of distribution that will help mitigate weakness in the mortgage market. In previous comments, Thompson had said that the Golden West merger will bring the option ARM product onto Wachovia's platform - a move that would broaden its mortgage offerings to consumers. Wachovia is expected to close its acquisition of Golden West next quarter. ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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