How much bigger were Merrill Lynch's losses than B of A originally thought?

The WSJ has this information.

The forecast on November 12 was a loss of $5.3 billion. The discussion about that estimate lasted for eight days, according to people who viewed the documents. On Nov. 20 the recommendation from internal and external counsel was not to disclose; Merrill’s performance, after all, did not appear out of line with previous quarters. It lost more than $5 billion in the third quarter of 2008 alone.

Another flashpoint is December 3. As reported previously by The Wall Street Journal, loss estimates ballooned that day by $3 billion pre-tax and $2 billion after tax, pushing the total after-tax loss estimate from $7 billion to $9 billion. The change occurred as a result of a 4 p.m. conference call between CEO Kenneth Lewis, CFO Joe Price, Merrill CEO John Thain and Neil Cotty, acting chief financial officer for Bank of America’s global wealth and investment-management business and a key liaison to Merrill’s merger team. Mr. Cotty thought losses could still drift higher by $1 billion to $3 billion. The aggressive adjustment became known within the company as the “Cotty plug” or the “WAG,” which stood for “Wild A– Guess,” said people familiar with the documents.

That same day, general counsel Timothy Mayopoulos recommended to BofA CFO Joseph Price that estimated fourth-quarter losses for Merrill were not high enough to reveal, said two people familiar with the documents. Mr. Mayopoulos could not be reached for comment, but another person familiar with the situation said Mr. Mayopoulos didn’t have the $9 billion number when he made that recommendation.

He did not learn of the $9 billion estimate until Dec. 9 when Mr. Price presented the number to the board. Mr. Mayopoulos tried to find Mr. Price to discuss the figure but was not able to connect, this person said. Mr. Mayopoulos was let go the next day. He still does not know why he was let go, this person said.

A week after the vote loss estimates grew to $12.5 billion. . . .