Its no hoax, this just came off of my Bloomberg: Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Bank of America By Andreas Hippin February 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Bank of America. The pirates would buy Bank of America with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Bank of America, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said. "You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything," said Ali. The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's. Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said: "We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase BOA at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster." Shandu added, "We don't call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better." *BOA IN TALKS WITH SOMALI PIRATES FOR POSSIBLE CAPITAL INFUSION *SOMALIAN PIRATES APPLY TO BECOME BANK TO ACCESS TARP *KASHKARI SAYS `SOMALI PIRATES ARE 'FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND' ' *Moody's upgrade Somali Pirates to AAA *SOMALI PIRATES IN DISCUSSION TO ACQUIRE BOA *FED OFFICIALS: AGGRESSIVE EASING WOULD CUT SOMALI PIRATE RISK * FED AGREED TO TAKE `WHATEVER STEPS' NEEDED FOR SOMALI PIRATES