<i>New York Times </i>says FleetBoston shouldn’t have publicized sale of bank

FleetBoston Financial
Corp.’s decision to sell its Robertson Stephens Inc. investment
bank goes against the typical advice of any good banker: never
make public the sale of a company that nobody wants, the New York
Times reported.



Robertson Stephens was last sold when the technology market
was hot, but as anyone who has visited the bank’s offices in San
Francisco lately knows, that’s no longer the case, the paper said.
The office is close to empty.



FleetBoston’s announcement did nothing to keep the few
talented bankers that remain there at their desks, the paper said.
“I’ve been hanging around too long as it is,” one Robertson
Stephens banker told the Times from his office yesterday. “They
don’t understand this business is about people. It’s not like
putting up a ‘for sale’ sign on some factory.”



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