Billionaire (um, Millionaire?) Joseph Lewis disclosed in a 13D filing Wednesday that he paid $1,260,913,899 for his 12,136,724 share stake in Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC). If the currently proposed deal goes through, this investment is now worth only $28,157,200 - a dramatic loss of $1,232,756,699.
This will go down as one of the worst trades of all time.
In the filing, Lewis noted that his firm "will take whatever action that they deem necessary and appropriate to protect the value of their investment" following this weekend's sale to JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM).
The $2 bill taped to Bear's main entrance on Monday morning:
