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Salomon Smith Barney's decision to axe 100 members of the firm's stock sales and trading group last week was not without its internal political subplots. While more Smith Barney veterans were shown the door, the highest-ranking members on the equity side to lose their jobs were predominantly holdovers from the old Salomon Brothers.
The move is being bitterly viewed in some circles as the final Smith Barney power play in a turf war that started immediately after the combination of the two competitively ranked (Smith Barney was higher), but philosophically opposed, investment banks. Well over a dozen key members of the Salomon equity team had already either been fired or had resigned-including Salomon's equity capital markets chief Terry Fitzgerald, who landed at Schroders.
Following the firm's recent disclosure of $325 million in third quarter...