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• Will billionaire Joe Lewis be wiped out by Bear?

  Posted Mar 17 2008, 11:00 AM by Douglas McIntyre
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  Filed under: Bear Stearns, subprime, JPMorgan
  Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money

  Billionaire Joe Lewis invested in Bear Stearns, buying as much as 10% of the brokerage firm.

  Now, he may be out over $1 billion. On Sunday, the Times wrote that Lewis has lost about $800 million on his investment. That was before Bear Stearns accepted a $2 per share offer from JP Morgan.

  Lewis's holding company Tavistock Group owns the Isleworth golf course in Windermere, Florida, and has stakes in companies including sporting-goods maker Puma AG, luxury-car maker Bristol Cars Ltd. and Ambrx Inc., a genetics-engineering firm. Tavistock is also developing real estate in Orlando, Florida, and the Bahamas, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.   Read More...

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• A very high cost for big mistakes

  Posted Mar 16 2008, 07:37 PM by Charley Blaine
  Rating:
  Filed under: investing, M & A, Bear Stearns, banking, subprime, Federal Reserve, interest rates
  Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money

  

  The proposed sale of Bear Stearns on Sunday to JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share, or $236 million, will keep litigation lawyers busy for years as enraged shareholders seek to recover anything from the disaster.

  The losses from Bear Stearns' demise are shocking, so shocking that Asian and Australian stocks tumbled on the news. The dollar was fallling. Crude oil jumped over $111 a barrel, and European shares were expected to open lower as was the U.S. stock market.

  From a peak price of $171.52 in January 2007, Bear Stearns managed to lose 98.8% of its peak market value of $20.2 billion in less than 15 months, all because the company bet everything that the housing market and the markets for securities backed by subprime mortgages wouldn't break. It did   Read More...

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