Not a good sign: shares in Merrill Lynch spiked seven per cent in early trade on Wall Street after CNBC reported that chairman and chief executive Stan O’Neal has “told associates” that he doesn’t expect to survive the weekend.
And that’s all the report on CNBC said:
Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Stanley O’Neal has told associates that he’s likely to be ousted as CEO in the coming days as the big brokerage firm’s financial problems mount, CNBC has learned.
Everything else in the CNBC piece was background and/or padding. The “weekend” reference was in the headline:
Merrill’s O’Neal Adieu by Weekend: Sources
So if O’Neil stood any chance of saving his skin following disclosure of the fact that he quietly contemplated merging his employer with Wachovia, it has disappeared with that seven per cent rise in the share price.
The New York Times had reported earlier that Merrill’s board has already discussed potential replacements, including Laurence Fink, boss of Merrill’s fund management associate BlackRock, and John Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange.
And by mid-morning NY time, Reuters was quoting its own unnamed sources saying precisely the same thing.
