SAN FRANCISCO — FleetBoston Financial Group called the announcement of its planned closure of its RobertsonStephens investment banking unit a “winddown,” on Friday.
However, John Conlin, Robertson’s chief executive, said in remarks announcing the plan to shutter the investment banking division that Fleet wanted the employees to leave the building immediately following the meeting.
By 5 p.m. security guards were ushering the last remaining workers out of the headquarters, though they were told to return on Monday at 8 a.m.
They returned to the company’s headquarters expecting to hear about severance packages, but instead the workers received a memo telling them to sit tight and to “please continue operating as you normally would” and await more information about their business lines and positions.
Courtney Weber, a spokeswoman for Robertson Stephens, said that most of the employees would be gone by today. In the memo, FleetBoston said that it has a transition team in place, but just who is on it and what it will do remain unclear. One employee reached Monday said many of the workers were spending the day packing their belongings.
What is clear is that Fleet has thrown in the towel on the San Francisco investment banking firm, a poster child for the boom as well as the bust for the Internet bubble, after failing to find an outside buyer or negotiate a buyout.
During the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call Monday, Eugene McQuade, a FleetBoston vice chairman and its chief financial officer, summed up the reason for the unit’s shutdown: “We didn’t believe that Robbie had prospects now and in the future. Apparently, the rest of the world agrees with us, as there were no takers in the auction.”
Fleet first put Robertson on the block in April, but after failing to find an outside buyer, it explored the possibility of a buyout by Robertson Stephens employees. The company reported a $386 million loss for the quarter, which it said stemmed from losses from Argentina, its U.S. corporate loan portfolio, and the decision to close Robbie. [See "
At 1:15 p.m. Pacific daylight time on Friday, Robertson Stephens’ management told the 615 employees at the firm’s headquarters to come to the trading floor; many believed they would be given the details of a long-awaited management buyout.
After Friday’s meeting many of Robbie’s workers stopped by the Irish Bank, a popular bar near the firm’s headquarters. The mood among the Robbie professionals thronging the alley outside the bar was wistful, and some were a little flabbergasted.
“It was totally unexpected,” said Jonathan Barag, an information technology worker. However, he also said the shutdown offered him an opportunity to do something different. “I’m happy, because I’m going to start my own company.”
Mr. Conlin and Robertson’s president, Todd Carter, also made an appearance at the bar. Neither would comment for this article, though at the Friday afternoon meeting Mr. Conlin reportedly blamed Fleet for imposing unrealistic terms for the proposed buyout.
Ms. Weber said that all the employees, including the top managers, would lose their jobs unless Fleet offers them a position elsewhere. This month Robertson said that it would cut 425 of its 950 jobs. As of last week 800 people were working there.
There are rumors that some groups, such as trading, are shopping themselves to some of the firms that had reportedly looked at Robertson, like Wells Fargo Securities, which is also based in San Francisco.
