Option One Cuts 185 AEs; Sale Still On

Option One Mortgage Corp., Irvine, Calif., has trimmed 185 account executives from its work force as part of a restructuring plan, reporting that more cuts may lie ahead.Meanwhile, the nation's third-largest subprime lender said the sale of the company to hedge fund Cerberus Capital is moving forward and still may close by Oct. 31, the end of its fiscal second quarter. There has been speculation in the market that Cerberus may be getting cold feet in regard to Option One. Earlier in the week, the Cerberus-owned Aegis Mortgage of Houston stopped funding loans and trimmed hundreds of workers. (In May, Option One announced plans to close 12 mortgage processing offices and trim 600 workers by early September.) In April Cerberus agreed to pay just shy of $1 billion in cash for Option One, but the price is based on Option One's net asset value, which has dropped during the nation's subprime crisis. Option One can be found online at http://www.optiononemortgage.com.