Deutsche Bank Sees Merger by Mid-Year If All Else Fails

Interesting:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-31/deutsche-bank-said-to-see-merger-by-mid-year-if-all-else-fails

A merger of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank (or distress and misery) shall save both of them.

Deutsche Bank, under CEO Josef Ackermann, relied too much on Investment Banking. His stated goal was a return on equity of 25%. To achieve this goal they took way too much risk.
With the financial crisis of 2008 DB got into real financial difficulties (stock going from 150 to 30) and hasn't recovered until today.
The stock slipped through all of 2018:

2019 will be quite an interesting year for the Eurozone Banks...