Merrill takes $14.1 billion writedown

Reuters Thursday, January 17, 2008; 7:37 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N) on Thursday said it took a $14.1 billion writedown and adjustments in the fourth quarter as bad subprime mortgage bets forced the brokerage to sell pieces of the company to foreign investors to raise capital.

Analysts expected Merrill's write-down to land anywhere from $10 billion to $15 billion. For the year, Merrill's subprime mortgage-related losses totaled nearly $23 billion.

Merrill reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $9.8 billion, or $12.01 a share, the largest in the company's history. The world's largest brokerage turned a profit of $2.3 billion, or $2.41 a share, in the year-ago period.

The results eclipse the $2.3 billion loss in the third quarter when Merrill recorded an $8.4 billion write-down.

In a statement, Chief Executive John Thain called the results "clearly unacceptable." But in the past month, Merrill has fortified its balance sheet with nearly $13 billion in capital infusions from U.S. and Asian investors.

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What does that mean, John?

You, as leader of Merrill Lynch, participated in one of the biggest banking and lending frauds ever to be sprung upon the American public and now you find the results of that quasi-criminal activity unacceptable?

Isn't that sort of like John Dillinger finding a jail-term for bank robbery unacceptable?

I understand that it's embarrassing for you to be standing there in front of all your peers and friends with your pants around your ankles--but unacceptable does not have the same meaning as undeserved.