NEW YORK - THE following is a brief history of Merrill Lynch & Co This history is taken from Merrill's website, published reports, and publicly available information.

1907
Charles Merrill arrives in New York to work for a textile company. He meets Edmund Lynch, who is looking for someone to share his boarding-house room at the 23rd Street YMCA. Both men were born in 1885.

1914
Mr Charles E Merrill & Co opens its doors in January. Lynch joins him, and in May they open an office at 7 Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.

1915
The firm changes its name to Merrill, Lynch & Co. An associate notices a difference between the partners: 'Merrill could imagine the possibilities; Lynch imagined what might go wrong in a malevolent world.'

1938
Mr Edmund Lynch dies. Merrill Lynch drops the comma from its name.

1956
Merrill helps take Ford Motor Co public, giving the firm its first billion-dollar year in underwriting. The same year, Mr Charles Merrill dies.

1958
Firm changes its name to Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.

1960
Merrill opens its first London office. Four years later, it opens its first Tokyo office.

1964
Merrill buys C.J. Devine, becoming a dealer in fixed-income securities.

1971
Merrill goes public and lists on the New York Stock Exchange.

1976
Merrill creates Merrill Lynch Asset Management.

1999
Merrill is world's largest underwriter of stocks and bonds for the last time, a title it cedes the next year to Citigroup Inc.

2001
Most of Merrill's 9,000 Wall Street employees evacuate their offices opposite the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. Three die.

Dec 2002
Merrill reaches US$100 million settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer over alleged conflicts of interest by research analysts. The same month, it names Stanley O'Neal chief executive. He becomes chairman in April 2003.

2006
Merrill adds billions of dollars of mortgages to its balance sheet. It acquires First Franklin Financial Corp, a subprime mortgage lender owned by National City Corp.

Oct 2007
Merrill ousts Mr Stanley O'Neal as chairman and chief executive as mortgage losses begin to mount, and after Mr O'Neal approaches Wachovia Corp about a merger without telling the board. Mr John Thain, chief executive of NYSE Euronext, is named his replacement as of Dec 1.

2008
Losses top US$19.2 billion in the year ended June 30, as credit losses US$40 billion. Merrill scrambles to raise capital from sovereign wealth funds and other investors, and sell risky assets.

Sept 15, 2008
Merrill agrees to be acquired by Bank of America for US$29 per share. -- REUTERS