Merrill cuts its losses, and its CEO

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007 | by Greg Farrell and Adam Shell

NEW YORK -- The Stanley O'Neal era is officially over at Merrill Lynch. But the $2 trillion question -- namely, whether Merrill Lynch can regain its footing as the firm trusted by mom-and-pop investors on Main Street as well as investment bankers on Wall Street -- is very much up in the air.

As expected, O'Neal resigned Tuesday, less than a week after admitting that he had underestimated the firm's losses in the subprime mortgage market.

But what might have come as a surprise is that rather than name a successor, Merrill's board of directors elected Alberto Cribiore as interim non-executive chairman and asked him to form a search committee to identify the firm's next CEO. Meanwhile, two of O'Neal's key lieutenants -- Ahmass Fakahany and Gregory Fleming -- will...