Fiddling Weill – Citi burned

1 June 2009 By Richard Beales Follow @richardbeales1

The former Travelers boss built Citigroup before spinning the insurer off again. Now Travelers is replacing the failed Citi megabank project in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Cisco, meanwhile, is finally displacing bankrupt GM. The irony, though, is all on Weill.

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Dow Jones said on June 1 that two stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average would be replaced, with Travelers Cos taking the place of Citigroup, and Cisco Systems displacing General Motors.

The index, an adjusted average of the share prices of its 30 components, is selected by the editors of the Wall Street Journal.

"The parlous state of GM has left us with no choice but to remove it from The Dow. A bankruptcy filing immediately disqualifies a stock regardless of a company's history or its role as a cultural icon," said Robert Thomson, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal.

"We were reluctant to remove Citigroup at the height of the financial frenzy, but it is clear that the bank is in the midst of a substantial restructuring which will see the government with a large and ongoing stake."

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