“Why buy a bank whose business model is broken?” — Arturo de Frias, chief banking analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, on the difficulty of finding a buyer for Britain’s troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock.
    
“We are going to see bad deals that have been done that are not publicly known as bad deals yet, we will have scandals, reputations will decline and people are going to be left with a bad taste in their mouths.” — Michael C. Jensen, professor emeritus at the Harvard Business School, in the Sunday Business section of the New York Times.
    
“We are disappointed, unimpressed and studying our options.” — statement from MetroPCS Communications after Leap Wireless International rejected its unsolicited takeover bid.
    
“These companies have very poor disclosure. Even if they report good numbers, there still may be concern that the numbers aren’t believable because it’s mark-to-model.” James Ellman, portfolio manager at hedge fund Seacliff Capital in San Francisco, commenting on this week’s earnings from four major investment banks.
    
“I don’t like to buy bonds that go down.” — Dan Fuss, vice chairman at Loomis Sayles in Boston, who helps oversee $77 billion in fixed-income assets, on why he hasn’t bought any of this year’s $1-billion-plus junk-bond LBO issues. 
    
“Our M&A section is really busy right now. The deals are flowing in. And it’s not just the number of deals, there are a fair amount of big deals, including those above 100 billion yen.” — Nomura Executive Vice President Hiromi Yamaji, who heads Nomura’s global investment banking team.
    
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for a stand-alone technology company to prosper, especially in light of the very strong competitors in the area. It might almost be dangerous to continue to stand alone.” — billionaire investor Carl Icahn after increasing his stake in BEA Systems to 8.5 percent and urging the company’s board to put the business software maker up for sale.
    
(Compiled by Martin Howell)