Merrill/BofA: Heist of the Herd

Bank of America looks to have pulled off the Wall Street heist of a generation. Once cost-savings from BofA’s $50bn purchase of Merrill Lynch are vectored into the transaction, BofA appears to be snatching up the biggest US stock broker virtually for free. But appearances can also be deceiving. In acquiring Merrill for stock, BofA also assumes a boatload of risks associated with more than $90bn of potentially dodgy assets still stuck on the investment bank’s balance sheet. Even though the deal ...