Has John Thain pulled off the deal of the decade in selling Merrill Lynch to Bank of America? And have some of the other bidders who convened in New York over the weekend to pick over the corpse of Lehman Brothers missed out on the steal of the century?

In agreeing to sell Merrill Lynch into the protective embrace of Bank of America for nearly $50bn (€35.2bn), Thain has more than earned the payoff of more than $15m that he is likely to receive for less than 10 months at the helm.