Sales Of Bear Stearns

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Executive summary This report was prepared to show the roots of the financial crisis of 2008 and the consequences of this crisis to US banking system, especially for Bear Stearns Company, one of the biggest financial institutions of United States of America. The paper consist of Company overview, Market overview before the crisis, causes of crisis, sale of Bear Stearns and summary. Company Overview Bear Stearns was founded as an equity trading house in May, 1923 by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns and Harold Mayer with authorized capital of $500 000. Firm survived the Great Wall Street Crisis and opened its first branch in 1933 in Chicago. First international office was opened in 1955 in Amsterdam. Company became publicly traded company in 1985. Main spheres of business of Bear Stearns were corporate finance, institutional equities, risk management, trading and research, private client services, foreign exchange and futures, derivatives, asset management etc. Company employed more than 15000 people worldwide. Headquarters of the company was in New York with offices in 12 main cities in US and 13 cities worldwide (London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore etc.) In 2005-2007 Bear Stearns was named “Most Admired” securities firm in Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” survey, and second overall in the security firm section. As of November 30, 2006, the company had total capital of approximately $66.7 billion and total assets of $350.4 billion. According to the April 2005 issue of Institutional Investor magazine, Bear Stearns was the seventh-largest securities firm in terms of total capital. As of November 30, 2007, Bear Stearns had notional contract amounts of approximately $13.40 trillion in derivative financial instruments, of which $1.85 trillion were listed futures and option contracts. In addition, Bear Stearns was carrying more than $28 billion in 'level 3'
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