Internal Source

Who Is to Blame for Bear Stearns' Demise?

BEAR + JPM = ILLEGAL HR PRACTICES!!

Dimon called all the i-banks on the Street and asked them not to recruit away or have interviews with Bear employees. I work at Bear HQ and someone from MS is interested in me, has seen my resume, but said he can't meet or interview me until at least a week or two has passed - on orders from above! All this while I wait to see if Dimon wants to keep me or cull me away in a massive layoff! I am not a SMD or some other big-earner, either; I'm just in a middle office role and need to support my family! Thanks Jamie for screwing us once, then twice! (I also didn't lose a fortune in shares since I got mostly cash - small cash, that is - for a bonus). Not all of us are rich senior guys with millions in the bank - before you crucify Bear, think of all the smaller ones like me who lost way more than the bigwigs!! (and now, can't even work to secure myself and my family...)

Bear Stearns Buyout: Insiders and the Merger Contract

BEAR + JPM = ILLEGAL HR PRACTICES!!

Dimon called all the i-banks on the Street and asked them not to recruit away or have interviews with Bear employees. I work at Bear HQ and someone from MS is interested in me, has seen my CV, but said he can't meet or interview me until at least a week or two has passed - on orders from above! All this while I wait to see if Dimon wants to keep me or cull me away in a massive layoff! I am not a SMD or some other big-earner, either; I'm just in a middle office role and need to support my family! Thanks Jamie for screwing us once, then twice! (I also didn't lose a fortune in shares since I got mostly cash - small cash, that is - for a bonus).

Bear Stearns: Where We Are and Some Little Known Facts

I work at Bear HQ. We got ripped off, big time. Gun was pointed at our heads on Sunday night, with no other choice. Think there wouldn't have been other banks or SWFs or private investors or funds interested in buying us for $500m, $1b, at least more than $250m? There were. The so-called "toxic stuff" on the balance sheet is largely US paper such as GNMA, FNMA paper, etc. that should be valued fairly, that is not due to the market's total bullshit collapse in trust.

People are leaving in droves. Headhunters are calling all sorts of people - including in the middle and back office areas such as operations, accounting, execution, etc. Brokers are fleeing for the doors for better names who are still hiring revenue producers. I myself am having no less than three conversations with other names, and I am not on the revenue production side. Will I stay if JPM offers me a job? Don't know, but can't bet on it, so better to get set up and secure and eliminate the risk.

People have to realize that most of Bear was NOT involved in all the "toxic" stuff such as Alt-A or subprime MBS, but most were doing the normal trading of bonds, equities and the rest, like research, etc. that every other bank does. What about all those people who didn't do anything to lead up to this?

Get real people. Not every person in Bear was some 'cowboy trader'. You don't have 14,000 cowboy traders in a firm. More than 60% of those people are in support functions and didn't take a sliver of risk of anyone's money or capital. Many had small salaries and bonuses (in the world of the Street) of, say, 60k base, 20k bonus, some in shares - not every person was some MD with a multi-million-dollar package - so all the vitriol being spewed at the firm fails to take into consideration the "everyman" at the firm.