Wreck of IndyMac Sold for $13.9B

A team of high-profile investors has bought the remains of failed bank IndyMac from the FDIC for $13.9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investors, including George Soros and computer tycoon Michael Dell, have agreed to share the losses from IndyMac's portfolio of troubled mortgages in a deal expected to cost the FDIC around $9 billion.

The sale of the failed bank to a group of investors rather than to a healthy bank is unusual for the FDIC, leading analysts to believe that there may be a growing pool of private money ready to step in where bruised banks still fear to tread. Yesterday's deal could also signal a belief among investors that the financial and housing crisis has reached its bottom—or it may have just been too good to pass up. (More bank failure stories.)