Monday, March 24, 2008

Bear Stearns new bid $10?

The sweetened offer is intended to win over stockholders who vowed to fight the original fire-sale deal, struck only a week ago at the behest of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.

Under the terms being discussed, JPMorgan would pay $10 a share in stock for Bear, up from its initial offer of $2 a share — a figure that represented a mere one-fifteenth of Bear’s going market price.

The Fed, which must approve any new deal, was balking at the new offer price on Sunday night after several days of frantic, secret negotiations, these people said. As a result, it was still possible the renegotiated deal might be postponed or collapse entirely, said these people, who were granted anonymity because of their confidentiality agreements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/24deal.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Why wouldn't Bear get a higher bid? I said the $2 bid was nuts in the first place. If Jamie Dimon doesn't want every lawyer in the world looking over Bear's books, they had better offer more money.

And the Fed will blink and "let" them. It seems that JPMorgan made a little error in the first contract. According to the NYTimes:

One sentence was “inadvertently included,” according to a person briefed on the talks, which requires JPMorgan to guarantee Bear’s trades even if shareholders voted down the deal. That provision could allow Bear’s shareholders to seek a higher bid while still forcing JPMorgan to honor its guarantee, these people said.

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