Merrill Board Seeks Successor to O’Neal

The departure of Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal could be announced as early as today, The Wall Street Journal  reported. The paper  said Merrill's board  hasn't named a successor. Earlier, The New York Times reported that the board was united on a decision to replace O'Neal as CEO.

O'Neal's departure comes at the end of a tumultuous month for the Wall Street firm. Merrill announced Oct. 5 that it would report a third-quarter loss after taking $5 billion in writedowns on subprime loans and related securities known as collateralized debt obligations. Merrill was the only Wall Street firm to lose money during the quarter, even as rivals also took big hits tied to bad loans.

Then the firm doubled investors' displeasure this past Wednesday by saying its loss would be nearly six times as large as expected, as the subprime writedown turned out to be a staggering $8 billion. Former Merrill chief Daniel Tully called the loss "sickening," Bloomberg reported.

The WSJ, citing people familiar with the firm, said a top contender to succeed O'Neal is Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock, a money manager that is 49 precent owned by Merrill. Fink is close to Greg Fleming, Merrill's co-president and himself a possible candidate. One scenario is a power-sharing arrangement between the two. Other contenders may include John Thain, the CEO of NYSE Euronext, who is also a former president of Goldman Sachs, and Bob McCann, head of Merrill's huge brokerage arm.