JP Morgan Has Only One More Hurdle to Leap in Order to Acquire Bear Stearns

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- In what appears to be the vanquishing of the next-to-the-last obstacle in the planned acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) of the failed investment-banking firm Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC), a class-action lawsuit by a group of Bear shareholders to block the firm’s purchase has been dropped by the plaintiffs, The New York Times reported.

"A group of major shareholders in Bear, which include public pension funds and institutional investors, have withdrawn their motion seeking to block the merger, just two days before scheduled hearings on the matter, the company reported in a regulatory filing Wednesday," The Times reported in an article on Thursday.

"At this stage, Bear’s sale to JPMorgan seems all but assured. But a few holdouts are still fighting it," The Times article added.

The last holdouts, Samuel T. Cohen from Maryland and Jerome Birn from California, have still have a lawsuit pending.

At this point, however, the Directors at JP Morgan have a responsibility to make certain that the bank’s management team is ready to absorb Bear and that the team is prepared for overseeing Bear’s day-to-day operations.

This is an unwieldy task that could place the bank under enormous stress.

NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections of JP Morgan’s Board of Directors as a method for assessing their knowledge of corporate financial issues and to make certain they are up to the task of absorbing Bear.

The Knowledge Map shows that six of the bank’s Directors currently serve on other corporate boards.

Most noteworthy is Director William H Gray III, who is also a Director for Dell Computer Corp, Pfizer Inc, Prudential Financial Inc, and Visteon Corp.

Likewise, the following three Morgan Directors are noteworthy for serving on more than one other corporate board:

Director James S Crown is also a Director for General Dynamics Corp and Sara Lee Corp; Director Ellen V Futter is also a Director for American International Group Inc and Consolidated Edison Inc; and Director Robert I Lipp is also a Director for Accenture Ltd and The Travelers Companies Inc.

Click here for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).