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J.P. Morgan nerving itself up to take a leap into the dark. Dennis Berman, Susanne Craig, and Kate Kelly of the WSJ:
Bear Stearns Closes in on Deal To Sell Itself to J.P. Morgan: Bear Stearns Cos. was closing in on a deal Sunday afternoon to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., as worries deepened that the financial crisis of confidence could spread if Bear failed to find a buyer by Monday morning.
People familiar with the discussions said all sides were pushing hard to complete an agreement before financial markets in Asia open for Monday trading. "None of these things is done until they're done," Treasury Department spokeswoman Michele Davis said Sunday afternoon. "But I think everyone's expectation is sometime in the early evening hopefully" the deal will be done.
Terms of the deal were still being hammered out Sunday afternoon. Reflecting the dire situation at Bear, the company is likely to fetch considerably less on a per-share basis than its stock price of $30... Friday at 4 p.m. Last year, the shares hit $170.
One stumbling point appeared to be the amount of risk that J.P. Morgan would absorb in any type of transaction.... J.P. Morgan... Chief Executive Officer James Dimon was reluctant to pursue the deal without certain assurances that would protect his firm's exposure, said people familiar with the matter....
Terms likely will factor in the value of Bear's Madison Avenue headquarters, which could be valued at around $1.2 billion based on going market rates. That could make Bear's banking franchise worth roughly $1 billion -- a pittance for a firm that was regularly making $1 billion to $2 billion in net income during the middle of the decade....
Bear also has been preparing for the possibility of a bankruptcy filing, with that as the likeliest scenario if an acquisition by J.P. Morgan falls apart, according to a person familiar with the situation. Such a filing might even occur before financial markets in Asia open for Monday trading....
Any deal would all but wipe out Bear Stearns shareholders, whose shares have not traded below $20 since 1995. The pain would be most acute for Bear's own employees, who were seeped in a culture of firm ownership -- and own about a third of the outstanding shares...
And it was just nine days ago that I first heard somebody say, "at current spreads Bear Stearns can't last six months"...
