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$550 Million in Fees for One Merrill Lynch Banker!

    • Can anyone explain in a few words what "advising" would entail, and or, the length of time it takes to advise to warrant such "fees"

    • He gets $66M in bonuses over two years. During those same two years, I see my bonus at B of A decline by 75%... and then get laid off along with 25% of my group. If he's so smart to get those fees, maybe he should step forward and be part of the solution rather than problem.

    • Just as you would suspect, advising is giving advice. Included is pitching ideas, providing lots of data, determining price, getting the deal closed. Once the deal starts moving, it could be done over a matter of months. But to get there, you may need to build a relationship over a few years.

    • All of the mid and upper level mgmt people are earning very high salery in the large corporations in US.
      The work ("advising") they perform is done with all knds of unthinkable perks, and may take time to earn "fees". This then becomes part of their expected work for the company. A year end reasonable bonus to reward an employee who works hard to bring more buisness must be considered. But not to reward astronomical bonuses prevent upper mgmt, and the Board from getting even more share of the total for themselves. These corporations as a leader of the free world have robbed all of us, and has set a shameful example to the world.

    • So it would appear that there may be some cooking of the books when calculating the $550 Million.

    • I certainly hope that this guy is VERY philanthropic and isn't spending his megabucks on cars, houses, villas, yachts, jets, jewels, waste baskets and various other items to complete his greedy life. Yeah, right!!!!!!!!!

    • I can't stand Coumo and I never liked his father, but I'm rooting for him to find some reason to nail the ML people to the wall (Thain and Ken Lewis included). Bottom line: ML is on the ropes, hours from bankrupcty, the Feds push them to BOA, Paulson gives them billions TARP money, then the pay these yoyos 20m a piece!! I'm sure $500 million was the entire dept's fees not just his but of course he takes credit for it (as pigs will do). All 20 of these guys are worth $10 mill? - doesn't matter that the institution is about to go under? BS

      Besides this banker would not be "advising" anyone if he didn't have a substantial firm backing him up. It's a different world today and these guys just wanted the last big bite out of the apple - no pun intended for you sinking NY'ers

    • Fares Noujaim is worth it; can sell ice to eskimos.

    • I met Orcel, he is an a-hole. I found most of these self-servicing a-holes on the upper echelon of Merrill Lynch terrible people with some mediocre ideas. Kind of like Doug Sesler, Jeff Horowitz, and Mark Paterson, who are still there. They were lucky, aggressive, and very political...let them burn now...please....

    • They advise the purchaser on what to pay and how to pay it (to minimize taxes, satisfy the shareholders/bondholders/management). They advise the sellers what to ask and how to ask for it. Usually they already know the likely buyers so they can bring the two together (which is where most of the value comes from).

      The length of time isn't easy to describe. Doing a deal may take a couple of months (watch for an announcement that a company is "pursuing strategic alternatives" which is corporate speak that their looking for a buyer), but getting into a position where you can call a friend who is likely to buy a firm that hired you to find a buyer and get a deal made in months can take years.

    • My ex-husband was with Merrill last year. I hadn't taken him to court in 8 years for child support increase. However, he was being such a cheap ass with his kids that I got fed up and filed an income modification. HAHAHAHA He was paying 500 week based on 100,000 yr salary...At the hearing(where I was bambozzled)I found out he was making 700,000 yr. weekly paycheck $7,600....! Now we his ex wife and 3 kids had been living on 500 week while he had 7000 a week more than us!!! He is a racist (denies existance of his bi-racial angel of a granddaughter)no birthday cards, no xmas gifts no acknowledgement of her existance, he blackmails his kids,he says horrible things to them about me(he told my 16 yr old. that if she mentioned my name again he would kill me) we have it on her phone recorder!! So I have no respect for him or the rest of these greedy animals....peace

    • while you're out there clapping your hands and jumping for joy that ML is going down, remember the firm is made up of more than just those top executives. there are many, many workers who live paycheck to paycheck, who struggle to make it just like everyone else out there and have no place to "jump" to in this industry that is safe. people who worry daily that there will not be a job to come to and wonder if that happens how they will feed their kids, pay their bills and if they'll lose their houses. So while your enjoying the downfall of the wallstreet companies, remember there are good people working there that didn't make the decisions that put us where we are and we are victims right along with the rest of you. Just remember us ........we're not all guilty

    • I worked at a VERY small company, where the one management goon would cook the books to get his bonus, and then tell everyone else that they didn't meet their goals and no bonus was available. The squeaky wheel gets the oil; we all know that.
      These are the chaps who threw sand into little girls' faces just to get the shovel and bucket while playing in the sandbox. They are all P___ssy's, especially the Ex husband mentioned above. None of them are real men in any sense of the word, and my guess is that their wives cowtow to their every whim just 'cuz it's a paycheck to them.

    • Advising is making suggestions of various alternatives. No real decisions are made by advisors. Yes it takes a lot of time to "build the relationship". But come on, spending years entertaining, golfing, dining etc. etc. build the relationship. Sounds like real hard work the no one would want to do unless they were compensated greately. Just how difficult is it to pick out a couple of big banks and say they should merge? They get paid up front whether there is a success or failure. Zero risk in being an advisor. If all these "Masters of the Universe" believed what they say they would all go off on their own in private partnerships.....oh yea that's what they were before they figured out how to fleece the "public" by selling "ownership" to millions of 401k holders. Now they all can do what they want and pay each other incredible fees because "hey, it not my money" and no one is there to stop them.

    • To Ex New Yorker: I'm no Cuomo fan either,just glad to see he's doing his job re: ML,because what's happened there is disgusting.Speaking of Cuomo,he's gained a lot of 'Political Capital' lately,and is sure to run for either Senator or Governor-will be interesting to see what the Repubs can dig up on him re:his time as 'HUD' Sect'y under Clinton and his 'Contributions' to Sub-Prime mortgage debacle,could be his 'Achilles Heel''.

    • Hey Midwest,

      If its so easy making million why don't you do it?

    • Andrea Orcel rocks

    • Wow, he has so many wrinkles around his eyes.

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