M&T Acquires Struggling Wilmington Trust

The Wall Street Journal reported today that M&T Bank acquired Wilmington Trust at a 46% discount over (or perhaps under is more accurate) its stock price. While over 90% of all bank failures seem to come from the weakest 1.5% of banks, this does not mean that banks further down the list are not also constrained in terms of their ability to operate. This has been the rationale behind presenting the rank of acquiring banks when possible each week. M&T is an incredibly healthy 6408th on the current list. Wilmington Trust? They are 383rd. If you factor in the roughly 3-5% probability of failure, their cost structure may simply be too great to continue as a going concern.