Carnage on Wall Street hits close to home

I've been at BNP Paribas now for 3 1/2 months, after Bank of America decided to sell my group, Prime Brokerage.  We had layoffs at BNPP last week- no one in my immediate group (now Strategy & Corporate Development) was let go, but many of the people I used to work with were laid off.  That is hard to see.  And at the same time, part of me almost feels guilty that I didn't loose mine.  I don't have kids or a family to support (just a mortgage), and I'm young enough and relatively flexible enough in my career that I could rebound if something did happen.  

Right after BofA sold my group, they bought Merrill Lynch.  Or from my new perspective, BofA threw itself in front of a speeding train to save a solid gold baby, only to find that the baby is radioactive and highly toxic.  

As a loyal employee and shareholder, I was looking forward to exercising my voting rights and voting the proxy.  I accidentally shredded the official voting form, and after 4 hours and double-digit attempts to get a new voting card, I never did get to vote anyway.  

The deal went through January 1st.  We heard today that Merrill employees were paid bonuses on December 30th (totaling ~$4 billion).  And on January 15th, Merrill disclosed a $21 billion operating loss.   That is convenient.

Ken Lewis, BofA CEO claims he only knew how severe ML's losses were in mid-December, but rather than disclose this to shareholders (who might vote it down, or demand new deal terms), Lewis claims "the government made him go through with the deal."  The government promised $138 billion to help absorb ML's losses because not going through with the deal would be too devastating to the economy.

So instead, BofA shareholders are surprised with Merrill's $15 billion net loss (talk about dirty baggage).  And BofA employees... are the ones getting laid off.  Financial Times reported on Tuesday that BofA expected to lay off 4,000 people in  Capital Markets (where I used to be) this week alone.  The catch--the majority of people were expected to be legacy BofA employees.

I spoke with a friend from college this afternoon at BofA and could not believe how entire groups were simply disappearing... all of the former BofA teams were just slashed.   She said first year analysts (she had taken a year off to take a Fullbright Scholarship), were let go with 3-moths severance pay plus 2 weeks.  And no bonus.  

Three months after BofA sold their Prime Brokerage to BNP Paribas, BofA bought an entire investment bank, including.... more Prime Brokerage.  Today I am counting my blessings that I actually made it out of BofA in a single piece and as of today still have a job.   Keeping a job (forget performance, as in not getting laid off) is the new "crushing it" on Wall Street.  This is really tough.

"Dear BofA.  Thanks for saving our butts and not letting us go bankrupt like Lehman Brothers.  We promise you won't regret it.  Thanks for taking care of that little mess we left under the carpet too.  It's a jungle out there- we're so lucky you care enough to make sure we all still get our jobs and our bonuses this year.  Make sure you don't let the door slam on your way out.  F***K you, ML."