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Administration April 1, 2009
Report: BofA Likely to Put Columbia on the Block
April 1, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Five years after
acquiring Columbia Management Group as part of an
acquisition, Bank of America (BoA) intends to offload the
business in an effort to get rid of non-core assets and
better hang onto capital reserves, according to a news
report.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
A Wall Street Journal news report said the Charlotte-based BofA also wants to sell First Republic Bank, a private financial institution it inherited as part of BofA’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. last year.
As part of its 2004 acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp., BofA acquired Columbia, which had $386.4 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2008.
The Journal said some BofA executives feel Columbia is redundant when compared to BlackRock Inc., a New York money manager that was partly owned by Merrill. BofA has no plans to sell its share of BlackRock, according to the newspaper.