BOA...

A deal of USD Four Billion... that too for the mortgage agent Countrywide Financial Corp who are now down below after sub-prime. It all stops there for me - Why would Bank Of America which has built a fort of its own want to let open its door for this act & that too for a heavy price?

It's all my guess but where I see this going - To leverage the benefits of those huge number of home loan customer base which Countrywide is currently holding. That amounts to around 9 million is what I see. But how? Take Yahoo - Any new service they open can reliably go behind their existing huge customer base. Likewise, BOA has a new 9 million customers who would possibly start opening bank accounts & use other BOA services. May be that itself is a big boost.

With the already built in reputation which BOA has, more people will tend to move towards Countrywide. Ahead of it, BOA has to make sure Countrywide shifts culturally. That is like LIC offering any new service and people going behind them without even understanding like a a matter of ULIP - without even understanding the underlying market risk.