After his well-received conference call and an appearance on CNBC, Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain spoke to employees about the firm's future. His confident and well-informed remarks about the CDO market were peppered with wise-cracks that left the crowd of employees laughing out loud, according to a source present at the talk. The mood on the floor is said to be much almost cheerful. It's a great vote of confidence for the new CEO from a group that was wary of being lead outsider said to be sometimes robotic.
"Much improved from Stan's lame town halls," the source said.
We pressed our source for more information about the meeting but John Thain had to take another call.*
Merrill Lynch could not immediately comment on this story. We're pretty sure they were afraid we were going to ask them about the Turd War again.
The name "John Thain" has been changed to protect the identity of our source.
Posted by Outraged, Equity , Jan 17, 2008 12:29PM
i don't remember to listening to any of stan's town halls, let alone enjoying one at such a duff time
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 12:47PM
you continue to insist the call was well received. is mer not down 9% on your screen?
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 1:21PM
He's a great guy, improving morale across the board. Continuously stressed that we need to make more money in 2008 and that everyone should work an extra hour for the time they spent at the townhall.
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 1:38PM
no way, really? did he say that? (he might)
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 2:48PM
thain is a great morale booster
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 2:51PM
sure did, he also ripped on the teleprompter guy for mispelling city names...
"Ted from Minneapolis...
BTW, thats NOT how you spell Minneapolis...."
Posted by , Jan 17, 2008 4:10PM
wow, what a tool