UK's First Group buying Greyhound Lines--

specifically its parent Laidlaw. Let's hope First Group's experience is better than that of its countryman Stagecoach, which bought CoachUSA in 1999 for £1.2 billion and within 3 years wrote down 73% of its value.

What do the credit analysts think of First's purchase? Not much. They don't like Laidlaw's weak balance sheet and worry that it may taint First Group's.

So how's this about trains? First Group is also a major train operator in the UK. So was a company called Sea Containers, through its subsidiary GNER--until it filed for bankruptcy and got its train license yanked.