Life after tech.(Citigroup acquires Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival)(Brief Article)

Byline: Robert Teitelman and Jeffrey Kanige

Citigroup's $12.5 billion proposed acquisition of Mexico's Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival is a reminder that there's more to life than tech.

The acquisition represents the return of a theme that Wall Street once fixated on: emerging markets. In the mid-1990s, Wall Street firms poured their capital into greater China, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, India, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Russia and various outposts in Eastern Europe. In these often less-than-transparent, seemingly high-growth paradises, firms could reap windfall profits. The strategy, like the Web boom, carried its own ideology. Emerging markets were on a …