Fremont General May Lose $80 million of ?Life Line? Funding

Fremont General, who pulled the plug on their subprime mortgage unit back in March under scrutiny from the FDIC, said today that a deal worth $80 million in cash to the beleaguered S&L is off as their billionaire investor has backed out. Neither party specified the reasoning behind the last-minute cancellation of the deal; but the company is working on securing financing from other sources. From Yahoo! Business News: Shares of Fremont fell as much as 23.6 percent. The group led by billionaire investor and former thrift executive Gerald J. Ford had agreed to buy preferred stock and warrants in Fremont, for an initial 16 percent stake. Fremont, though, said that "in light of certain developments pertaining to the company" and its Fremont Investment & Loan unit, the Ford