LEH

The WSJ reports the investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. spent Thursday energetically shopping itself to potential buyers among them Bank of America (BAC) just a day after insisting it had found a way to patch up its massive real-estate-related losses. Given the firm's deep financial troubles, a deal of any sort is far from certain, according to people familiar with the situation. In addition, prospective buyers, which also could include Barclays (BSC), would likely want the U.S. government to help shield them from future losses from any such transaction, these people said, as happened in March, when Bear Stearns was forced into a deal to be acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM). In that deal, the federal government agreed to absorb as much as $29 billion in potential losses. Federal officials currently aren't expected to structure a bailout along the lines of the Bear transaction or this past weekend's rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.