More Videos
- Credit Markets on Edge About When Fed Will Raise Rates
- Bove: Expect Goldman To Increase Dividend Meaningfully
- Bullish Sign for Gold: Central Banks Are Big Buyers
- Victoria's Secret Hopes to Rekindle Desire for Lingerie
- High Roller Sues Harrah's for Lost Millions
- Wall Street Jobs Slow to Return Despite Record Profits
- Big Shareholders Ask Goldman to Cut Bonuses: Report
- Buying an Expensive House? Government Can Help
- Review: What It's Like to Drive the New Chevy Volt
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Holiday Tipping: Who And How Much
- Deep Discounts Should Make It a Very Tech-y Holiday
MOST SHARED
- Nielsen Ratings Coming to Video Games
- Confessions of a Black Friday Shopper
- The Week Ahead
- 'New Moon' Midnight Showings Earn Record $26.3 Million
- Oil Next Week
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Twilight, Inc., A Worldwide Craze
- Hershey Mulls $17 Billion Bid for Cadbury: Source
- Latest Bullish Sign for Gold: Central Banks Are Big Buyers
Text Size 
Bank of America could end up cutting 30,000 jobs as it moves to absorb Merrill Lynch, three times as many as previously estimated, sources told CNBC.
 |
As of yesterday, sources were saying that layoffs could total at least 10,000 and would start before the end of the year.
But Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis wants to wring out $7 billion in savings from the merger over the next few years, so the total number of jobs lost could be closer to 30,000, they said.
Some of these job cuts could be through attrition or the sale of some businesses. But the heaviest cuts will probably come in the investment banking business, which has dried up during the current credit crisis.
Combined, Bank of America [BAC
Loading...
()
] and Merrill [MER
Loading...
()
] would have 260,000 employees. About 50,000 are in the banks' investment banking operations. The majority of the layoffs are likely to come from Merrill's side of the business.
Watch Gasparino's report.
The move comes amid very tough times for the banking sector. With the declining market and tight credit picture, profits are under intense pressure. And traditional work in the initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions business has dried up.
Bank of America, the country's largest mortgage lender and one of the biggest credit card issuers, cut its dividend in half in October after rising credit losses contributed to a 68 percent decline in third-quarter profit.
The bank has already raised more than $22 billion in capital this year and is getting $25 billion from the $700 federal bailout program.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
Print
Email
- Technology can make or break a fortune in the world of alternative energy.
- Many people are facing the holidays with substantially smaller incomes. Here’s how some are adapting.
- Jim Cramer is a proponent of stocks that pay healthy dividends, and here are his top five dividend plays.
- From salt, to lip balm to envelopes, it turns out that bacon flavoring can sell almost anything.
- The homebuyer's tax credit jacked sales for a while, but 2010 is looking weak. Now what?
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes