Chapter 5

Implementation: Search through Closing

Phases 3 through 10

A man that is very good at making excuses is probably good at nothing else.

—Ben Franklin

Inside M&A: bank of america acquires merrill lynch

Against the backdrop of the Lehman Brothers' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Bank of America (BofA) CEO Kenneth Lewis announced on September 15, 2008, that the bank had reached agreement to acquire mega–retail broker and investment bank Merrill Lynch. Hammered out in a few days, investors expressed concern that BofA's swift action on the all-stock $50 billion transaction would saddle the firm with billions of dollars in problem assets by pushing BofA's share price down by 21%.

BofA saw the takeover of Merrill as an important step toward ...

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