UK
John, ‘Commode on Legs’, Thain, is leaving Bank of America ‘with immediate effect.’ Thank you to the reader of the last article who flagged this up marginally before it became common knowledge.
Thain’s swift removal follows the news that he spent $1.2m carefully crafting his office at Merrill. This included (according to CNBC), the purchase of the following highly indispensable items:
Area Rug $87,784
Mahogany Pedestal Table $25,713
19th Century Credenza $68,179
Pendant Light Furniture $19,751
4 Pairs of Curtains $28,091
Pair of Guest Chairs $87,784
George IV Chair $18,468
6 Wall Sconces $2,741
Parchment Waste Can $1,405
Roman Shade Fabric $10,967
Roman Shades $7,315
Coffee Table $5,852
Commode on Legs (??) $35,115
Initial reports suggested that Thomas Montag, a buddy from Goldman whom Thain hired on a guaranteed payout of $39.4m for last year, was also going. It now appears that this isn’t the case after all. Montag is still to be head of global markets at the combined Merrill/Bank of America business.
This is unbelievable! Justice for every downtrodden Bank of America analyst who’s barely getting paid, let alone doing their business on a luxury commode.
Its the straw that broke the camel’s back, but by no means any worse than his desire to be paid a bonus for suckering BoA into a deal or the way the rammed bonuses thru at the midnight hour after taking huge loss & taking Joe SixPack funds.
If you really want justice there’s one more name on the list…
The man obviously has good taste
This guy is a disgrace.
This man is obviously slime
Well said Mike, good taste indeed
Area Rug $87,784
Mahogany Pedestal Table $25,713
19th Century Credenza $68,179 …
…Selling an insolvent bank to those retail asses from Charlotte – Priceless. There are some things that money just can’t buy. For everything else there’s Bank of America.
Hang on a moment, please. I think you’re all forgetting something here – John Thain was brought in to save Merrill Lynch and he did just that. When he joined Merrill he had the choice of either going there or to Citigroup. As a senior executive walking into a trouble company, he was within his rights to spend what is not a particularly large amount in interior decorating terms revamping a tired office. Thain then did precisely what he was asked to do: he saved Merrill Lynch and negotiated good bonuses for its employees. He did all of this without claiming a bonus for himself. He is deserving of respect, not disgrace.
Come on Merriller, be serious… if not a disgrace (which I think it is), admit at least it’s bad judgement while making redundant thousands of people at the same time. ML saved? ok, but look in which state, the firm gets auto-desintegrated in front of our own eyes.
I agree that things aren’t great now, but if it hadn’t been for Thain we’d be in a far worse situation. Yes, the office redecoration wasn’t great judgement, but give the man a break. ML was overweight and jobs needed to go. Thain was a star player and did what was necessary. Thanks to him we at least have some kind of future.
His taste is certainly good, but it shows us how far from the real world some people still are. He’s like the motor industry guys who came to Washington in private jets to beg for money.
And he did not save Merrill; he flogged it to BoA using a very dodgy set of accounts and projections.
The bonuses he negotiated for Merrill staff should be clawed back, as the entity is insolvent.
Seems to me that Thain lost touch with reality somewhere along the way.
Let’s be clear. Thain saved the shareholders of ML first. I am sadly not important enough to be awarded significant merrill stock. The employees are not safe in 2009. Lewis is a different beast as are his lieutenants who seem to really like cost cutting.
One by one or 100 by 100 the Merrills people will go..unlike Nomura the new owners know that they were coerced/encouraged strongly to buy a company that had destroyed itself with arrogance and greed..not least shown by the paying of bonuses when there was nothing to justify them.It would be too difficult to claw them all back..but the Merrill people know what happened and should have the grace to be ashamed or at least keep a very low profile
Bank of America must be a circus – what a bunch of clowns at all levels – that Ken guy is chief joker buying ML when it was a shot bank full of shot bankers at tip top price in a diving market. Who named that pillock best banker in the US?
Banking gotta love it!
only one conclusion. Thain did not give a fig, he wanted to cash the big bonus. That was stopped. so he said so what.. He knew ML was bust. (it was actually never a great bank, more a loan franchise with a bit of IB that had NEVER been profitable on its own).
So he did not do anything material except handing the thing yo BoA (what were they smoking u gotta ask), decorating his office and signing off these bonus payments.. “who cares..” he said “the place is gone, I will be gone, let’s give it to the people..”" and drove off with his 911 into the sunset..
the real weirdos sit at BoA (just think what comes to mind when hearing that name…) for taking on what is probably the worst banking book in the world..
In 2 years nobody will know what ML was..
Thain is an arrogant pig – just like the rest of the Fortune 500 CEO’s. To show his staff that he cared about saving the bank, he should have pulled out a card table and put a laptop on it. Think of the arrogance to even give time to worry about “remodeling” while the walls were crumbling. As an ex-Merriller who suffered under the evil regimes of Stan O’Neal (he should be in jail) and Komansky (another arrogant jerk) – this is not news. When I was at ML, John McKinley (now an arrogant jerk at AOL) threw 100k worth of custom monogrammed silverware off of a private jet onto the tarmac because he didn’t like the way it was done. With people suffering and starving in this world – we should take all of these guys, seize their assets and lock their entire families up. Instead, corporate boards just keep handing them bigger and bigger compensation packages – if Obama wants to fix this, it’s time to start making examples out of these jerks. Daily congressional grilling embarrasment hearings would be nice making them answer for their arrogance. Unfortunately, our politicans are all in the same golf club – so the day will never come and justice will be forever denied.
It is not only Thain but also Merrill employees that looted merrill with 3 biliion in cash bonuses at the end of 2008. An insolvent company which pays a fortune in performance payment with the money of the American tax payer: so long for the integrity of the investment banking world.
Instead of all that hypocritical BS they should have use “grab all you can while you can” as their principle!