Sovereign Bancorp apparently got some angry phone calls on Wednesday after its CEO told the Reuters Finance Summit that the thrift was in talks with Dunkin’ Donuts to put its ATM machines in some of its franchises.
Asked whether Sovereign would consider doing an ATM deal with Dunkin’, Chief Executive Joseph Campanelli said:
“Yeah, they’ve got very good site selection, whether it’s developing pads de novo, whether it’s leveraging ATMs with the new stores. We are looking and talking about how do we work together on those types of things.”
A few moments earlier, he was also quite expansive in describing the S&L’s relationship with the popular fast food chain:
“It’s obviously a New England-based company,” he said. ”We know Jon Luther well. We know their investor group with Bain well. We do talk with them about their strategies and where they’re expanding to and how it would complement what we’re doing.”
But a few hours later, Campanelli, or Sovereign, reconsidered.
The bank issued a denial of his previous comments, saying it was “not in discussions with Dunkin Donuts regarding ATMs or any other joint venture.”
The story could have ended there. Except that it didn’t. The next day, Dunkin’ Brands issued a rebuttal to Campanelli’s comments that was anything but sugar-coated.
“While Mr. Luther and Mr. Campanelli enjoy a friendly relationship and mutual respect for one another, we were certainly surprised by his recent remarks discussing a potential alliance between our two companies. For the record, Dunkin’ Brands does not discuss our business strategies with other companies (including Sovereign Bank) and will not comment further on conversations that did not take place, or strategic alliances that do not exist.”
What did Campanelli say? Click below for the audio.