The former Superman of business takeovers, Ken Lewis CEO of Bank of America, succumbed to a lethal amount of corporate kryptonite called the board room.   The self anointed hero of the financial universe began his tragic fall from grace when he flexed his powerful acquisition skills announcing the purchase of Countrywide in August, 2007 for approximately four billion dollars.  At the time he was quoted: "Countrywide presents a rare opportunity for Bank of America to add what we believe is the best domestic mortgage platform at an attractive price." But that was before our suburbs became ghost towns of abandoned homes due to apocalyptic mortgages.   To have true financial domination, Ken Lewis coveted Merrill Lynch and saw his opportunity in September, 2008 when he flew in to save the day and prevented another catastrophic collapse by purchasing the battered giant for 50 billion dollars.   The glitter of unimaginable wealth was his for the taking for he could offer the retail brokerage services to Bank of America's huge customer base.   But somehow the capitalist superpower overlooked the 3.9 billion dollars in bonuses paid out to Merrill Lynch employees three days before finalizing the purchase.   Barely three weeks into future global supremacy, Ken Lewis was again shocked and dismayed. This time by the staggering losses attributed to Merrill Lynch.   We can only assume he could not find an accountant that did not follow apothecary procedures to take a peek at their books before the takeover.  His followers became disenchanted when lawsuits from both Countrywide and Merrill Lynch previous business practices began to dictate their time and resources.   The champion of the new world order of mega banks had fallen.  The lure of the green became his kryptonite. 

FYI:  Ken Lewis's retirement package will be in the fifty to eighty million dollar range.   His star may have dimmed but under his guidance he positioned Bank of America as an international leader in wealth management.   He began his career as a credit analyst in 1969 with a subsidiary later purchased by Bank of America.