HSBC buys Silicon Valley bank UK for 1 pound (thestreet.com)

I’m sure I’m missing something, but equity of £1.4bln sounds like a decent business to me. I’d have given at least £3!

Not necessarily. When Lloyds bailed out the Halifax in 2008 they probably thought it was a good buy, until the problems started surfacing.

You're taking a fairly decent risk taking over a bank with only a weekend to do due diligence.

And ultimately this needs to be sorted. The losers are the share holders of a collapsed bank. Which is as it should be. And I don't think they were poor, although they might be now.

Yeah right - come here and whine at HN about how rich get richer without even knowing anything about the issue at hand; hoping to score some HN points.