Merrill Lynch has banned the use of external hard-drives and other devices that could be used to take documents off its internal networks, a person familiar with the matter said. The company has been stung by suspicions of leaks after its stock moved wildly in the days leading up to its announcement of new write-downs and capital raising efforts.
We’re also told that Merrill has circulated a memo to employees warning them against engaging in rumor mongering.
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what’s so shocking about a company guarding its intellectual property and telling its employees to act prudently in a volatile environment?
thumb drive ?
What’s really retarded about Merrill is that they seem to block access to just about all blogs, even the ones that may contain market-breaking news. Way to stay behind the times, Merrill.
i bet this means no ipods!
Be bery quiet – we’re hunting wabbits…
I once saw a rabbit put mayo on its own poop and eat it.
@12:03
Good thing you dont work at ML otherwise that information may have never come to light.
It’s the employees that are causing this mess. They should ban the employees.
merrill telling its staff to avoid rumor mongering? hypocrisy or WTF guys. c’mmon, the only person engaging in rumor mongering is that CEO Thain who is spreading false rumors every two months about the financial health of the firm when in fact it is doomed like bear, and worse than lehman.
it’d be f*in’ awesome if thain published and singed a memo to avoid engaging in rumor mongering.
My favorite, from the telco collapse days:
“Don’t email when you can call, don’t say words when you can nod.”
Fear is no way to run a railroad, Thain.
-DK
Just email the stuff to your personal Hotmail box. Is that so hard?
Actually, from what we’ve heard, it is pretty tough, even to do something as fwding an email to yourself at some commercial provider. Merrill has all kinds of crazy controls in place, it seems, coupled with stiff penalties for violation.
@11: hard, no. Stupid, yes
It’s been the case at places (especially IBs) that I’ve worked at for USB ports, CD/DVD writing, and other obvious way of electronically transferring data off of the servers to be disabled. Yes, one could email documents out of the system but as #13 alluded to, then there is a very long lived record of it. Allowing working USB ports up until now seems pretty slack on MER’s part.
@ 6
Did he like it?
E-mailing sensitive information to outside e-mail?!?! That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard…. (aside from Thain talking about the financial health of Merrill over the past several months).
#15. Yes he enjoyed very much. Ate his friends poop too!
Citipoop
@14 Totally agree. What took MER so long?
# 17 – was there anything on his friend’s poop?
So, why isn’t anyone calling a low on MER? Come on, catch a falling knife. It only hurts once.
@1.42: ShittiPoop
I win
there’s a lot of ignornat dummies on this blog.
MER is first and foremost a retail brokerage. always has been, always will.
this is right out of a playbook.
the translation of this “reminder” is:
“holy fuck! our brokers are getting poached and even though it’s established that brokers have a right to all info concerning their clients, we’ll try and scare with fancy legal gaga”
same shit happened with bear stearns in the days leading up to their execution by paulson and dimon.
Does this mean I can’t steal the CDO model MER uses?
Does this mean I can’t steal the CDO model MER uses?
i wonder which firms are going heavy after MER brokers??
retail firms are like working behind the iron curtain.
i guarantee if you work for MER you’re getting 50 phone calls a day from recruiters and headhunters. lol
@1.42: ShittiPoop
I win