Wells Fargo to Acquire Wachovia

Wells Fargo & Co. announced this morning that it is acquiring Wachovia Corp., which only last Monday said it was being taken over by Citigroup.

In a statement posted on its Web site, Wells Fargo said the merger has been approved unanimously by the boards of both companies but would require approval of Wachovia shareholders. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, valued the deal at approximately $15.1 billion. Wachovia shareholders will receive 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo common stock in exchange for each share of Wachovia stock.

The deal will not require any financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC had been involved in the earlier plan for a $2.15 billion merger of Citigroup and Charlotte-based Wachovia.

It was not immediately clear why that deal fell apart.

--Lexie Verdon