To read a web-exclusive story about how the courts view third-party consultants, click here.
A lot of people out there want to know what really happened in Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which shareholders approved in early December 2008. In October 2009, investigators, private litigants and the curious public all came a step closer to understanding a decision that has come under scrutiny from all three constituencies: BofA’s failure, prior to the shareholder vote on the takeover, to disclose that the company it had just acquired would post a fourth quarter loss of $15.4 billion, and that BofA had set aside a bonus pool totaling $3 to $4 billion for Merrill executives.
