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Bear Stearns
Type	Public (NYSE: BSC)
Founded	1923
Headquarters	New York City, USA
Key people	James Cayne, Chairman & CEO
Industry	Investment services
Products	Financial Services Investment Banking Investment management
Revenue	US $16.151 billion (11/2007)
Net income	US $ 233 million (11/2007)[1]
Employees	13,566 (11/2006)
Website	http://www.bearstearns.com

The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BSC) is the parent company of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., one of the largest global investment banks and securities trading and brokerage firms in the world. The main business areas, based on 2006 net revenue contribution are: capital markets (equities, fixed income, investment banking; just under 80%), wealth management (under 10%) and global clearing services (12%).

Contents 1 About 2 Subsidiaries 3 Financials 4 Major Shareholders 5 Corporate culture/folklore 6 Subprime mortgage hedge fund crisis 7 Notable current and former employees 7.1 Business 7.2 Politics and public service 7.3 Other 8 References 9 See also 9.1 Competitors 10 External links 10.1 Data

The company was founded in 1923 and serves corporations, institutions, governments and individuals. The company's business includes corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, institutional equities and fixed income sales, trading and research, private client services, derivatives, foreign exchange and futures sales and trading, asset management and custody services. Through Bear Stearns Securities Corp., it offers global clearing services to broker dealers, prime broker clients and other professional traders, including securities lending. Bear Stearns is also known for one of the most widely read market intelligence pieces on the street, known as the "Early Look at the Market - Bear Stearns Morning View."

Bear Stearns' World Headquarters is located at 383 Madison Avenue, between E. 46th Street and E. 47th Street in Manhattan. The company currently employs more than 15,500 people worldwide. The firm is headquartered in New York City with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Irvine, San Francisco, San Juan, Whippany, NJ and St. Louis. Internationally the firm has offices in London, Beijing, Dublin, Hong Kong, Lugano, Milan, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.

In 2005-2007, Bear Stearns was recognized as the "Most Admired" securities firm in Fortune’s "America's Most Admired Companies" survey, and second overall in the security firm section. The annual survey is a prestigious ranking of employee talent, quality of management and business innovation. This marks the second time in the past three years that Bear Stearns has achieved this top distinction. However, by August, 2007, shares in the firm reached a one year low as a result of Bear Stearns symbolizing troubles emanating from the U.S. subprime mortgage market. ^[2]

Bear Stearns also conducts business through other wholly owned subsidiaries, including Bear Stearns Global Lending Limited, Custodial Trust Company, Bear Stearns International Limited, Bear Stearns Bank, Bear Stearns Financial Products Inc., Bear Stearns Capital Markets Inc., EMC Mortgage Corporation, Encore Credit a division of BSRM, Bear Stearns Mortgage Capital Corporation, Bear Wagner, Bear Stearns Credit Products Inc., Bear Energy LP, Bear Stearns Forex Inc., Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc and Rooftop Mortgages. Bear Stearns also holds an 80% interest in Bear Measurisk.

As of November 31, 2006, the company had total capital of approximately $66.7 billion and total assets of $350.4 billion. According to the April 2005 issue of Institutional Investor magazine, Bear Stearns is the seventh largest securities firm in terms of total capital.

The largest Bear Stearns shareholder as of September, 2007 are^[3]:

• Joseph C. Lewis with 8.1 million shares, about 7% of the company
• Putnam Investment Management (largest institutional shareholder) with 7.03 million shares, about 6% of the company
• Bear Stearns CEO James E. Cayne, owns about 5.8% of the company

Alan "Ace" Greenberg was the chairman of the board for nearly two decades from 1978. He has become known for his regular quirky memos to the staff, exhorting them to cut costs by conserving energy, re-using paperclips, and fixing broken rubber bands by tying them back together. The memos, published in the book "Memos from the Chairman", are said to have created an "atmosphere of camaraderie and humor during the recession of the early '90s".

Main article: 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis

See also: Subprime lending and Collateralized debt obligation

On June 22, 2007, Bear Stearns pledged a collateralized loan of up to $3.2 billion to "bail out" one of its funds, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund, while negotiating with other banks to loan money against collateral to another fund, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund.^[4] The funds were invested in thinly traded collateralized debt obligations found to be worth less than their mark-to-model value. Merrill Lynch seized $850 million worth of the underlying collateral but managed to auction only $100 million of them. The incident has sparked concern of contagion as Bear Stearns may be forced to liquidate its CDOs, prompting a mark-down of similar assets in other portfolios.^[5][6] Richard A. Marin, a senior executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management responsible for the two hedge funds, was replaced on June 29 by Jeffrey B. Lane, a former Vice Chairman of rival investment bank, Lehman Brothers.^[7]

During the week of July 16, 2007, Bear Stearns disclosed that the two subprime hedge funds had lost nearly all of their value amid a rapid decline in the market for subprime mortgages.

On August 1, 2007, investors in the two funds finally took action against Bear Stearns and its top management. The law firms of Jake Zamansky & Associates and Rich & Intelisano both filed arbitration claims with the National Association of Securities Dealers alleging that Bear Stearns misled investors about its exposure to the funds. This was the first legal action made against Bear Stearns, though there have been several others.^[8] Co-President Warren Spector was forced to resign on August 5, 2007 as a result of errant trades that led to the collapse of two hedge funds backed primarily by subprime loans. A September 20 report in the New York Times noted that Bear Stearns posted a 61% drop in net profits due to their hedge fund losses.^{[citation needed]} With Samuel Molinaro's 15 November revelation that Bear Stearns were writing down a further $1.2bn in mortgage-related securities and would face their first loss in 83 years, Standard & Poor's downgraded their credit rating from AA to A.^[9]

• Jeffrey Epstein—private investor
• John D. Howard—private equity manager
• Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts—founders of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
• Sanford I. Weill—former chairman and CEO of Citigroup
• Gerald Schwartz—Chairman and CEO of Onex Corporation
• Christopher Gardner—CEO of the brokerage firm Gardner Rich, and author of the memoir The Pursuit of Happyness, being the basis for a 2006 film of the same name.
• Carleton A. Holstrom—CFO from 1977 to 1987, took Bear Stearns public in 1985.

• Aída Álvarez—Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (1997–2001)
• Carol Bellamy—Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (1995–2005)
• Raymond W. Kelly—Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (1992–1994; 2002–present)

• Jon Favreau—comedian/actor/director
• Sidney Hertzberg—basketball player
• Lawrence Kudlow—economic commentator
• John Baclawski—investment banker
• Bill Fischetti-investment banker

• Primary dealers

• ABN AMRO
• Barclays Capital
• Banc of America Securities LLC
• BNP Paribas
• Citigroup
• Credit Suisse
• Deutsche Bank
• Goldman Sachs
• HSBC
• JP Morgan Chase
• Lazard
• Lehman Brothers
• Merrill Lynch
• Morgan Stanley
• Rothschild
• UBS

• Bear Stearns Home Page

• Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Summary
• Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Company Profile