from Bloomberg:
Merrill Posts Third-Straight Loss on $6.5 Billion of Writedowns By Bradley Keoun
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. posted its third-straight quarterly loss after at least $6.5 billion of writedowns and a 40 percent drop in investment-banking fees.
The first-quarter net loss of $1.96 billion, or $2.19 a share, compared with earnings of $2.16 billion, or $2.26, a year earlier, the third-biggest U.S. securities firm by market value said today in a statement. Analysts had estimated a loss of $1.72 billion, based on the average of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer John Thain has spent his first four months as CEO overhauling risk-management practices after more than $20 billion of credit-market losses and selling more than $12 billion of equity to bolster capital. Merrill's stock has fallen 50 percent in the past 12 months, trailing larger New York-based rivals Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
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