Following the epic failure (and epic federal seizure) of WaMu, Wachovia entered epic panic mode and is reportedly in merger talks with two other banks.  Why the panic?  Bloomberg explains:

Takeovers can wipe out bank shareholders if they occur after regulators seize the company. That’s what happened yesterday to Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc., the nation’s biggest thrift and now the largest bank failure in history. JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid $1.9 billion for deposits and branches of WaMu, leaving the company with about $28 billion in debt according to Bloomberg data and little means to pay it off.

“Washington Mutual showed that one of the big ones can go down, and if you are looking at who else in the top 10 is facing the most pressure, Wachovia is right there,” said Stan Smith, a banking professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

So if you find yourself with a few billion lying around (and these days, who can’t dig that out of their couch?), give Bob Steel a call and offer to solve all his problems.  He won’t mind, he probably hasn’t even finished unpacking his office yet.