Jimmy Cayne eulogises Bear Stearns as shareholder fill its grave

Jimmy Cayne finally apologises to Bear Stearns shareholders on 29 May 2008 as JPMorgan Chase took full hold of the company at its gravesite in a leathal merger which will long be chewed over for the way it was done. Yet 16 per cent of shareholders voted against merger, which is saying something since JPMorgan Chase walked into the room with 49,5 per cent. Cayne got a stone cold reception from Bear Stearns employees who lost liquidity when the original offer was us$2 a share but raised to us$10 for the buyout. [A year ago Bear's shares were selling at us$150!]. Cayne's words came too late for everyone; he walked away less a paper billionaire he once was but he and wife took us$80m or so, and two condo suites at the reburished Plaza hotel on Central Park South. JPMorgan exercised its droit de seigneur, and deflowered virginal Bear Stearns. By Monday Bear employees totalling a good 7000 or more will be pounding tthe streets for work. Outside Bear Stearns billion dollar headquarters on Madison Avenue which JPMorgan picked up for a song, a caricaturist drew a bloated face of Jimmy Cayne...any and everyone was invited to have his say around Cayne's face. And boy did they! The language is crude but fitting for a man who ruined his own bank by a bad decision, and walked away laughing to the bank. However a shareholder who voted against merger put it straightforwardly. Bear didn't deserve to be ruined for a bad decision. JPMorgan and the Gang of 4--US Fed, New York Fed, Herr Bush's man at Commerce, and Hank Paulson took Bear over without a blush in a fuzzy deal. The psychology of the takeover deserves study, and it is bruited that Goldman Sachs whom the nasty like IB flea that Bear was becoming was annoying it very much, and so GS seized the moment to kick off the rumour mill which would end up withdrawing Wall Street's confidence in the firm and lead to its takeover. As a learned rabbi once said, let the stomachs of these thugs rot for eternity! Ameen!