Report: Shareholders loaded for Bear

Bear Stearns shareholders will likely try to stop JPMorgan from buying up the financial services company for $2 per share.

Shareholders of Bear Stearns will likely try to stop JPMorgan Chase & Co. from buying up the financial services company for $2 per share, according to an Associated Press report.
‘Basically everyone is angry and upset,’ said Rob Sloan, head of the financial services practice group at Egon Zhender International.
Because of that, shareholders are likely to fight the deal, Mr. Sloan told the AP.
“If they vote to fight, the business is so decomposed, it’s not really worth anything anyway,” Mr. Sloan said. ‘There’s really no options,” but to accept the current price.
On Sunday, The Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. agreed to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase for $2 per share, or $240 million, a price that some analysts have speculated is well below the actual value of Bear Stearns’ assets, according to the report.
The company’s New York headquarters itself is said to be worth more than $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings affirmed the ratings of JPMorgan Chase and upgraded the Long-term Issuer Default Ratings for Bear Stearns and its subsidiaries to an “A-” rating from a “BBB” rating and moved Bear’s long-term and short-term Issuer Default Ratings to Rating Watch Positive.
This action removes the Rating Watch Negative rating that was placed on Bear Stearns’ ratings on March 14th, after the company accepted a credit infusion on Friday from the Federal Reserve, by way of JPMorgan Chase.
Shares of Bear Stearns traded down 44 cents, or 7%, to $5.47 in afternoon trading, significantly above the deal price.