Times Online – Department heads from JPMorgan Chase yesterday began redundancy talks with their counterparts at Bear Stearns after securing a rescue deal late on Sunday evening to buy the bank for 6 per cent of its value last week. <\/p>\n
While JPMorgan Chase refused to comment yesterday, it is thought that the American bank may be considering making half of the 14,000 Bear staff redundant. <\/p>\n
JPMorgan Chase is expecting the deal to cost $6 billion (£3 billion) in expenses, from severance and retention to waves of litigation and asset writedowns. That comes after $30 billion of Bear’s bonds were underwritten by the US Federal Reserve. <\/p>\n
Shares in Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase for about $240 million — representing a 94 per cent discount to Friday’s closing price, collapsed 84 per cent to $4.81, still above the $2 per share offer price. The deal was unanimously recommended by the Bear board but still requires shareholder approval. <\/p>\n