Merrill shakes off $9.8B loss

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2008 | by Greg Farrell

NEW YORK -- New Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is moving fast to make sure his company never again has a quarter like 2007's last three months.

On the same day Merrill reported a fourth-quarter loss of $9.8 billion due to bad bets on subprime mortgage investments, Thain sounded upbeat Thursday about the company's prospects in a conference call with analysts and in a subsequent interview.

He pointed out that Merrill has raised more than $12.5 billion from sovereign wealth funds in recent weeks, and expressed confidence that the worst of the subprime-related losses was over.

"We raised the capital that we need to go forward," he said in a phone interview. "We maintained our (credit) ratings, and now we're looking to the future of the enterprise, the...