Discover Needs Plastic Surgery

Fears of a consumer slowdown have hurt its stock, but the credit-card issuer's big problem is its image

BusinessWeek, November 29, 2007 — Discover Financial Services (DFS) couldn't have picked a worse time to become an independent company. The credit-card issuer, which was spun off from Morgan Stanley (MS) on June 30, collided head-on with a credit crunch and mounting fears about a slowdown in consumer spending. In five months the stock has sunk more than 40%.