Investment group asks Bank of America to fire CEO Ken Lewis

By: By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS AP Business Writer | WSLS
Published: March 05, 2009

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Change to Win Investment Group on Thursday asked Bank of America Corp.'s board to fire chairman and chief Executive Ken Lewis over missteps regarding the company's Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition and a plummeting share price.
The activist investor group told Bank of America's board in a letter Thursday that Lewis failed to back away from the merger once the size of Merrill's losses became clear, failed to disclose Merrill's losses in a timely manner, and allowed Merrill to pay $3.6 billion of bonuses to many of its employees.
Lewis took "outsized, reckless risks by acquiring Merrill Lynch in the midst of severe financial uncertainty," and his removal "is necessary to restore investor confidence," CtW Executive Director William Patterson wrote in the letter to O. Temple Sloan Jr., Bank of America's lead outside director.
A Bank of America spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
CtW Investor Group said that if the bank does not remove Lewis, it will petition shareholders to vote against his re-election at Bank of America's annual meeting in April.
"Our view here is that shareholders have a limited window of opportunity to try to put new leadership in place at this company that's going to be credible with the markets broadly and with regulators in order to save their investments at Bank of America," said Rich Clayton of CtW Investment Group told The Associated Press.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's shares have been among the hardest hit among financial companies. The company has lost more than 74 percent of its value since it closed on its acquisition of investment bank Merrill Lynch at the beginning of the year. The stock is down nearly 90 percent from a year ago.
Shares of Bank of America fell 42 cents, or nearly 12 percent, to $3.17 in midday trading.

Investment group asks Bank of America to fire CEO Ken Lewis

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