...- On Feb. 19, Capital One Financial Corp. announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Discover Financial Services, a large credit card issuer and payment network provider, in a $35.3 billion all-stock transaction. - We believe the benefits to Capital One from the acquisition in market share and profit synergies are roughly balanced against a higher concentration in credit cards and considerable execution risk. - As a result, we affirmed our long-term '###' issuer credit ratings on Capital One, '###+/A-2' issuer credit ratings on its bank subsidiary, as well as the existing issue ratings on its outstanding senior unsecured, subordinated, and preferred debt instruments. - Our stable outlook reflects our expectation that Capital One will successfully complete its acquisition of Discover despite possible execution challenges, and that it will mitigate its higher concentration to credit cards through conservative capital management and credit reserving policies over the next 12-24...
