Ben Edwards blasts Wachovia merger

IRVINE, Calif. — Ben Edwards III, a former chief executive of A.G. Edwards Inc., is not happy about his family firm’s merger with Wachovia Corp. Mr. Edwards, who retired in 2001, caused a stir at St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards’ shareholder meeting last month when he read a speech criticizing the deal. Edwards employees “feel lied to and betrayed,” he said at the meeting. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mr. Edwards received a standing ovation. The firm’s employees “have been told all along the importance of remaining independent, and how if they contributed to that by working harder and doing more,” they could remain independent, he said in an interview. “And then this [merger] happens.”
Mr. Edwards feels the newly merged company will risk losing A.G. Edwards’ core values. “We had this business of putting clients first, so our trading departments were service centers, not profit centers, and we gave people a break on money funds and everything else,” he said. Richmond, Va.-based Wachovia Securities LLC’s “outlook is more like a bank, making money off of interest and spreads and things like that,” Mr. Edwards said. But “if [Wachovia] makes an effort to adopt our type of policies, the Edwards organization will probably hold together,” he added. Mergers often are driven by chief executives who have nothing better to do, Mr. Edwards said. “If you do a good job and have competent people in charge ... you sit there as the highest-paid person in the company and do nothing. So [CEOs try to] acquire or diversify or do [other] big things.” Mr. Edwards said he instead focused on visiting 100 branch offices a year to stay in touch with clients and brokers. “That kept me out of trouble at headquarters,” he said.