After spending $1.3 billion to buy National City Corp.'s subprime mortgage division in late 2006, Merrill Lynch & Co. closed the operation last month. The market for risky mortgages has simply evaporated nationwide.

The collapse of the nation’s housing market and subsequent mortgage mess that has bedeviled Wall Street for nearly a year cost Stanley O’Neal his job at Merrill Lynch & Co. Ditto for Charles Prince at Citigroup Inc.

Fourth-quarter results and an $18-billion sub-prime write-down shake Wall Street's confidence. The sub-prime mortgage crisis hit Wall Street with full fury Tuesday as Citigroup Inc. reported a nearly $10-billion fourth-quarter loss, and both Citigroup and Merrill Lynch & Co. got cash infusions to shore up their financial stability.

The firm will raise capital from a Singaporean fund and a U.S. investment management firm. Merrill Lynch & Co., hit by huge sub-prime mortgage losses, said Monday it would boost its capital by selling as much as $6.2 billion of common stock -- at a discount -- to a Singaporean state-owned fund and to a U.S. investment management firm.

Securities whose value was written down were brokered mostly by Merrill Lynch, the firm blamed in county's 1994 bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch & Co., the brokerage giant blamed for triggering Orange County's $1.6-billion bankruptcy in 1994, was the single largest dealer of complex debt securities to the county within the last two years that are now at risk of a credit rating downgrade, a Times review of county investment holdings has found.

He's likely to overhaul the division whose huge mortgage-related losses did in ex-CEO O'Neal. Merrill Lynch & Co., which ousted its chief executive last month after huge mortgage-related losses, on Wednesday named John Thain, the head of the New York Stock Exchange's parent company, as its new CEO.

Embattled investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. said Wednesday that federal regulators were investigating matters related to its holdings of high-risk mortgage debt.

Stan O'Neal, who worked for 21 years at the brokerage giant, is a casualty of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Merrill Lynch & Co. has lost billions of dollars in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, but the company's deposed chief executive is walking away with more than $160 million.

Stan O'Neal reportedly decides to step down, becoming first among his peers to be done in by the sub-prime crisis. The beleaguered head of Merrill Lynch & Co. has reportedly decided to step down and leave the firm, becoming the first chief of a Wall Street investment bank to be done in by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

He would be the highest-ranking Wall Street casualty of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Speculation swirled Friday that the chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co. could be ousted from his job in coming days, making him the highest-ranking Wall Street casualty of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.