In March 1998, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the Irwindale-based H. F. Ahmanson & Company with its Home Savings of America subsidiary for approximately $10 billion in stock. The acquisition was completed in October 1998 for only $6.9 billion in stock. Before the merger was complete, WaMu had a total of 892 branch operating under various names (WaMu, American Savings, Great Western, etc.) across the country while Home Savings had 409 branch offices operating in California and Texas. A few days after the completion of the merger, WaMu announces plans to close 161 branch offices in California. Through the 1998 acquisition of Home Savings, WaMu had gained 48 branch offices in Texas. In August 2000, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the Houston-based Bank United Corporation with its 155 branch offices, all located in Texas, for $1.49 billion in stock. The acquisition was completed in February 2001. As a result of branch overlap between Bank United and WaMu, 17 branch offices were closed in Texas, 10 of which were in Houston. In June 2001, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the New York City-based Dime Bancorp with its Dime Savings Bank subsidiary for $5.2 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed in January 2002. Dime had 123 branch offices in the New York City area of both New York and New Jersey. With a thrift charter, there were a few things that WaMu was not able to do until it was able to obtain a commercial bank charter, such as making commercial loans above a certain size. To get around this problem, WaMu began to purchase commercial banks and maintain them as separate business entities. In August 1995, WaMu acquired the one office Bellevue-based Enterprise Bank in Washington. A few months later, WaMu acquired the 41 office Coos Bay-based Western Bank in Oregon. By 1997, the Enterprise name and Western Bank name were megred and operated under Western Bank moniker. After WaMu expanded into California through the acquisitions of American Savings, Great Western, and Home Savings, WaMu quietly acquired the one-office Industrial Bank in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles an undisclosed amount in 1999 and renamed it WM Business Bank. By 2001, WaMu had 38 specialized business banking centers operating under the Western Bank name in the Northwest and the WM Business Bank name in California when they decided to exit their ill-fated venture into the commercial banking market that was then dominated with the likes of Wells Fargo and Bank of America.