Bank of America has announced the looming redundancy of about 4,000 workers in an attempt to raise funds for the $21 billion purchase of LaSalle Bank Corp. which has assets estimated at $160 billion.
About 2,500 workers in Illinois and 1,500 in Michigan will lose their jobs over the next two years, according to reports from Reuters.
“We’re buying LaSalle with the goal of growing the combined organization. The layoffs are a necessary first step toward meeting that long-term goal,” Scott Silvestri, a spokesman for Bank of America, tells the news agency.
The bank wants to save as much as $800 million by 2009, and cuts are seen as the easiest way to do it. The bank claims that it may employ about 8,000 people in Illinois and 2,500 in Michigan at an undisclosed point in the future.
The deal has already received approval from the Federal Reserve and the Charlotte, North Carolina based bank is expected to clinch the deal in early October.