Selling its shops and loading it with debt could weaken the firm fatally.
There is a possibility of a clear-the-decks charge, which would weaken the firm's capital base even more.
"When lawyers leave a firm, they very quickly weaken the firm, particularly if they are taking clients or good lawyers with them," Mr. Bower said.
Increased competition and a rise in marketing costs to attract and retain customers has weakened the firm's position, according to Phil Gripton, its boss.
Merrill has balked at paying that much and, especially, at admitting any wrongdoing, which could weaken the firm's defenses against lawsuits by investors, these people said.
The 'fuck Windows' strategy?" Back in the late 1990s, when Bill Gates was still Microsoft's boss, any employee who had the temerity to suggest something that could possibly weaken the firm's flagship operating system was sure to earn his wrath.
But he struck out on his own in May, relieved, he said, that he would no longer have to explain how Merrill traders far from his office in Virginia had made investments that so weakened the firm.
But in bad times, when it's called upon, it will weaken the firms that contracted to supply it at a low price.
Its policy protection weakened the firms, and their long downward slide continued.
Indeed, the very fact that the draft is televised today speaks to the folly of governments that use anti-trust laws to weaken the firms it deems too strong.
