I was only talking about the potential sale to a co-worker last night while drinking, didn't exect this to happen so quickly, I was predicting by the end of the month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aK2pw3mrmCUQ&refer=home

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3564479.ece

http://business.smh.com.au/stricken-bear-sold-for-a-song/20080317-2000.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/17/useconomy.creditcrunch3

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/17/jpmorgan.useconomy1

Funniest quote is from the guardian

A Bear Stearns employee with a dark sense of humour fixed a $2 bill to the glass doors of the bank's global headquarters, in Madison Avenue, today as staff arrived to hear of the firm's fire sale to JP Morgan for a giveaway price.

The bill was swiftly removed by security staff, but pensive groups of staff loitered outside the 45-storey octagonal skyscraper to reflect on Bear Stearns' $2 a share takeover, which values the firm at only $236m.

More from the guardian

The individual hurting most from the deal is the British-born billionaire Joe Lewis, who has seen almost half his $2.5bn fortune wiped out.

A currency trading specialist who grew up above an east London pub, Lewis paid around $107 each for 11m shares in Bear Stearns at the end of 2007 and has lost $1.16bn on his investment.

The Dallas-based money manager Barrow, Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss - which had a 9.7% stake in Bear Stearns at the year end, which will have lost $991m in value – is another investor nursing a huge financial hangover.

The firm is an affiliate of London-based Old Mutual Asset Management.

OMAM is one of my clients... it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, the media over here have been harping on about Joe Lewis for a few days now.

In a hefty sweetener, the Federal Reserve is guaranteeing $30bn of Bear Stearns' riskier assets. Some investors are unhappy, questioning whether they might have salvaged more money if the bank had merely declared itself insolvent and sold off its assets.

Also this from Bloomberg

Schwartz, an executive with more than 30 years of experience at Bear Stearns, became CEO less than three months ago, as the hand-picked choice of his predecessor, James ``Jimmy'' Cayne, 74.

Cayne, who remains non-executive chairman, stepped down after reporting an $854 million fourth-quarter loss, the first in the company's history. He was at a bridge tournament in Detroit last week as speculation about the firm's cash position pummeled the stock.

Citic Scraps Deal

Cayne ranked as Wall Street's richest CEO, with $1.3 billion of assets, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 billionaire survey. His stake in the firm approached $1 billion last year when the shares reached their peak price of $170. Under terms of the JPMorgan takeover, his holdings are now worth about $12 million.

This is f***ing NUTS I can't believe the sold for so little, there has to be a lot more going on inside bear.... I'd hate to be an employee of bear at the moment, there is going to be massive job losses.

Discuss.

Why should we care?
Serious question, who are these guys and whats the big deal about them being sold so cheap?

JPM? Juan Pablo Montoya? Man, Nascar pays better than I thought...

sound financial advice. . ..

haha spook

crazy big news. bear stearns was one of the most prestigious investment banks on wall street.

That's what you get when you use your shareholder's funds to buy junk.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe they hedged ABC

Must have been a big paddy's day for you Heards, this is at least 24 hours old :p

Seriously though the US Fed needs to take a look at itself in the mirror. First they're chasing the equity markets down instead of killing inflation. Second they trade treasuries for mortgage junk. Third they're bailing out investment banks, not deposit but investment.

America is pretty f***ed I think.

Bring Greenspan back!

lol

lost 'value' hey.

I hear tulips are a good investment.

Bring Greenspan back!

double lol

i thought greenspan's twin was running the fed

given the sale also included the Bear Sterns office tower in New York, the transaction effectively makes the business itself worthless.