Why did it take so long to kick Chuck Prince out of Citigroup?

ONE BIG QUESTION. WHO IN HIS SOUND MIND WOULD PAY ANY F*CKING CEO A MILLION TIME WHAT HE IS WORTH? NO F*CKING CEO IS WORTH ANY WHERE NEAR WHAT THOSE F*CKING BOARD MEMBERS OF ANY COMPANY PAY THEM. BECAUSE I DON'T THINK THERE IS ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN ANYMORE. ANY JACK ASS CAN RUN A COMPANY THESE DAYS. PUT ON AUTO PILOT CONTROLLED BY ONE OF THOSE DINASAURS COMPUTERS MADE BY ATARI WILL DO A BETTER JOB THAN ANY M*THER F*CKER CEO FOR A LOT LESS MONEY. HOW MUCH THEY ARE GOING TO PAY CITIGROUP IDIOT TO GET RID OF HIM??????

With Chuck Prince shown doors at Citi, next big question for Citi Shareholders & Board is what to do with the behemoth size of the corporation & the losses resulting from Sub Prime debacle.

Most Likely Citi could see being restructured into specialist divisions, the way it was before Weil & Company, came in 1998 to merge it with Travelers. This would mean Citi either hiving off its Insurance/Casualty business, Commercial Banking Division, Broking & Research into seperate public listed companies, or selling off the least profitable ones, to make it more agile, functioning unit.

Very few people like (want to have) responsibility. Very few people dislike money.

The board at Citi abdacated responsibility by choosing Prince as the head honcho, Sandy's recommendation. "We were just following orders."

Citi board members must have known about the whole SIV situation. If they did not, then this proves the tenet that they do not know how to read a newspaper! Yet, they allowed this mess to happen.

The question is not, "Who will replace Prince", so much as to "When will the board of directors be replaced?"

It should be noted that I have no financial interest in Citi; just a passing interest in responsible board management.

The only people who seem to be baying for Prince's blood are US journalists who seem to have a poor grasp of what Citi is doing long term. Weill bought lots of businesses and stuck them together (poorly), Prince has spent the last few years sorting out the internal mess and intergrating everything. It now has operations in places other banks can't find on maps doing actually real, proper banking. This is where its making its money. Note that Citi's single largest shareholder, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who probably lost the most during Prince's tenure, has always backed him. History will be kinder to Prince, he did'nt pump the stock price but made the company fit for the future. When the dollar tanks Citi is better positioned than most.

More excuses from Citigroup apologists for Citigroup's ineptitude. This is another sign along with Merrill Lynch of the demise of Wall Street financial institutions. Better to have the entire US banking system nationalized and run by bureaucrats than to continue the wasteful ways of the money center banks and brokerage houses. Even the State Department, as incompetent as it is, could do a better job than the wasteful thieves running America's board rooms today. They belong either in jail or should be mounting the scaffold!!
The torch of US economic hegemony is passing to the sleeping giants--China and India. Wait until eastern europe and the middle east become economic powerhouses. They possess endless populations of cheap labor. Then Americans will really have something to bitch about.
With George Bush's depression picking up steam, that torch will now be passed even more quickly.

There is no question that Sandy Wiel left many problems. He was like other powerful, respected, experienced CEOs that were treated like rock stars by the financial media. Eisner, Welch, Coke's old CEO were all pearched so high that no one can question their actions. The reality is they are like athletes beyond there prime living on their past accolades. Very hard for any new CEO to follow the legacies each one managed until the day each left. They all left messes that had to be cleaned up. However, Prince has had time to fix and has not. The fact that the financial ratios are now so bad have to be laid at his feet. The board looks bad and the investors are not happy. How to fix Citi is the real question we all need to focus on.

Damo is right on - Chuck has been building up his international business at the right time to ensure that Citi is better insulated from the shocks in the US markets. If the analysts and Journalists had bothered to see the Q3 results, they would have seen how the superb growth in the international businesses and in Transaction services have helped insulate the firm from the problems in US consumer and Sub-prime markets.

Analysts have been baying for Citi to be broken up into different businesses seem to have a world view that escapes the rest of us - for the rest of us this make zero sense. I would rather own a business where short term volatility/issues in one segment are offset by complementary increases in some others - owning a single stream would completely waste my net worth in a single quarter ! But then analyst credibility or capability has not exactly been the crown jewel of the financial services industry in the recent past.

Investors - forget the analysts and fund managers- do your own analysis and take your own call

When China or India have a GDP per capita that consists of 5 digits, wake me up.

Citi is a resilient company and has been worse off than this -- go back to the early 90's when I think the stock price was around $8 or something. All this really proves is that Citi has made some bad business decisions like many others. I'm sure Wiell and Prince had Citi's best interest in mind when they tried to turn this behemoth of a company a different direction for more profit.

Citi needs to focus on its most valued asset, which is its people. The company will not fall because it is standing on hundreds of thousands of legs that care about this company because it is who we are and what we have accomplished that separates us from the others.

We didn't get where we are today by being conservative and we won't get where we need to be tomorrow by being conservative.