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REUTERS Lehman's worries spill over to nearby businesses [JBFNYFB]
By Aarthi Sivaraman
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Pizza sales are not the same
any more for Tony Genovese.
The owner of the nearly 20-year-old Italian restaurant
Bella Napoli, near Lehman Brothers' <LEH.N> Manhattan
headquarters, lamented the bank's escalating troubles on Friday
and fretted about how it affected his own business.
"Earlier, they called us for 30 pies, 75 pies sometimes,"
Genovese said. "They don't call us no more."
Genovese is one of many vendors worried as the effect of
the firm's misfortunes ripples through the neighborhood near
Times Square.
The U.S. investment bank was until recently the fourth
largest bank in the United States, but growing losses from its
exposure to the country's mortgage crisis has the 158-year-old
company scrambling to find a willing buyer.
Since Monday, the firm's market capitalization has lost 78
percent, to about $2.5 billion from $11.2 billion.
Even staffers who have managed to cling to their jobs after
hundreds of layoffs are now worried about their future, said
Joseph Jacobino, director of marketing and sales at the nearby
Tonic Restaurant & Bar.
"People are nervous about the company," he said. "Lehman
guys, in suits and ties, all nervous ... they come here and
drink. They come out to commiserate with each other."
Jacobino is not banking on Lehman for business anymore
after they abruptly stopped organizing corporate events at the
bar earlier this year to cut costs.
"We have to deal with it," he said. "We go out and seek
companies that are doing better, like law firms."
Bartender Alison Ryan also said she worried about what the
layoffs could mean in the long run.
Such concerns reflect broader anxiety in New York City as
thousands of Wall Street jobs are axed and hefty annual bonuses
get slashed this year. Wall Street's compensation amounts to
almost 35 percent of all salaries and wages earned in the city.
"I FEEL BAD FOR THOSE GUYS"
So far, Lehman has failed to attract investors to shore up
its capital position, weakened this year by its outsized
exposure to commercial real estate and residential mortgage
assets hit hard by the persisting credit crunch.
Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> is widely seen as the leading
contender to buy the bank, with British bank Barclays Plc
<BARC.L> also considered a possibility. But a deal is far from
certain due to U.S. government reluctance to provide financial
backing.
Hany Besha, who has run a coffee and bagel cart near the
Lehman building for nearly 10 years, said business has dropped
50 percent since Lehman's troubles started.
"They are here today and gone tomorrow," he said of
Lehman's employees.
Outside a nearby building, a shoe shiner said some Lehman
staffers come to him during lunch and he fears business will
slow.
"I feel bad for those guys," he said.
But some, like Elizabeth Willis, are unfazed.
Willis has run a newspaper stand outside the building for
about 40 years and says she is unperturbed by the avalanche of
bad news about the bank, which moved there after the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks severely damaged its headquarters near the World
Trade Center.
"I was here before this was here," Willis said. "I've seen
everything. I survived before they came and I will survive
after they go away."