Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch

[usedtobe]

Originally Posted by anifani821

Educate me. I didn't think BofA was big into wealth management - so surely there are not a lot of jobs at BofA that would be affected by a consolidation w/ Merrill. Correct? And one would suppose that Merrill would keeps its presence in NYC. So I don't see this as something that will affect BofA's employees, except those in wealth management. Am I wrong? I assume those jobs are presently in NYC and not CLT? Or am I wrong?

You are wrong alot of people will be losing there jobs over this 3 out of 5 of my family members work for merril lynch will lose their jobs they were given 2 months notice yesterday. I thought we would all be ok to but a whole lot of folks are on the cutting end of the table.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by usedtobe

You are wrong alot of people will be losing there jobs over this 3 out of 5 of my family members work for merril lynch will lose their jobs they were given 2 months notice yesterday. I thought we would all be ok to but a whole lot of folks are on the cutting end of the table.

You read my post incorrectly. I asked if BofA employees (here in CLT) would be losing their jobs - b/c I assumed they would NOT.

I have no idea what will happen w/ ML.

I am really sorry to hear that people will lose their jobs, no matter where they are located. We are in a horrible situation in this country right now. It is definitely going to affect people's lives. It has been quite shocking what has transpired.

But no, I was not talking about ML. I just have no knowledge about that situation - only have some insight into things here in CLT.

Again, I am really sorry to hear that ML employees are facing this situation.

[remedy a4]

I find it hard to believe that a competitive company would not do the due diligence on their employees and get rid of the bad from both sides versus just putting everyone on the acquired on the chopping block

if you were smart- you would determine who is rocking out in their job on both sides, hang on to them, and get rid of the poor internal performers on the acquiree side

[BlackOut]

For the person who has been sending me messages about Charlotte vs. Minneapolis, I wasn't trying to start a p*ssing contest. Minneapolis is a tier above Charlotte and there are several facts to back it. You are right in stating the city of Charlotte is bigger in population, but it's land area is over 4x the size of Minneapolis (Charlotte 242.3 sq. miles; Minneapolis 54.9 sq. miles). With that said, if Minneapolis could annex it's way to 242 sq. miles, it would be well over a million people. Stop with the messages and visit some cities outside NC. If not, pick up a book or do some research online.

Back to the topic.

[anifani821]

Minneapolis is a neat place, but the weather is a drawback. However, I love Kansas City and CHI so to me, it is probably not as big a deal as it would be to many others. Summers are short but sweet, LOL.

The culture and history of MN is sooooo very different that that of the South - any Southern state. It is just a very different place, IMHO and doesn't compare to CLT in many ways. MN has its own vibe. I love visiting the region. But as far as comparing CLT and Minnie . . . no way. Numbers cannot begin to explain how different the two regions are.

[BlackOut]

Originally Posted by BlackOut

Some layoffs? It will be more like 20,000.

Originally Posted by Whytewulf

And you are getting this information from where?

Merrill only has about 60,000 Associates of which around 16,000 are traders/advisors. If they generate revenue they would stay. Again very little overlap in this deal, but you will see some consolidation. Probably won't know until 2010 anyway.

I was pretty close with my estimate. Today’s Observer has an article stating, “At the high end, Aite Group analyst Alois Pirker said in a report last week that the bank may eliminate up to 27,000 jobs, roughly 10 percent of the combined work force of nearly 270,000 employees.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/100/story/59812.html

[pantherfan08]

Originally Posted by Londonlawyer

You obviously don't understand finance. Before Merrill, B of A was not a big i-bank, and Charlotte was an acceptable place to be if it wanted to continue servicing Aunt Mildred's savings accounts, Jo Schmo's home and auto loans, and XYZ's credit card. However, to the extent that (with Merrill), it is a player in i-banking and wants to be even more so, it must be in NY or London. It's that simple. Companies go to NY and London for M&A, to raise capital, etc. They don't come to Charlotte, let alone to substantially more signficiant cities like Boston or Frankfurt.

First of all - I don't think of BoA as a small bank when they are #1 in Wealth Management assets, which is an area of great revenue for most banks. Also BoA has been rated as a Top 10 Fortune 500 company right behind Citibank. So you're talking about a Bank that has been switching back and forth with Citibank as the largest commerical bank in the United States and also one of the biggest in the World. BoA already has alot of operations in NY and infact I would consider NY the secondary HQ's for BoA. I don't think headquarters matter as much as how you operate the company from within.

[Whytewulf]

Originally Posted by usedtobe

You are wrong alot of people will be losing there jobs over this 3 out of 5 of my family members work for merril lynch will lose their jobs they were given 2 months notice yesterday. I thought we would all be ok to but a whole lot of folks are on the cutting end of the table.

Thats odd that all 3 of your family that works for ML would get a 2 mo. notice right now. Not saying it isn't true, but they deal is so early in the stages and hasn't even met regulatory approval. If it closes it will be late Q1, almost 6 months from now and then there is usually a year before they figure out who needs to stay and go and then it would Bank of America making the decision not ML.

[Whytewulf]

Originally Posted by BlackOut

I was pretty close with my estimate. Today’s Observer has an article stating, “At the high end, Aite Group analyst Alois Pirker said in a report last week that the bank may eliminate up to 27,000 jobs, roughly 10 percent of the combined work force of nearly 270,000 employees.”

Job losses are looming at Charlotte's big banks | www.charlotteobserver.com

Who really knows how many, but even if that were true it would be over 4 to 5 years. I don't think the number of 270,000 is accurate, I think they are going to be over 300,000 after ML. But then again, numbers are numbers, the whole country is hurting right now, it's better then working at Lehman right now.