It appears as if the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are dead certain that long-time Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne is retiring (read: getting canned) and president Alan Schwartz will take the helm, possibly as early as Tuesday. However, it's worth asking, who leaked the story and why?
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All of the stories, which first surfaced Monday evening -- reportedly first on the WSJ.com -- cite unnamed sources. From the certainty of the big papers, and the breadth of the coverage, a board member appears to be the likeliest source of the leak. Alternatively, Schwartz himself might stand to gain by leaking the story and giving Cayne a nudge, since the papers identify him as the heir apparent. Of course, even an angry shareholder -- smarting from Bear's $1.5 billion in losses and floundering stock price -- could have pushed the story in hopes of expediting the 74-year-old's retirement. But that might be too conspiracy-minded by half.
After all, while a well-placed story has a way of keeping the ball rolling -- just ask Chuck Prince and Stan O'Neal -- it rarely gets it started in the first place. Either way, it's pretty remarkable that Cayne has held on this long considering the big losses last spring and the press reports about his bridge playing, golf outings and -- famously in the WSJ -- his alleged propensity for a toke now and again (an anecdote that raised all kinds of other interesting speculation about sourcing). In the end, for all the bad press, Cayne might have survived the summer if the share price had recovered. It didn't, and he, apparently, is heading out the door. - Matthew Wurtzel
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