New Century Files for Bankruptcy

This has been looming for a while... while most are not surprised, I still consider it big news:

New Century Financial Corp., once a highflying home lender, filed for
bankruptcy-court protection Monday as expected, becoming the biggest casualty from the cratering of the U.S. market for high-risk residential mortgages. In its Chapter 11 filing in Delaware bankruptcy court, the Irvine, Calif., lender listed over $100 million in assets and more than $100 million in debts. Numbers were vague because the official bankruptcy form only had boxes to check off that had a range of values. "More than $100 million" is the largest value range given.

In connection with the Chapter 11 filing, New Century said it will reduce its work force by about 3,200, or 54%, to cut costs and resize certain businesses in preparation for a possible sale, effective immediately.