In a letter to the media today, the world's largest financial services firm signaled that the brand name Salomon Smith Barney was no longer to be used. From now on, the firm is to be referred to as Citigroup. The old Sollys has been subsumed into the Global Corporate and Investment Bank.
This may seem an insignificant event when you have a war in Iraq, a deadly pneumonia virus and the threat of global recession. But for those with a sense of history, it is a significant changing of the guards. In its time, Salomon's was - de facto - the most important investment bank in the world.
With its brand's...
