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This is what happens when a major banking corporation does not do their homework. BofA is upset that Merrill was not quite honest about their bad loses when the two were working on the BofA buyout of the company. Crooks screwing over the other crooks. I love it!
John Thain, former chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co, has been ousted from Bank of America Corp after the bank discovered surprise losses at the brokerage it bought three weeks ago.
Thain and Lewis cobbled together the merger after less than 48 hours of negotiations in mid-September, the same weekend Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc slid into bankruptcy.
But Lewis threatened to back out of the deal following shareholder votes at both companies last month after it became evident Merrill's finances were much worse than expected.
Lewis said U.S. regulators pressed him to complete the deal. Last week, the government agreed to inject $20 billion in capital, and to share in losses on $118 billion of debt.
Bank of America said Merrill lost $15.31 billion in the fourth quarter, separate from Bank of America's own $1.79 billion quarterly loss -- its first in 17 years. The bank also slashed its dividend to a penny per share.
The really sad part of this entire rip-off? Merrill moved up the date of announced bonus to late December so that employees could get theirs before the merger. Bonuses were announced three days before the merger closed on January 1,2009.
Merrill lost $15.31 billion in the fourth quarter but they have reportedly paid bonuses totaling $4 billion. Of course, those bonuses had to have been paid with money from we taxpayers.
Wish I could find work that paid me millions to lose money for the company.
