by Tanta on 7/08/2008 07:44:00 PM

July 8, 2008, via Housing Wire:

According to a press statement released late Tuesday, Northbrook, Ill.-based Prospect Mortgage has signed an agreement to acquire more than 60 branch offices nationwide and 750 of Indymac’s retail employees, including loan officers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The employees will become Prospect mortgage employees, with the branches being renamed, the company said; it’s unclear if the company intends to cut staff in the wake of the planned acquisition.

Both John Johnston and Ron Bergum will remain in their leadership roles with the retail branch group and report to Mark Filler, CEO of Prospect Mortgage; both Johnston and Bergum were senior retail banking executives at now-bankrupt American Home Mortgage Co. before joining Indymac.

August 29, 2007 via Bloomberg:

One mortgage lender announced that it was hiring yesterday as it tried to take advantage of the turmoil in the market, while another said it was cutting jobs.

IndyMac Bancorp said it had hired more than 600 former employees of the American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation and might hire 250 more.

IndyMac will also assume the leases on more than 90 offices where the employees worked.

Last month, IndyMac eliminated 400 back-office processing jobs, about 4 percent of the work force.

This year’s surge in missed loan payments reduced the profitability of home lending, forcing more than 100 mortgage companies to close, declare bankruptcy or put themselves up for sale. IndyMac joins Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch’s First Franklin unit in trying to benefit from the shake-out by hiring displaced workers.

Hope Prospect Mortgage's business cards are handled on a print-on-demand basis. I'm not sure I'd stock up.