Filed under: Management, Financials and analyticals, Raising money, Shareholders
First and foremost, calling this JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) $236 million buy of Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) an acquisition is a stretch beyond what words can say. The $2.00 per share offer is perhaps the biggest fleecing of a deal ever. You probably heard takeover rumors on Friday regarding Bear Stearns. Well, this weekend it’s true. The exception is that this is a take-under of the largest magnitude seen in the industry over at least the last two decades.
Frankly, the office building in New York alone is worth more than that. Add on the prime brokerage business. Then add on its equity underwriting business. The problem is all of its counter-party and derivative operations where the liabilities can theoretically never end on the fixed income side.
Back in January when the bad financial institution situation went from bad to worse, I noted that financial mergers may be mandated rather than preferred. Do the math. The Fed is providing financing for up to $30 Billion of Bear’s less liquid assets, and close to $20 billion appears to be for mortgage related assets. Jamie Dimon and friends are stepping in for a fraction of what this used to be. $2.00 this day, $30 on Friday, more than $60.00 a week ago and over $150.00 a year ago.
Many will try comparing this to Drexel Burnham Lambert implosion. That company wasn’t public. That company was more of a junk bond player that didn’t create as much of a systemic failure risk compared to this. You can’t blame Jamie Dimon for being opportunistic like this, but the management team at Bear Stearns just got scarred for life.
Bear Stearns at first wasn’t able to cease this run on the bank that happened last week and shortly before. But the firm put itself in this position over time with all of its leverage and there is ultimately no one to blame here but Bear Stearns itself, and its management that allowed this.
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