Citigroup (NYSE: C) CEO Vikram Pandit was a famous hedge-fund manager. After Citi bought his company, he was in a position to move into the top job. It is lucky he was moved into the corner office months ago as one of the funds Citi picked up from the company he sold them is being closed.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Pandit personally reaped at least $165 million when Citigroup bought Old Lane in July 2007." Nice work if you can get it.

The news may say little about Pandit's money management skills as he has been away from the running of the fund, Old Lane, for some time. It does, however, put the spotlight on him once again at a time when his ability to run Citi is being questioned by the company's shareholders.

Pandit was brought in as an agent of change, no matter how awful and overused that term is. So far, he has done absolutely nothing to deserve that description. Yesterday, Citi stock fell below $20 for the first time since March. Investors had hoped he would begin to sell of some of the bank's less critical assets to build the the capital base of the firm.

Instead, he has acted pretty much the same as his predecessor Chuck Prince. The share price points to that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor a 247wallst.com

This morning Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) CEO Chuck Prince declared that he would fire 73% more people than he had announced last month. If you ask me for the reason, I'd say so that he can finance a $600 million pay package for a new hire.

Citigroup's biggest problem is that its costs have been growing faster than its revenues, 23% and 15% respectively. The solution, announced last month, was to fire 15,000 people. But according to The New York Times today, Citigroup plans to bring that total to 8% of its workforce, or 26,000.

Meanwhile, Prince has reportedly been in talks to acquire a hedge fund, Old Lane, for $600 million. The idea is that former Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) executive Vikram Pandit, who runs Old Lane, would come along for the ride and join Citigroup as head of its Alternative Assets unit.

I am wondering whether Citigroup can find a less expensive way to hire talent -- maybe developing its own managers. In pre-market, Citigroup is up a mere 7 cents -- not much of a market reward for all that additional blood.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns shares of Citigroup and has no financial interest in Morgan Stanley.