Bank of America gets $138 billion in rescue money
Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, received a $138 billion emergency lifeline from the government to support its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and prevent the global financial crisis from deepening.
The government jumped in to back the company when it appeared that the purchase of Merrill Lynch might fail because of BoA's weak finances. The government didn't want the little confidence that has returned to the market to fail, so it pumped enough money to BoA to make the deal go through.
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