I won't be in on Monday

Merrill Lynch & Co., CEO Stan O'Neal decides to leave Merrill lynch. This is after recent news of the company reporting this past week $8.4 billion in write-downs associated with mortgage securities, which three weeks ago was reported to be $5 billion. The CEO also went behind the backs of the Board of Directors to meet with Wachovia CEO G. Kennedy Thompson in the past week to see whether Wachovia would be interested in a combination with Merrill.

E. Stan O'Neal is the first African American to head a major Wall Street brokerage firm. He earned a Harvard M.B.A and was working in Finance at GM when he was recruited by Merrill's investment bank in 1986. By 1998, Mr. O'Neal was CFO. During Mr.O'Neal term as CEO, he was able to contract a deal of 49% stake in BlackRock.

E. Stanley O'Neal
Salary: $700,000
Bonus: 18.5 million

Candidates for the Job

Laurence Fink, Chief Executive of BlackRock Inc
Gregory Fleming, Merrill's co-president
Bob McCann, head of Merrill's huge brokerage arm

Now this is what I imagine happened:

On his way to watch the Giants play Miami in London, Mr. O'Neal calls Mr. Fleming and says, "I won't be in on Monday."