Business Insight Zone

A couple of weeks ago I joined the chorus of those praising John Thain for his tough, but prudential, sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America:

John Thain is a smart, driven man, and it’s to his credit that Merrill Lynch is ending its 94-year independent history in the arms of Bank of America rather than in bankruptcy.

BofA has made a wise decision in keeping Thain on board, as this New York Times Dealbook piece reports:

According to Bank of America, Mr. Thain will become president of global banking, securities and wealth management in the combined company, essentially retaining control of the businesses run by Merrill. Similar units currently run by Bank of America will be merged into Merrill’s far larger and more established operations.

“I am delighted that John has agreed to join Bank of America,” Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “His experience and expertise will be invaluable as we put our two companies together and move forward as the premier financial services company in the world.”

Shortly after he took the reins at the New York Stock Exchange a few years back, I got to see Thain up close when he addressed a meeting of financial journalists. He struck me then as smart, sober-minded, and highly methodical (even overly so) in his thought and demeanor.

That impression — plus Thain’s subsequent success at NYSE as it put the Richard Grasso debacle behind it and pursued its merger with Euronext — convinced me last year that Thain was a solid choice to succeed Stanley O’Neal at Merrill Lynch.

Merrill taps the right man.

Past results are no guarantee of future success, of course, but Thain’s new position at BofA makes me think more highly, not of Thain, but of Ken Lewis.

We’re headed toward a landscape with even fewer jumbo players in U.S. banking, and from where I sit, it looks like Carolina-based Bank of America is better equipped than ever to take on Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs (Thain’s alma mater), and the rest of the New York City crowd.

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(Image via Wikipedia.)

Category: Executives, Finance & Real Estate