Another bank take over !

Sovereign Bancorp and Spain's Banco Santander confirmed on Monday that they are in talks about Santander acquiring the Pennsylvania-based banking firm.
In a terse one-sentence statement to the Spanish regulator, Santander (STD:banco santander sa adr


STD 13.24, +0.21, +1.6%) (ES:0113900J3: news, chart, profile) confirmed the media speculation that it would buy out Sovereign (SOV:Sovereign Bancorp Inc
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Last: 3.67-0.14-3.67%
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SOV 3.67, -0.14, -3.7%) but said no deal has been reached.
Sovereign said on Monday that, "it is not possible currently to know whether such conversations will lead to an agreement, or not, and there can be no assurances that an agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated. Sovereign does not intend to comment further until an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated."
The Wall Street Journal had reported late on Sunday that Santander was in talks to buy Sovereign at roughly the same price as Friday's $3.81-a-share, or $2.53 billion.
"Our initial reaction is that we would be quite surprised if Sovereign management were to sell the company at the current stock price," said Ken Zerbe, an analyst at Morgan Stanley.
"Our view is that after disclosing and writing-off its poor-performing GSE and CDO investments, the company had put its most pressing problems behind it," he added.
If the deal is reached, it would be the third troubled bank Santander has agreed to buy in the last year.
It's reached an agreement to buy Alliance & Leicester (UK:AL: news, chart, profile) as well as the retail deposit business and the branch network of nationalized lender Bradford & Bingley, both of which are based in Britain.
Santander bought a 24.9% stake in Wyomissing, Pa.-based Sovereign three years ago. Terms of that acquisition require Santander to pay $38-a-share for the entire bank, but the Journal report said Santander's directors appeared likely to waive that condition.
Sovereign last week named Paul Perrault as chief executive, replacing Joseph Campanelli, who ran the bank following the ouster of long-time head Jay Sidhu.
Sovereign shares, which have fallen 78% in the last year, fell 0.5% on Monday.
Santander's U.S. shares have dropped a relatively limited 33% over the last year. In U.S. trading Monday, the shares rose 1.2%, to $13.18.