Bank of America will purchase Merrill Lynch for roughly $50 billion dollars, in an agreement the two firms hashed out this weekend, Reuters reports.
Merrill stock has dropped 80% in the past 18 months, while trying to stay afloat during the ever-deepening credit crunch that also brought down Lehman Brothers this weekend. It ends Merrill’s 98 years as one of the Wall Street stalwarts.
Earlier this year, Bank of America acquired Countrywide Financial, after its stock plunged because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Analysts had kept BoA on the short list for potential buyers of Lehman Brothers, along with Korea Development Bank and several Chinese firms.