Neighbors.Photo: Patrick McMullan, Getty Images
This morning we learned that Merrill’s Lynch’s soon-to-be-deposed CEO Stan O’Neal had a serious stick up his butt when it came to Goldman Sachs, and that whenever Goldman reported profits O’Neal would “grill his executives” “to the point where you didn’t want to be in the office,” on Goldman earnings days, one former Merrill executive told the Wall Street Journal. Now on DealBook, Andrew Sorkin has done a thoughtful analysis of why Goldman has soared of late while Merrill has tanked, and includes a telling little nugget of info.
The new high illustrates how Goldman and Merrill — whose chief executives own apartments in the same Park Avenue co-op in New York — have been on opposite trajectories of late. Shares of Goldman are up —
Wait a second. Hold up. Stan O’Neal and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein live in the same building? Google: Yes! 941 Park Avenue, the plush-but-not-too-plush building at 81st Street that was also home to Tom Brokaw and Claude Arpels. No wonder the dude was all salty about Goldman. Blankfein is clearly the Newman to O’Neal’s Jerry! Look at him smiling like that! Oh, the humanity.
As Merrill Reels, Goldman Glitters [DealBook/NYT]
