The demise of Bear Stearns--the plot thickens

We know that Bear Stearns tried at the 11 hour to gather us$30bn to stave off bankruptcy, and allow the bank to fall into the rapacious hands of JPMorgan Chase. Citic walked away from a good deal which it had previous negotiated with Bear Stearns,which for them proved right. Now, today's Financial Times of London let's another cat out of the bag: through the good offices of Lazard Freres, Bear Stearns approached Temesak for a life line. The savvy Singapore fund who already had put some eggs from its basket into UBS and Citibank, also walked away from the table. It reasoned that one, Bear Stearns was too American, albeit with a growing and dynamic international banking division which had broken ice in China, and too financially speaking its rescue would bring tonnes of bricks on its head for a bad deal. And so another exhibit slips into the Bear Stearns dossier for the book that is being written on the rape and the demise of Bear Stearns.