Merrill Management Makes Huge Mistake

By

tiecoon.jpg
By you know that it looks like Merrill Lynch will renew its lease with Brookfield Properties and remain in lower Manhattan, instead of building a skyscraper with developer Vornado, at the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown, right across from Penn Station, or as I like to call it, Penntation Island. New MER CEO John Thain thinks this bad idea is a good one because it’ll allow the firm to focus on some credit trubs and it’s something like a billion dollars cheaper than moving on up. Plus, he’s in denial about not being a Goldman Sachs boy anymore, so it makes sense he’d want to stay downtown.
But that’s just the opinion of one woman, who happens to hold a Ph.D in psychology and a masters in apiology. What do I know? Better than Thain, that’s what. Merrill doesn’t need to be focussing on anything but having a good time right now. It’s already lost billions upon billions of dollars, a CEO, the respect of John Carney and so on and so forth. What Merrill needs right now is Auntie Anne’s. What Merrill needs right now is easy access to the LIRR. What Merrill needs right now is Tiecoon (never been in, but love the stupid name).
The Journal notes that the five-year renewal lease with Brookfield hasn’t officially been signed yet, and the deal could still fall through. I’m hoping, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Anyway. This really depresses me. Makes me sad. Does it make you sad? Yeah? You wanna be happy? Yeah? Then I suggest you watch this. Segways always help.
Merrill to keep HQ at World Financial Center [Reuters]

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    Comments (12)

    1. 1
      Posted by Rich P | January 9, 2008 at 1:11 PM

      Are the typos a running gag or what? Seriously, I thought apilogy was a field of study.

    2. 2
      Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2008 at 1:14 PM

      what are you talking about Rich? apiology is the study of bees. so it would hold that you can have a masters in it.

    3. 3
      Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2008 at 1:22 PM

      Why the choice of “huge” when the alliteration could have continued unabated through the use of additional M words?
      I never got my literary license, so I’m not qualified to write headlines. Just wondering…

    4. 4
      Posted by rocket SCIENTIST | January 9, 2008 at 1:25 PM

      @ 1:22- b/c she’s making an Arrested Development reference to go along with the one at the end.

    5. 5
      Posted by bess? | January 9, 2008 at 1:38 PM

      out of curiosity – what’s the Real upside of them moving to Penn Plaza. Beyond the fact that it woudl cost significantly more – there are stil ldoubts the site woudl be able to fulfill their requirements (as much as vornado says they would) if they want to move north, they would be much better off signing up as an anchor tenant on a number of New buildings being propsed on the west side, rather than this nightmare.

    6. 6
      Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2008 at 1:51 PM

      @1:38 What nightmare? 1) Large piece of land easy to empty/clear – its a hotel 2) Convenient location 3) Opportunity to build a large trading floor from scratch (trading floor envy is rampant among bankers – mine is bigger than yours), which is preferable to(although much more costly than) expanding the trading floor at the current site, which would involve building out over the buildings setbacks.
      Re the new west side site, there are issues still to be settled re zoning, density, extention of the 7 train, paying for the platform over the rail yards on which to build. That’s really where theres potential for a nightmare.

    7. 7
      Posted by Rich P | January 9, 2008 at 4:20 PM

      Hey, if you google apilogy and read the text below the first link (which directs to this page) you’ll notice that the original text from the post is in google’s cache.
      The original cache shows the word “apilogy”- without a link- in the text of the article.
      I bring this up only because of the subterfuge mounted against me by the anonymous post in conjunction with the subsequent edits to the artcle.

    8. 8
      Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2008 at 4:21 PM

      Bonuses are hitting at ML….. got a flat one…..

    9. 9
      Posted by PBateman | January 9, 2008 at 5:16 PM

      Bess, I wanted 93 minutes of my life back. That documentary was so not worth it.

    10. 10
      Posted by A-man | January 9, 2008 at 5:25 PM

      Honestly, it has taken me four hours to get the tiecoon pun. I was thinking it had something to do with a racoon skin hat or maybe a coon (as in redneck) style of tie (which of course is counter-intuitive).
      I have to stop drinking so much at lunch.

    11. 11
      Posted by Merrill Man | January 9, 2008 at 5:37 PM

      Dealbreaker is so weak. Lots of news out of ML today, bonuses, layoffs, and u guys know nada!

    12. 12
      Posted by Ken Houghton | January 10, 2008 at 4:53 PM

      Tiecoon is very convenient on those days when picking out a tie is a lower priority. Especially with an expense account.
      But how many Merrill execs live in NJ or Lon Gisland? Thought most of them are W’chester/CT-based (read: GCS to Penn is a Carney, and then you die).

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