Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer Stan O'Neal has decided to leave the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter.An announcement may come later today or tomorrow morning. The company's board will look inside the New York-based firm as well as outside for a replacement, the newspaper said, citing the unidentified person.
Landon Thomas, Jr. and Jenny Anderson of the New York Times have remained on top of the story from the beginning and in their latest piece in The International Herald Tribune discussed what the board was up to over the weekend.
Having decided O'Neal should leave, Merrill Lynch directors met throughout the weekend to figure out who should succeed him. One possible course being considered is that Laurence Fink, the head of the asset management firm BlackRock, which is 49 percent owned by Merrill Lynch, would become chief executive with Robert McCann, the head of the brokerage unit, and Gregory Fleming, the current president, as co-presidents.For more details behind O'Neal's fall read the latest piece from Thomas and Anderson. Expect this story to have serious legs. Chuck Prince is one lucky fellow for the moment. O'Neal has stolen his thunder and moved Prince's problems to the back pages of the media. It won't be too much longer. For the moment, besides who the board gets to replace O'Neal there is a great liklihood that there will be more top management changes at Merrill, so stay tuned.
For more:
FT
Telegraph UK
Times Online UK
1 comment:
OK, so O'Neal is gone. Who replaces him? Check out this site for some info on some of the possible candidates that have been mentioned http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/who-should-repl.html . BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink? Merrill Lynch SVP McCann? Former Goldman Sachs President John Thain? Or someone else no one has considered?
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