Lehman's dramatic collapse concluded what proved to be a long weekend for top Wall Street executives and regulators, who held marathon talks to try to craft a rescue plan for the embattled investment bank. Over the past six months, the firm has lost close to $7 billion dollars because of bad bets on both the housing and commercial real estate markets.

Many had hoped a buyer would emerge by Sunday night, most notably the British bank Barclays or Bank of America. Instead, both suitors pulled out, with Bank of America instead entering merger talks with the brokerage giant Merrill Lynch.

Merrill, known for with its famous bull logo, has been an icon of Wall Street and investing in America. Still, billions in losses in the last year due to fallout in the U.S. mortgage market proved too much for the 94-year old firm.

Certainly, the disappearance of Merrill Lynch and Lehman will result in heavy job losses in the already hard-hit financial services industry.

Lehman Brothers employees, which totaled some 26,000 as of the end of June, were seen carting off their belongings from corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan as early as Sunday evening. Still, company officials at either Lehman or Merrill provided little indication about how many jobs would be lost as a result of Monday's announcement.

Wall Street firms have lost close to 10,000 jobs, or more than 5% of the work force, so far this year, according to the latest figures from the New York State Department of Labor.