Given that Capital One Financial (COF) recently closed its acquisition of Hibernia, I was a little surprised to see that they are buying New York based North Fork (NFB) so soon after. Also interesting was the fact that news of this deal did not leak out whatsoever ahead of time. In case you missed it (I didn't given that COF is a long-time Peridot holding), Capital One stock was up $4 on Friday to an all-time high.

Given that merger arbs will be shorting Capital One stock to play the deal out, we will likely see some of that huge gain given back this week. The stock is down $5 in pre-market trading. Nonetheless, COF management continues to execute on their strategy and shareholders will likely continue to reap the benefits. The NFB deal appears to be a good one for everyone involved. NFB holders get more than a 20 percent premium to Friday's closing price, and yet COF is only paying 1.6 times book value, which is hardly considered high in the world of bank buyouts.