Merrill may cut 10,000

October 17, 2001 Posted: 1416 GMT

NEW YORK (CNNmoney) -- Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's biggest brokerage, may cut as many as 10,000 more jobs, or 15 percent of its work force, a report said Wednesday.

The move could lead to a fourth-quarter charge of $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting senior people at the firm and calling the move one of the biggest retrenchments in the 86-year-old firm's history. Merrill Lynch (MER: up $0.31 to $45.50, Research, Estimates) has about 68,200 employees and has already set plans to cut 3,800 jobs this year.

Senior executives have launched a major examination of the New York-based brokerage's operations to determine if it should continue operations in Japan, Canada, Australia and India, or downsize the businesses there, the report said.

Merrill confirmed it was cutting jobs but would not cite a number, according to a statement carried by Reuters news agency Wednesday.

"In a deteriorating revenue environment, we've been engaged in review of all of our businesses to make sure they are sized properly for the market opportunity," the company said. "While the pace of this review is accelerating, decisions will be made business by business and we have no overall company-wide headcount reduction target."

Official job cut announcements are expected in early November, a company source told CNNfn. Areas that could be targeted include the New York-based Securities division as well as Nasdaq trading and Relationship Management, the source said.

The economic slowdown and sharp drop in stocks the past year have hurt brokerages, leading to lower profits and thousands of job cuts. In July, Merrill reported second-quarter earnings tumbled to $541 million, or 56 cents a share, from $921 million, or $1.01 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $5.6 billion from $6.8 billion. At the time the company warned that third-quarter earnings will miss forecasts.

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