Bank of America's meltdown-era acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide could be among the worst corporate acquisitions of all time. But as much as some long-suffering B of A shareholders would like to go back in time and keep the bank from consummating those deals, time travel is still at least five years away.

With that in mind, investors need to look at Bank of America on a go-forward basis. In the video above, Fool analysts Matt Koppenheffer and Anand Chokkavelu discuss how Merrill Lynch is integrating into Bank of America, and look at some bright spots that it contributed to the bank's third-quarter earnings report.