First Security Corp

Stamps.com Inc., which provides Internet mailing and shipping services, said its first-quarter loss deepened much more than expected, to $36.9 million, or 86 cents a share, on revenue of $2 million. Analysts expected a loss of 69 cents a share. The Santa Monica-based company had a loss of $3.7 million, or 53 cents, in the year-earlier quarter, when revenue was nil. Stamps.com shares closed unchanged at $15.19 on Nasdaq, before the results were released.

Wells Fargo & Co. said Monday that it agreed to buy First Security Corp. for $2.9 billion in stock, less than two weeks after Zions Bancorp shareholders rejected an earlier merger agreement with First Security. The acquisition deal is the latest by Wells Fargo Chief Executive Richard M. Kovacevich, who shook hands on an agreement with sometime tennis partner First Security CEO Spencer F. Eccles in San Francisco three days after the Zions agreement collapsed.

First Security Corp. agreed to buy California State Bank for about $270 million, as the Salt Lake City-based bank expands in Southern California. West Covina-based California State Bank, which has assets of $849.2 million and 17 branches, will receive stock from First Security, which has assets of about $17.3 billion. Shareholders would receive 1.42 shares of First Security stock for each California State share. After a 50% First Security stock dividend payable on Feb.

The ranks of independent investment banks thinned again Wednesday when San Francisco-based Van Kasper & Co. agreed to a $100-million purchase by First Security Corp., a bank holding company based in Salt Lake City. Van Kasper, which has offices in nine cities, including Los Angeles and Newport Beach, will operate as a division of First Security's capital markets unit.

Marine National Bank, an Irvine-based institution with three branches, is being sold by its South Korean parent corporation, Shinhan Bank, to First Security Corp. of Salt Lake City. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed in the announcement Thursday; Shinhan paid $13 million three years ago when it acquired Marine National.

With a growing number of California's best-known investment banks now controlled by East Coast banks, the smaller Van Kasper & Co. hopes to capture more business here by carving out a reputation as one of the West's leading investment banks. In September, San Francisco-based Van Kasper agreed to a $100-million purchase by First Security Corp., a bank holding company in Salt Lake City. The deal is on track to close in January.

Utah-based First Security Corp. said Monday it completed its previously announced acquisition Marine National Bank in Irvine. Terms of the buyout announced Oct. 1 weren't disclosed. Marine's former owner, Shinhan Bank of South Korea, paid $13 million for the three-branch institution in 1995. Marine's branches are in Irvine, Newport Beach and Orange. Salt Lake City-based First Security is the second-largest bank holding company in the West.

Zions Bancorp, the No. 2 bank in Utah, on Sunday agreed to buy its bigger rival First Security Corp. for $5.9 billion in stock to create the 20th-largest bank in the U.S. Zions, which has about $18 billion in assets, will exchange 0.442 of its shares, or $28.90 a share, for each share of First Security, a 55% premium to First Security's closing price Friday of $18.63 on Nasdaq. First Security has about $22 billion in assets.

Securitas, the world's largest security services company, bought two U.S. rivals for $202 million in cash, as the Swedish company continues its acquisition spree to sustain growth. Securitas, which earlier this year bought Westlake Village-based Pinkerton's Inc. of the U.S., acquired Oakland-based American Protective Services Inc., and Boston-based First Security Corp.