Silicon Valley Bank Financial, the publicly-traded holding firm of Silicon Valley Bank, has paused trading this morning pending an announcement, and according to a report in CNBC, the firm is in talks to sell itself.
The development is the latest turn for the technology-focused lender in what has been a surprising, precipitous downfall as SVB — the bank for many Silicon Valley startups and other power players in the sector — grapples with rising interest rates, mounting losses, messaging its state of affairs to the market, and most recently a rush of customers pulling their money out of the bank.
Shares of Silicon Valley Bank Financial fell 60% Thursday.
CNBC did not identify the buyer. It reports that Silicon Valley Bank attempted to raise money from investors before exploring the sale but had been unsuccessful. No official word from the company.
The California-based lender spooked many of its customers on Wednesday after it announced its plans to offer $1.25 billion of its common stock to investors and a further $500 million of mandatory convertible preferred shares. General Atlantic said it had agreed to buy $500 million of the bank’s common stock in a separate private transaction, though that was contingent on the closing of the common stock offering, per its SEC filing. We have reached out to General Atlantic to ask for the latest status on that $500 million commitment.
More to come, please refresh to update.
Silicon Valley Bank is now in talks to sell itself, report says by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch