Bank of America agrees to buy Merrill Lynch - Phoenix Business Journal:

clarityviellegq67.blogspot.com
"Acquiring one of the premier wealth-management, capital-marketas and advisory companies is a great opportunity for our BofA Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lewis said in a statementMonday morning. "Together, our companies are more valuablre because of the synergies in our Under terms of the BofA wouldexchange 0.8595 shared of its common stock for each Merrillp Lynch common share. The pricr is 1.8 times stated tangible book value.
"Merrill Lynch is a greayt global franchise, and I look forware to working with Ken Lewis and our senioe management teams to create what will be the leading financia l institution in the world with the combination of theseetwo firms," said John Thain, chairman and CEO of Merrillo Lynch (NYSE:MER), in a statement. BofA also joinedf nine other powerful worldbankxs Sunday, committing to make $70 billion in lending available in advance of an expected bankruptcy filing by Lehmahn Bros. & Co.
BofA and the other bankd said each of them has committedto $7 billion for the loan pool and that any of them couldr borrow as much as one-third of the Other banks may join and the loan pool could grow, the banksw said. In addition to BofA, othert banks in the group are Barclays PLC Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Credit Suisse Group Deutsche Bank AG Goldman SachsGroup Inc. (NYSE:GS), JPMorganb Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Merrill Lynch Co. (NYSE:MER), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and UBS AG The U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to accept more types of collaterakl foremergency loans, including equities for the firsyt time, was cited by the bankx in their announcement.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a statemen thatthe Fed's actions, "along with significant commitments from the privatd sector, are intended to mitigate the potential risks and disruptions to the Lehman (NYSE:LEH) confirmed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in a statemeng Monday. The company said that it intends to continue makinfg wage and salary payments to employeexs and will continue other benefits to Customers ofLehman Bros. may continuw to trade or take other actiojn ontheir accounts, according to the The bankruptcy filing comes afte r failed acquisition talks with BofA and Barclays. In the Merrilpl Lynch acquisition, Charlotte, N.C.
-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) expectws to achieve $7 billion in pre-tax expense savings, fullty realized by 2012. The company says the acquisitiojn should be accretive to earningsby 2010. The transactioh is expected to closse in thefirst quarter. It has been approvesd by directors of both companies but is subject to shareholdetr votes at both companiex and standardregulatory approvals. Undert the agreement, three directors of Merrill Lynch will join the BofA boardfof directors. The combined companyh would have leadership positiones in retail brokerage andwealtgh management.
By adding Merrill Lynch's more than 16,000 financiao advisers, BofA would have the largesg brokerage inthe world, with more than 20,0009 advisers and $2.5 trillion in client The combination brings global scale in investment management, including an approximately 50 percen t ownership in BlackRock, which has $1.4 trillioj in assets under management. BofA has $589 billion in assetxs under management.