Bear Dead at 85

In a welcome boost after this year's devastating subprime losses, Bear Stearns today moved to secure a long-coveted slice of the Chinese market. Stearns and China’s Citic Securities Co. agreed  to invest $1 billion in each other, pooling their Asian resources to develop new products for the Chinese market, and launching a Hong Kong-based joint venture to reach markets outside China, Bloomberg reports. More »

Billionaire Joseph C. Lewis has bought enough stock to become the largest single shareholder in embattled investment bank Bear Stearns, Reuters reports. The reclusive British-born currency trader bought up $860.4 million in shares over the last month, nabbing a 7% stake. Putnam Investing, the second largest shareholder, owns a 6% stake. More »

Bear Stearns, faced with the implosion of two hedge funds worth more than $1 billion, has decided to liquidate them in the Cayman Islands—a move that will give creditors and investors less access to their money.  Bloomberg forecasts a court battle over the tactic, which an analyst said will yield creditors and investors “a pittance on the dollar.” More »

Bear Stearns has fired its No. 2 and once-likely successor as CEO in the wake of  the collapse of two company hedge funds worth more than $1B, reports the Wall Street Journal . Warren Spector, the most high-profile casualty to date in the subprime-mortage crisis rocking Wall Street, is a mortgage and trading expert who oversaw the unit that housed the two failed funds. More »

The securities firm Bear Stearns will oust its stocks and bonds trading chief, the WSJ reports, and soften its emphasis on short-term trades. The extraordinary moves come in the wake of Friday's market sell-off, partly triggered by investor concern about Bear Stearns after the collapse of two of its mortgage-bond funds. More »

Bear Stearns has blocked withdrawals from a mortgage investment fund amid Wall Street jitters over the crisis in high-risk subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reports. Two Bear Stearns hedge funds heavily invested in subprime mortgages collapsed in June, and now another fund, which has only a tiny fraction of its assets in subprimes, is taking a beating. More »

Bear Stearns told clients yesterday that two of its hedge funds backed heavily by subprime mortgages were close to valueless. The investment bank is putting up $1.6 billion in rescue financing, as Wall Street looks to dump other bonds that have been hit by the subprime downturn as quickly as possible. More »

The near-collapse of a $20 billion pair of hedge funds has left Wall Street jittery, though not yet in panic mode, the Journal reports. Speculation about the fate of the Bear Stearns funds rippled through yesterday's markets, where stocks and bonds dipped widely; news that banks were struggling to unload subprime-backed securities had traders biting their nails. More »

Two major Bear Stearns hedge funds that once controlled more than $20 billion in assets are on the brink of collapse after disastrous losses in securities backed by subprimes. The Journal reports a bailout plan that would have kept the funds afloat fractured last night, and the consequences could ripple through the mortgage market in the weeks ahead. More »