• 28 Apr 2009 at 4:11 PM

Ken Lewis Raises More Eyebrows Than Just Ours

By Equity Private

We wondered if Ken Lewis bothered to read the Material Adverse Change clause for the Merrill Merger very carefully. Either he did, and managed to pull off a fantastic bluff over Paulson’s head, or he paid as little attention as anyone else. We took a look at the details yesterday in: What Was Lewis Really Up To?
We aren’t the only ones to notice, it seems. The always interesting Credit Writedowns caught the story today: BofA’s MAC clause was as porous as swiss cheese quipping:

The latest news is stunning: Bank of America’s MAC clause could probably never have been invoked because it had a specific exclusion for the deteriorating prices of legacy assets on Merrill’s books.

Indeed.

Comments (8)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    So, what`s the five bullets? Lewis wasted money while not even reading the contract and Thain cares about his employees?

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 5:24 PM

    So, what`s the five bullets? Lewis wasted money while not even reading the contract and Thain cares about his employees?

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 5:44 PM

    So, yesterday it was, Lewis read it and wanted out but the government would not allow it, and today it is Lewis did not bother to read the fine print, because if he did he could not do anything about it, so blaming the government is moot?
    I get what actually occurred is the clause was put in by the government, and that is why Lewis is bitching, but it really does not make him sly so much as it makes him fired. Coulda, woulda, shoulda…
    Had he gone public he would have been fine, but he lost that pair down in that former penal colony, Georgia, before coming to NC, not after.

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 6:20 PM

    Why did Paulson say that he (effectively) threatened to oust the board and mgmt if the ML was busted? Meaning, if Paulson really knew the language he would have just said suck it Kenny boy, you shoulda read the fine print.
    ++++
    Same goes for the Bald.
    ++++
    Seems like no one read the fine print.

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 6:29 PM

    So he didn’t conduct due diligence, and didn’t bother to familiarize himself with the deal documents.
    Just what skills do you need to be “banker of the year” anyway?

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 6:35 PM

    @ 4 here… meant “same goes for the beard”
    +++
    why were they meeting secretly and didn’t want a paper record if all was 100% perfecto-mundo legit. ????
    Doesn’t make sense. Sounds like Boones boy is getting tossed to the wolves here.

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | April 28, 2009 at 9:45 PM

    Ken Lewis is a lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap
    lying piece of crap

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | April 29, 2009 at 9:40 AM

    @ 7 — Think about that for a second.
    Who has more to lose? K^L or Beard and Bald? If the B^2 forced boone boy to complete the merger is that NOT extortion or some other malfeasance that probably should be tried under some RICO law. WTF?
    Our constitution is being used like a Kleenex with a spank mag.

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