The Bank of America - Merrill Lynch Merger: Finance, Stocks, Credit, Wealth Management (2009)

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Merrill Lynch Wealth Management is the wealth management division of Bank of America. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and occupies the entire 34 stories of the Four World Financial Center building in Manhattan. Merrill Lynch employs over 15,000 financial advisors and manages $2.2 trillion in client assets.[4] The firm has its origins in Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. which, prior to 2009, was publicly owned and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MER. Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be acquired by Bank of America on September 14, 2008, at the height of the 2008 Financial Crisis.[5] The acquisition was completed in January 2009[6] and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. was merged into Bank of America Corporation in October 2013, although certain Bank of America subsidiaries continue to carry the Merrill Lynch name, including the broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. Significant losses were attributed to the drop in value of its large and unhedged mortgage portfolio in the form of collateralized debt obligations. Trading partners' loss of confidence in Merrill Lynch's solvency and ability to refinance short-term debt ultimately led to its sale.[48][49] During the week of September 8, 2008, Lehman Brothers came under severe liquidity pressures, with its survival in question. If Lehman Brothers failed, investors were afraid that the contagion could spread to the other surviving investment banks. (Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, after government officials could not find a merger partner for it.) On Sunday, September 14, 2008, Bank of America announced it was in talks to purchase Merrill Lynch for $38.25 billion in stock.[50] The Wall Street Journal reported later that day that Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America for 0.8595 shares of Bank of America common stock for each Merrill Lynch common share, or about US$50 billion or $29 per share.[51] This price represented a 70.1% premium over the September 12 closing price or a 38% premium over Merrill's book value of $21 a share,[52] but that also meant a discount of 61% from its September 2007 price.[53] Congressional testimony by Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, as well as internal emails released by the House Oversight Committee, indicate that Bank of America was threatened with the firings of the management and board of Bank of America as well as damaging the relationship between the bank and federal regulators, if Bank of America did not go through with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch.[54][55][56] In March 2009 it was reported that in 2008, Merrill Lynch received billions of dollars from its insurance arrangements with AIG, including $6.8 billion from funds provided by the United States taxpayers to bail out AIG. Merrill Edge is a discount brokerage service provided by Merrill Lynch.[79] The online service was launched on 21 June 2010.[80][81][82] The service was expected to compete with similar firms like Charles Schwab Corporation and E*Trade. Before the launching of this service, Merrill Lynch worked with clients who had over $250,000 of liquid assets. This service was designed to allow a wider demographic to invest with Bank of America. According to the website, the service offers "the investments insights of Merrill Lynch plus the convenience of Bank of America banking". Other competitors listed are Ameritrade and Fidelity Investments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_Lynch