Following the now-fashionable business strategy of sticking to what you know best, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation is selling its securities clearing business, Pershing, to The Bank of New York Company, Inc., for $2 billion. BNY will also assume a $480 million loan made to Pershing and agreed to pay CSFB another $50 million if Pershing meets 2003 performance targets. Securities clearing involves the recording of stock transfers from one broker to another.
The deal, announced in January, concluded a two-month auction in which BNY bested Boston-based FMR Corp., the parent of mutual fund company Fidelity Investments and The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Bank of New York expects to pay for the purchase by issuing $1.1 billion in stock and $900 million in debt.
