Rescue mission hazardous to employees of rescuer:

How many jobs will Bank of America Corp. cut in its planned purchase of Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch & Co.?

...Aite Group Alois Pirker said in a report last week that the bank may eliminate up to 27,000 jobs, roughly 10 percent of the combined work force of nearly 270,000 employees.

It's early days, that number may be on the high side.

More:

Bank of America will likely aim to keep most of Merrill's nearly 17,000 brokers. But Price has said the bank will target back-office positions, overlapping roles and support functions. Pirker, the analyst, said the bank will want to keep its own top-producing brokers, but "large parts of (its brokerage) unit will be redundant, and thus unnecessary."

...Another overlapping area will be corporate and investment banking...Bank of America bankers in Charlotte and New York could be under fire.