Merrill CEO may get $5.2M in BofA deal (at bizjournals.com) and Washington Mutual wins ruling on limiting trading (Reuters)

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City of Industry, CA --(www.USEquityNews.com)-- 11/08/2008 - Money Center Banks industry alert provided by U.S. Equity News. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. CEO John Thain is slated to receive a $5.22 million payment if Bank of America Corp. buys the company by Dec. 31. According to a BofA filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the payment reflects the value of stock awards that would vest automatically when the merger is completed. BofA and Merrill shareholders will vote Dec. 5 on BofA's proposed acquisition of the New York-based company. The purchase will make BofA (NYSE :BAC) the nation's leading retail brokerage and wealth-management firm, with more than $2.5 trillion in client assets and more than 20,000 financial advisers. The deal also promises to make BofA a much larger institution in investment banking, where the bank has largely been a fringe player. BofA's acquisition of Merrill (NYSE: MER) comes at a time when the model of the stand-alone investment bank has been called into question by the financial crisis on Wall Street. [Read the full article]


By Jonathan StempelNEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge ordered on Friday that trading be limited in Washington Mutual Inc (OTC: WAMUQ) stock, a move that the largest U.S. lender ever to fail said could help it protect billions of dollars of tax breaks.

Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, found that unrestricted trading of common and preferred stock during Washington Mutual's bankruptcy case "could severely limit" the company's ability to use the tax benefits. Washington Mutual estimated it has more than $20 billion of losses that could qualify for the benefits.The interim order covers "substantial equityholders" who own or plan to amass a least 4.75 percent of the thrift's common stock, or roughly similar stakes in preferred stock issues. [Read the full article]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pending U.S. home sales fell more than expected in September, after posting a big jump in the previous month.The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4.6 percent Friday to a reading of 89.2. That's down from an upwardly revised August reading of 93.5.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a September reading of 90.6.The index was 1.6 percent above year-ago levels. It sunk to a record low of 83 in March, and stood at 87.8 in September 2007.The reading should provide a preview of October's existing home sales numbers when the Realtors group releases them on Nov. 24. [Read the full article]

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