Capital One Seen As Next on Auction Block

By Joe Bel Bruno, AP

Capital One Financial Corp. shares spiked Thursday as investors began to place their bets on which U.S. credit card company might be snapped up next following Bank of America Corp.'s $35 billion takeover of MBNA Corp.

The move by Bank of America — which originated MasterCharge back in 1960 — will create the world's largest issuer of Visa and MasterCard. But, the acquisition of MBNA also removes yet another big name in the credit card industry from the list of potential acquisition targets by larger financial services firms.

Washington Mutual Inc. earlier this month agreed to acquire credit card issuer Providian Financial Corp. in a $6.45 billion deal. Now, all eyes are on the future of Capital One — a firm that has itself been expanding with the acquisition of New Orleans-based retail bank Hibernia Corp. and is said to be eyeing other deals.

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