JPM and Bank of America May Consider an Acquisition of Bear Stearns

In an article that we wrote yesterday, we wrote about how HSBC Holdings was considered as one of the potential buyers of Bear Stearns.  Since the list of suitors doesn’t stop with HSBC, we decided to also map the connections between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan and Bank of America, respectively (see Wall Street Journal).

JP Morgan can be considered a contender for many reasons, but its ties with Bear Stearns can amplify their advantage.  Jeffrey Lane was recently named the replacement for the Head of Asset Management at Bear Stearns to recover two fledgling hedge funds; the previous Executive had made bad bets on risky mortgages that caused the funds to flounder.  Lane served with Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan since Dec 2006) as Directors at Citigroup from 1991-1996.  Lane also served with Heidi Miller (Executive VP since JP Morgan and Bank One merger) at Citigroup in 1995-1996.  Another connection is between Frederic Salerno (Director of Bear Stearns since 1993) and Walter Shipley (former.  They served together at Verizon from 1997-2001 where Shipley was the CFO (Bell Atlantic and GTE merger to form Verizon).  Even though Walter Shipley is no longer at JP Morgan, he still more then likely has many ties there as he served as Chairman and CEO of Chemical Bank and then Chase Manhattan Bank spanning from 1983-1992, and again for a second stint at the Company from 1994-1999.

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Bank of America also has many ties to Bear Stearns.  We again note Frederic Salerno (Bear Stearns Board since 93’), but this time with his ties with Gary Countryman (Director at Bank of America) and Charles Gifford (Director at Bank of America, and former CEO of Fleet Boston Financial which later merged with Bank of America).  These ties come through CBS where they all served as Directors at the same time.  Paul Lattanzo, who is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Bear Stearns Growth Capital Partners private equity group also has connections with a Director at Bank of America, Jackie Ward.  This relationship comes through their time spent as Managing Directors at United Dominion.  One last connection to be noted is Paul Lattanzo’s relationship with Lewis Coleman, who spent a decade at Bank of America, some of which was spent as CFO.  These two have ties from their days at Nationsbanc Montgomery Securities.

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