Time Magazine recently covered an article about how the BB&T Corporation takeover of Colonial BancGroup is the third best business deal in all of 2009, in their opinion. The story, explaining how this little unknown bank has grown from about $5 billion in overall assets to approximately $163.5 billion in twenty years, was covered here at American Banking News.

The bank BB&T seems to be singled out for its success because of its calm and cool nature. While other financial facilities were scrambling during the onset of the economic crash to make rush deals, BB&T remained conservative and waited to nab one great acquisition.

Colonial landed their new owner assets of $21.8 billion. For the fourth quarter, BB&T reported their net income totaled $194 million. “We enjoyed record net revenues for 2009, driven by strong mortgage banking income of $658 million and record insurance income, which exceeded $1 billion, as well as solid growth in net interest income,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kelly S. King.

As for the Colonial BancGroup takeover, here’s what CEO King had to say: “Our Colonial Bank integration is progressing well and all remaining systems are scheduled to be converted by the end of the second quarter. We continue to expect meaningful earnings accretion from the transaction, which provides tremendous strategic benefits for BB&T.” BB&T should be showing up in the news much more as their growth continues to affect more banks and the economy.