Unless you live in a vacuum, then you've probably heard that in a deal put together over the weekend (in less than 48 hours), Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch for $50 Billion (that's billion with a "b") in an all-stock transaction.
I was resting peacefully yesterday afternoon when my phone rang about 4:00 in the afternoon. When your Director calls you at home on a Sunday afternoon (and your stock was in the tank on Friday) you know something is up. I was informed that our Board was meeting in New York to approve a sale to B of A. I immediatly turned on the computer and CNBC to absorb all of the information that I could get my hands on.
This morning I was at the office at 4:45 a.m. ready for an analyst call at 5:00 a.m. Gotta love the Eastern to Pacific time zone issues! The day then followed with the phones ringing off the hook, a global employee town hall teleconference, a local office, and lots of questions from clients and employees. After almost 12 hours at work, I called it quits at 4:34 this afternoon and headed home.
So far we are pretty positive about the deal and what it means for our division of Merrill. The wealth management piece is what B of A was after. Our model and infrastructure will hopefully stay in tact. Only time will tell.....
