Richard Bove is really hammering home a point about Lehman Brothers: The investment bank has big problems that it better deal with it soon.

The Ladenburg Thalmann analyst put out a new research note — the second such note in a week –saying Lehman’s management will have to address its issues rather than just “toughing it out,” or it could face a hostile takeover bid.

What does the investment bank need to do? Says Bove: Lehman must more aggressively write down some of its real estate portfolio and hedge fund investments, raise new capital and rebuild relationships with key employees hurt by the stock’s nosedive.

“I repeat, that if Lehman does not take these actions it is likely that an outsider will do this for the firm through a hostile takeover,” Bove said.

There is good reason to hear the man out. He’s been right before. He was one of the first banking analysts to recommend selling financial stocks as credit market problems began last year.

Lehman is looking at cutting some 1,200 jobs in its latest round of cost cutting, a source said. Bove said that announcement will likely be the first in a series that may be made in the next 10 days.

 ”This saga is not likely to continue much longer,” Bove wrote. But he added that he believed the result will be a “positive one,” keeping his “buy” rating on the stock.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

After the pummeling U.S. banks have been taking from the credit crunch, you’d think British bankers would try to learn from the mistakes of their U.S. counterparts. Not so, writes the New York Times’ DealBook. A majority claim they have made no changes to their strategy, according to a survey to come out next week. That might be par for the course as British banks face turmoil: denial is the first of the Kuebler-Ross stages of coping with grief.

Print media companies are trying find buyers this summer, but PE Hub asks who would invest in companies with declining business model, pointing to the Newark Star-Ledger’s goal to sell itself. One area in traditional media that is looking up is radio.

Asia is becoming a growing hub for currency trading, with French bank Crédit Agricole moving its head of forex strategy to Hong Kong from London, according to the Wall Street Journal’s DealJournal.

Other deals of the day:

** GlaxoSmithKline Plc has signed a deal potentially worth up to $820 million with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to access the U.S. company’s experimental epilepsy and pain treatments. The alliance gives Europe’s biggest drugmaker worldwide rights to a new epilepsy drug, retigabine, that could reach the market in 2010.

** Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-largest airline, plans to pay 65 million euros ($96.1 million) for a 45 percent stake in fledgling carrier Brussels Airlines with the option to buy all of the company in two years.

** The head of French car parts maker Valeo predicted on Thursday it would make a further acquisition this year to bolster its technology. The comments come amid speculation that Valeo among others could be interested in parts of German tire and components group Continental AG.

** Russia’s biggest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) said it was spending 11.1 billion roubles ($451.2 million) buying out shareholders who opposed a merger with a regional operator. New York-listed MTS said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it would buy about 37.8 million shares from investors.
($1=24.60 Rouble)