Wall Street's rumor mill went into overdrive on Friday as several media reports suggested that investment bank Merrill Lynch was poised to oust its embattled chief executive Stan O'Neal.
O'Neal was already in the hot seat after the bank and brokerage disclosed on Wednesday that it had been forced to write off a staggering US$7.9 billion in investments largely due to soured bets on mortgage-backed securities.
The media reports said O'Neal, who has been Merrill Lynch's CEO since 2002, further undermined his position by recently directing another executive to moot the possibility of a merger with Wachovia bank without consulting Merrill's board of directors.
The New York Times reported, citing people close to the firm, that Merrill's board was so "upset" by O'Neal's actions that it discussed the names of potential candidates to replace him.
Two of the names circulated by directors were reportedly Laurence Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, an investment firm partly owned by Merrill, and John Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange.
"At worst, it makes it look as if Merrill Lynch thinks it has a real crisis on its hands from which it won't rebound in short order," said Patrick O'Hare, a market analyst at Briefing.com.
"At best, it sets up O'Neal to play a hero's role as he gets the ball rolling on a deal that would make shareholders feel whole again," O'Hare said.
The investment bank's stock soared 8.5 percent to close at US$66.09 in the wake of the Times report highlighting the approach to Wachovia.
Wachovia's stock finished up 3.2 percent at US$46.54 amid wider market gains.
A separate report by CNBC, the television business news channel, said O'Neal had informed close colleagues that he was likely to be ousted as Merrill's CEO in the coming days.
CNBC said O'Neal's future had been throw in doubt because of Merrill's mounting financial problems.
Analysts at rival investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research note released on Thursday that Merrill could be forced to write-down a further US$4.5 billion during the fourth quarter due to soured investments in mortgage-backed securities.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last