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’More bonus neurosis: Thain and how times have changed
He has been keeping a low profile since his ignominious exit from Merrill Lynch in early 2009. But who can forget John Thain, former Merrill Lynch CEO, of lavish-office-refurbishment fame.
Thain on Sunday was named chief executive of the CIT Group,
[The Lehman Anniversary] Quotes du crise
FT Alphaville presents a selection of visionary — and not so visionary — quotes from the Lehman crisis.
To start, Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman, on October 6, 2008:
I’m not sure I would say it was a house of cards .
[The Lehman Anniversary] The BBC’s Lehman Towers
Did the BBC mean for their dramatisation of the last days of Lehman Brothers to be utterly, cringeworthingly hilarious?
If they didn’t, they certainly did a good job making it look like they did.
In short:
Nothing is as dangerous as a Thain scorned
My, my, it’s like kiddies pinching and punching each other in a sandbox, only – yes folks, we’re talking about some of America’s current and former top bankers and finance officials.
First we had Bank of America’s Ken Lewis revealing that he was bullied and threatened by the then-US Treasury secretary into proceeding with the troubled deal for BofA to acquire Merrill Lynch.
Thain ordered to ‘name names’
A New York judge has ruled that John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, must name names in a state probe into bonuses paid out at Merrill in late December, just days before Bank of America acquired the firm.
Thain called to testify on Merrill bonuses
John Thain was issued a subpoena on Tuesday to testify about Merrill Lynch’s decision to accelerate the payment of nearly $4bn in employee bonuses last month – just days before the closing of its sale to Bank of America.
Cuomo subpoenas Thain in Merrill bonus investigation
Full statement below (H/T Joanna Chung)
Today, as part of our ongoing inquiry into executive compensation issues at institutions who have received TARP funds, my Office issued subpoenas seeking the testimony of former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain,
Caption competition: ‘Is that you Ken?’
John Thain has left the building and he’s taking his commode on legs with him. So while we still can, we reprise the below picture. Caption suggestions for which are greatly welcomed. Keep ‘em clean.
Just what is it about failed-bank CEOs and cartoon characters?
Related links:
Thain admits $1.2m office refit ‘mistake’
John Thain on Monday said that spending $1.2m to redecorate his office last year was “a mistake”, but rejected suggestions he was solely responsible for speeding up bonus payments to Merrill Lynch staff ahead of its sale to Bank of America.
John Thain, the markets and Merrill’s marks
John Thain, speaking to Maria Bartiromo on CNBC this afternoon, repeatedly said that Merrill’s $15.5bn loss in the fourth quarter was driven by the significant deterioration in the credit markets in November and “particularly in December.”
“It has been an honor” – John Thain
Reader advisory: on the advice of people paid to worry about these things, we are reposting this memo but are closing the post to comments.
Sent Jan 25, 22:56:11
Subject: To my Merrill Lynch colleagues,
“It has been an honor” – John Thain
Sent Jan 25, 22:56:11, Subject: To my Merrill Lynch colleagues,
It has been an honor to lead this company over the last very difficult year. The decisions that I made were always with the best interests of our shareholders and employees above all.
BofA had role in Merrill bonuses
Bank of America played a role in Merrill Lynch’s controversial decision to pay $4bn in bonuses in December just as mounting losses were threatening to derail BofA’s takeover of Merrill. BofA has said that the payment of $4bn in bonuses,
He spent what?!
On reports former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent over $1,200,000 decorating his office and distributing up to $4bn in discretionary bonuses just three days before the BofA acquisition, we here at FT Alphaville are prepared to give the beleaguered executive the benefit of the doubt.
BofA axes Thain as Merrill deal sours
John Thain was ousted from Bank of America on Thursday, just three weeks after closing the sale of Merrill Lynch to BofA, in a sign of the deepening crisis around the deal. Thain, who became chief executive of Merrill 13 months ago,
Behind Thain’s ousting
The sudden departure of John Thain from Bank of America, described by BofA as “mutually agreed”, came after rising tensions that followed the revelation last week of Merrill’s Q4 $15bn loss and after the FT reported Wednesday that he had accelerated Merrill Lynch’s bonus payment plan for 2008,
Gapper blog: Fiddling while Merrill burned
Reputations get shredded fast in a financial crisis, but the speed of John Thain’s descent from hero to zero is extraordinarily rapid, says the FT’s John Gapper. In mid-October, he seemed the smartest guy in the pack,
Farewell, John Thain
It has come to this.
John Thain has bid farewell to his herd, and tendered his resignation from Bank of Merrill Lynch of America. No – let’s be frank. Thain’s been ousted.
And what for? According to the WSJ,
Mack, Thain to forgo bonuses
The top executives at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, led by their chief executives, John Thain and John Mack, will not receive bonuses this year amid growing pressure on Wall Street chiefs to share the pain of the financial crisis.
Cuomo to Merrill: You cannot be serious
Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of the state of New York, has quite a way with words.
Witness his latest missive, addressed to the Merrill’s board of directors, “Re: Bonus Pools”.
Highlights, emphasis ours:
Thain in bonus tussle with Merrill board
Merrill Lynch chief John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10m but the battered securities firm’s compensation committee is resisting his request, reports the WSJ.
Merrill, Goldman chiefs differ on slowdown
The global economy is entering a slowdown of epic proportions comparable with that triggered by the 1929 crash, John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, warned Tuesday. Speaking at Merrill’s annual banking and financial services conference,
Thain to join BofA top management
John Thain, chief executive of Merrill Lynch, plans to stay at Bank of America after the two institutions merge next year, it was announced Thursday, raising speculation he could end up running the larger group.
Shotgun marriage?
From Bloomberg:
Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Thain told employees that Bank of America Corp. “cut our trading lines” in the days before it bought the firm,
Lex on buying the ‘Blundering Herd’
The decision to sell Merrill Lynch to Bank of America in a hastily concocted $50bn deal was not the glorious outcome envisaged by John Thain when he was parachuted into the CEO job in November, but it is no humiliation,
Merrill’s surprise CDO writedown, revisited
When did Merrill know about its surprise CDO writedown?
Commentators last week were revisiting the issue of “tranche warfare” on CDOs, and some of the legal tussels which have been going on. Which, it turns out,
Thain says Merrill could raise more capital
Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain said Monday if the company loses more money, it may have to raise more capital, leaving the door open to further capital raises if markets deteriorate, reports Reuters.
The credible Mr Thain, redux
A week old, but somehow resonant.
(HT Dealbreaker.)
From June’s Q2′s
Next point I want to make is that in spite of this loss for the quarter, we likely have in our last two quarters more than replaced the capital that we have lost.
Thain and the credibility question
We’re wondering about the state of Reuters’ “cred-o-meter” after seeing the news agency’s Wednesday headline: “Thain credibility survives despite Merrill capital U-turn”.
We’re not saying the former Goldman Sachs golden-boy-cum-Merrill-CEO has become a pariah or a laughing stock after all those assurances that Merrill Lynch was well-capitalised etc etc – not at all.
Merrill Lynch hit by $9.4bn writedown
Merrill Lynch spoiled investors’ appetite for financial stocks yesterday with larger-than-expected writedowns of $9.4bn that underlined the bank’s continuing struggles to emerge from the credit crunch.