Yeah, my heart bleeds for these greedy, amoral bastards:
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Stunned dealers and traders at Bear Stearns, the ailing U.S. investment bank rescued by rival JPMorgan Chase & Co, turned up for work on Monday to find the value of their stock options in tatters and the future of their jobs up in the air.
The fear of job losses among bankers, traders and other staff comes as Wall Street grapples with a deepening credit crisis and the threat of recession in the United States grips financial institutions.
Bear Stearns, roughly 30 percent-owned by its staff and proud of its above average level of inside ownership, employs 14,000.
JPMorgan is paying just $2 a share for the 85-year-old Bear, valuing the fifth-biggest U.S. investment bank at $236 million — just one-fifteenth of its market value on Friday and way below its record share price of more than $172 last year.
“The valuation is virtually nothing, it is indeed rock bottom. We have tanked — it’s very, very sad. Everyone is in mourning,” said a Singapore-based Bear Stearns employee.
I wonder how many secretaries and mail room clerks have just had their retirement flushed down the toilette. We can save their bosses mansions, but let the worker bees eat cake.