In recent months, Lehman Brothers executives have been involved in increasingly frantic efforts to raise fresh capital and sell off risky assets as they scrambled to insulate the Wall Street bank from the turmoil in the capital markets.
Yesterday, they were forced to admit that those efforts had largely failed. Instead, Lehman unveiled plans to spin off troubled property assets and sell a stake in its fund management arm.
The moves are designed to ensure the bank's survival by making it smaller and less risky. However, their success depends crucially on Lehman's ability to retain the confidence of its counterparties, creditors and employees in the next few months.