It’s not unusual, of course, for the stock of one company to go down after a buyout is announced. But it is unusual for the stock of both companies to go down and quite unusual for the stock of both to tank like they did last week. (The story is on Page 1.)

But L.A.’s Gemstar has long been, shall we say, an intriguing company. Aside from the well-chronicled antics of former chief Henry Yuen, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, Gemstar has cost the normally prescient Rupert Murdoch dearly.

Breakingviews.com last week figured that Murdoch and his News Corp. (which still owns 41 percent of Gemstar) has seen about $7 billion in value disappear thanks to Gemstar.

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Speaking of intriguing, Angelo Mozilo’s announcement last year that he would stay on as chief of Countrywide Financial Corp. may be the most intriguing decision by a local executive in the last couple of years.

Mozilo, who just turned 69, could have retired as scheduled one year ago and bought his own South Seas island where he could have dropped out of sight and enjoyed his centi-millionaire status. But he decided to labor on.

Surely he knew or at least sensed the coming devastation in the home mortgage business and his own company’s central role in that mess. Surely he sensed that 2007 and maybe 2008 would be the most trying years of his career. So why didn’t he get out when the gettin’ was good?

There’s been little explanation of his decision. One view: He felt an obligation to help the company he founded get through its darkest hour. A more cynical view: He needed to be in a position to manage his interests in a sinking ship and not be scapegoated after he left.

In any event, it was a decision that becomes more intriguing as time goes on and the mortgage morass deepens.

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Ten or 12 years or so ago, back when we had people called policy wonks and they talked about the peace dividend, retail bankers used to talk about their own version of the peace dividend. It was the savings that they’d realize from the end of the branching wars.

They figured that with the onset of online banking, they could chop back on their expensive branch offices and save money.

And the number of branches did dive in the late ’90s, but as you can see in our special report this week that begins on Page 19, the number of bank branches in the last five years has increased almost 10 percent. Online banking may be fine, but it seems people still want their branches. And they want them to be convenient.

If you think about it, the last time you selected a bank you probably picked one that had a branch most convenient to you. I would probably change banks if my neighborhood branch closed. And while it is true that retail bank customers today don’t go to banks nearly as often they did 20 or more years ago, when they do go, they want it to be near.

Turns out the branch dividend was almost as specious as the peace dividend.

Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at

[email protected]

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