JP Morgan Buys Bear Stearns For Pennies On The Dollar; What's It Mean For Tech?

from the bubble-bursting-or-economic-collapse? dept

While not strictly a technology story, JPMorgan's buyout of Bear Stearns on Sunday is worth looking at in the larger context of the tech industry. As you hopefully know by now, JPMorgan picked up Bear Stearns for $2/share, a total of $236 million, which is (quite literally) pennies on the dollar for a firm that not so long ago was valued at $170/share and on Friday alone had tumbled from about $55/share to $30/share. On Friday, of course, the Fed stepped in to keep Bear Stearns alive (through JPMorgan) and the weekend was spent trying to figure out options before the Asian markets could open late Sunday night (US time). There will be plenty of Monday-morning quarterbacking on this deal (so it's fitting that it all played out on a Sunday), but the discussions about the impact on the tech world has been mixed if anything. It would be great to get the perspective of some readers on how this is likely to play out for tech companies (both big and small). While many may be somewhat isolated from a meltdown on Wall Street, there certainly are some important indirect connections. From what I've seen, it doesn't seem like there will be much short-term impact, but the longer-term issues could be worth watching out for.

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