Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by market value, agreed to buy Countrywide Financial Corp. for about $4 billion in stock, five months after making a money-losing $2 billion investment in the unprofitable mortgage lender.

Countrywide shareholders will receive 0.1822 share of Bank of America stock, the company said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 11, 2008 07:07 EST