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E-Trade Financial, the beleaguered online broker, is in talks to sell itself, according to people familiar with the situation.
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Still, the board is moving with all deliberate speed to see if it can get a deal done, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
The key issue is what to do with E-Trade's bank, whose foray into the mortgage market has brought disasterous losses. The company has been forced to write down its portfolio of mortgages.
While the presence of those mortgages on E-Trade's balance sheet presents problems for would-be acquirers and adds complexity to a transaction, bankers say that among the firms looking at E-Trade are those who know how to deal with troubled financial assets.
TD Ameritrade [AMTD
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] and Charles Schwab [SCHW
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] are among the firms believed to be talking to E-Trade, though that could not be confirmed.
E-Trade and Ameritrade declined to comment.
E-Trade's stock [ETFC
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], which tanked earlier this fall when the company's problems became public, has been up sharply since Wednesday.
In a CNBC interview earlier this month, TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Joe Moglia expressed interest in acquiring E-Trade's retail trading operation but cautioned that such a deal would only happen if it benefits both companies' shareholders.
Charles Schwab Chief Executive Charles Schwab also has said the company was interested in buying additional client accounts.
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