LYNCH PINNED

MERRILL CEO O'NEAL: 'I GOT IT WRONG,' ON RISK

By RODDY BOYD
NY POST

October 25, 2007 -- The breathtaking third-quarter loss that Merrill Lynch reported yesterday due to its problematic portfolio of loans and securities isn't likely to be the final chapter in what is proving to be a painful autumn for both the Wall Street giant and its CEO Stan O'Neal.

While O'Neal accepted responsibility for the $8.4 billion write-down that led to a $2.23 billion quarterly loss - Merrill's first since 2001 - the bloodshed already seen, along with the expectation of more coming in the fourth quarter, has led to rampant speculation that darker days are in store for both the firm and its leader.

"The bottom line is . . . I got it wrong by being overexposed to subprime, and we suffered as a result of impaired liquidity," O'Neal told analysts during a conference call yesterday.

Merrill's stock dropped $3.90, a 5.8 percent decline to $63.22, a new low for the year.

The erasure of more than $3.47 billion in market capitalization is the least of the firm's woes, however.

Standard and Poor's was the first rating agency to take out the long knives as it shaved its debt rating to A+ from AA-, and kept the firm on "negative outlook."

Even more eye-catching was the language that the usually circumspect ratings analysts used in describing their moves.

Leslie Bright, senior bank analyst at Fitch, told The Street.com, "We see some risk-management issues that have to be addressed that are above and beyond the third quarter."

S&P's Scott Prinzen called Merrill's woes "startling," blaming the losses on "management miscues." He called the scope of the losses "staggering."

Uh oh...

I'm STILL trying to figure out why they bought Gate Gourmet International, Inc. when airlines are going away from in-flight food service!

He'll be gone before the end of the year.

--------------------------------------------

Friday, September 24, 2004, at 11:00 a.m.
Cramton Auditorium, Main Campus

Inaugurating the 137th Academic Year of the
University. Mr. Stan O’Neal will be the Convocation

Orator and will be awarded an honorary degree,
Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

http://www.howard.edu/convocation/2004/

He's gone this week,if not this afternoon from what I'm hearing.

O'Neal Out as Merrill Reels From Loss

By RANDALL SMITH
October 29, 2007 8:43 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Whenever Goldman Sachs Group Inc. would report quarterly profits in recent years, the pain would be felt nearby, at the downtown headquarters of Merrill Lynch & Co.

There, Merrill Chief Executive Stan O'Neal would grill his executives about why, for instance, Goldman was showing faster growth in bond-trading profits. Subordinates would scurry to analyze the Goldman earnings to get answers to Mr. O'Neal. "It got to the point where you didn't want to be in the office" on Goldman earnings days, one former Merrill executive recalls.


Soon it will be Mr. O'Neal's turn to avoid the office. The 56-year-old CEO was negotiating the terms of his forced departure yesterday afternoon in the wake of a multibillion-dollar write-off he announced last week, according to a person briefed on the negotiations. Merrill's board is expected to consider external candidates and current Merrill executives in its search for a successor. Mr. O'Neal's resignation is expected to be announced as early as today.

Calls to Mr. O'Neal's office and home weren't returned. A Merrill spokeswoman said he wasn't available to comment.

http://www.onlinetradersforum.com/showthread.php?s=fd7e...b4&p=82483#post82483

I'm risk averse but I'm not gonna be foolish not to allocate my risk with SOME risk-free assets to balance it out.

Taking on too much risk in hopes for greater returns is nothing short of playing a financial Russian Roulette, weather corporate or personal.

He might have survived had he not hit the panic button and called Wachovia. He wasn't the only one that didn't understand how far subprime risk trickled. We may hear the same from his counterparts that use different quarter ends for reporting.

Well now Chuck Prince is supposed to resign from Citigroup on Sunday...

Yes, you have to manage risk. When you enter a position you must also have an exit stretegy in place and stick to it. Risk Management 101.

I would love to have his platinum parachute!