Columbia Landed Pacific Premier After Others Passed

Three big banks were pitched the deal, but tariff-induced market turmoil was an impediment. Columbia moved ahead and agreed to pay $2 billion to accelerate its California expansion.

Hello, Bank Slaters!

We took a look at the registration statement for Columbia Banking System’s pending purchase of Pacific Premier Bancorp—and found some interesting nuggets to share.

They say timing is everything. Pacific Premier shopped itself out to three other large banks, and each decided that it wasn’t an ideal moment to make such a big deal work. It makes sense—worries over tariffs had created significant market volatility.

That left Columbia, which planned to spend the next decade building out its California operations, in a position to significantly accelerate that timeline.

Here is a look at what happened behind the scenes of the $2 billion bank merger.

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Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Wash., struck a deal to buy Pacific Premier Bancorp in Irvine, Calif., after three other large banks passed on making an offer.

The $51.5 billion-asset Columbia agreed in April to buy the $18.1 billion-asset Pacific Premier for $2 billion in a deal expected to close in the second half of this year.