RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Our business news starts with home loan giant Countrywide saved from bankruptcy.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Bank of America has announced it's buying the struggling mortgage lender for $4 billion in stock. Countrywide is the country's biggest home loan company and it's been hammered by the housing crisis. Its stock is down more than 80 percent since last year.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This morning's deal saves Countrywide from a messy collapse that many feared would drag down the economy. The deal also makes Bank of America an even bigger mortgage lender than it already is.
Bank of America Corp. agrees to buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion, a deal that rescues the country's largest mortgage lender. It comes just months after Bank of America plugged $2 billion in Countrywide during the height of the summer's global credit crunch.