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Countrywide acquisition still haunting Bank of America

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With all the hoopla surrounding Ken "What's a Guy Got to Do to Get Fired Around Here?" Lewis's company-destroying decision to acquire Merrill Lynch, it's easy to overlook his other boneheaded blunder of 2008: Countrywide Financial.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Paul Miller tells The New York Post that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) could end up reporting losses of as much as $33 billion as a result of the Counrywide acquisition. That's more than twice as much as Merrill Lynch's gigantic fourth quarter loss.

The Post reports that "Across Countrywide's entire loan book, FBR estimates that losses in home-equity loans could hit $17 billion, losses in option-adjustable rate mortgages may touch $11.4 billion and losses in hybrid first-lien loans could reach $5 billion."

Whether those losses are already priced into Bank of America's beaten-down share price is another question, and likely depends on how much worse the economy will get. But two gigantic screw-up acquisitions in one calendar year should be enough to get any CEO fired. Does Bank of America even have a board of directors?

NOTE: This post has been updated to correct the amount of the expected loss on Countrywide Financia.

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 06:07 AM

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