Reports say that the firm will sell all of its assets as a wholeor broken up to the highest bidder. Only two months ago, the firmrevealed a net loss of $2.8 billion for the second quarter,compared to net income of $489 million for the first quarter of2008 and $1.3 billion for the second quarter of 2007.

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, the firm's loss in Q2caused it to reduce exposure to residential mortgages, commercialmortgages and real estate investments by approximately 20% in eachasset class. According to the report, during the Q2 '08, along withreducing real estate exposure to mortgages, the firm furtherstrengthened its liquidity and capital position by the following:the firm grew the Holding Co. liquidity pool to $45 billion from$34 billion at the end of the prior quarter. The firm reportedgross assets and net assets of approximately $639 billion and $327billion, respectively, which decreased approximately $147 billionand $70 billion, respectively, from the first quarter of fiscal2008. It reduced acquisition finance exposures by approximately35%. It also reduced aggregate non-investment gradeinventory--including funded acquisition finance assets--byapproximately 20%. Lehman also completed the budgeted full yearfiscal 2008 unsecured funding plan and increased its long-termcapital through the issuance of $4 billion of convertible preferredstock in April and approximately $5.5 billion of public benchmarklong-term debt.

Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld Jr. said in the company's Q2report that the firm had begun to "take the necessary steps torestore the credibility of our great franchise and ensure that thisquarter's unacceptable performance is not repeated. GlobeSt.comwill update the story as facts emerge.