Merrill posts fourth consecutive quarterly loss

by David Masters

Story link: Merrill posts fourth consecutive quarterly loss

Merrill Lynch & Co, Wall Street’s third largest investment bank, last week reported a quarterly loss of $4.89 billion.

Shares in the company fell 6% following the announcement.

This is the fourth quarterly loss in a row for the bank, and is twice the size of the loss that had been anticipated by analysts.

CEO John Thain called the quarter - in which the company took $9.4 billion in charges and write-downs - ‘difficult and disappointing’.

Thain was appointed last November to turn around the ailing fortunes of the company, which had been doing badly due to massive write-downs of complex debt securities.

Write-downs, however, continue to plague the company, and Thain’s stint at the helm remains haunted by the bad business decisions by predecessor Stanley O’Neal.

As the value of mortgage backed securities and other debt continues to plummet, Merrill is seeking to reduce the risk of further losses through asset sales.

A key asset sale will be Merrill’s 20% stake in news and financial data company Bloomberg, which will be sold back to Bloomberg for $4.43 billion.