Merrill Lynch, one of the major Wall Street investment banks, reported on Wednesday the biggest quarterly loss in its 93-year history after it took huge writedown for credit crisis.

The third quarter loss of 2.31 billion dollars after paying preferred dividends, or 2.82 dollars per share, was about six times higher than the company estimated on Oct. 5. Merrill earned 3 billion dollars, or 3.50 dollars per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Merrill said its holdings of collateralized debt obligations along with other securities and loans linked to subprime mortgages, lost 7.9 billion dollars of their value in the quarter

The company also wrote down the value of leveraged buyout loans the firm couldn't sell to investors by 463 million U.S. dollars, after underwriting fees.

Quarterly revenue fell 94 percent to 577 million dollars from 9.83 billion dollars a year earlier. Losses in Merrill's fixed-income division overshadowed gains from underwriting stocks and providing merger advice.

Results missed Wall Street expectations for a loss of 45 cents per share on 3.25 billion dollars of revenue, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Merrill stocks fell 3.41, or 5 percent, to 63.71 dollars in midday trading.