Merrill Lynch

Part of a series The Great American Write-Down

Merrill Lynch (MER) The $8.4 billion write-down Merrill took in the third quarter lead the company to a quarterly loss of $2.24 billion, the largest of their 93-year history. Estimates call for another $8 billion in the fourth quarter with a strong chance for more in 2008. To add insult-to-injury CEO Stan O’Neil, who led Merrill through four consecutive years of record profits as housing boomed, purchased subprime lender First Franklin Financial Corp from National City Corp for $1.4 billion. I guess O’Neil believed all the hype about the hype that subprime was contained and thought he would come out the other side as the somewhat of a genius.

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