Do you take financial advice from this man?
If so, you’re really hurting right about now, aren’t you?
Apparently it was an old-fashioned “run on the bank” that did it:
Pushed to the brink of collapse by the mortgage crisis, Bear Stearns Cos. agreed — after prodding by the federal government — to be sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for the fire-sale price of $2 a share in stock, or about $236 million.
Bear Stearns had a stock-market value of about $3.5 billion as of Friday — and was worth $20 billion in January 2007. But the crisis of confidence that swept the firm and fueled a customer exodus in recent days left Bear Stearns with a horrible choice: sell the firm — at any price — to a big bank willing to assume its trading obligations or file for bankruptcy.
So what does J.P. Morgan get out of this? Bear Stearns’ new office tower in midtown Manhattan.