We first turn to underwriting. There wasn't going to be much of it this year, anyway -- at least not for initial public offerings, the Visa Inc. deal and special purpose acquisition companies notwithstanding. But Bear has a sizable stable of upcoming deals. It is lead or co-lead underwriter on 12 pending IPOs, according to IPO tracker Renaissance Capital. Four of those are SPACs, or blank-check companies, and two are investment firms whose main business, mortgage-backed securities, put Bear Stearns into a pickle in the first place.
One Bear-backed IPO that recently went bust was Archemix Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., biotech firm working on a drug to treat a rare blood disorder. It pulled its $58 million IPO plans in early February due to unfavorable market conditions, but by halting one of its two main clinical trials it should have money to last through 2009 without any fundraising, says CEO Errol D'Souza.
D'Souza doesn't know what's happening at Bear Stearns, which was co-lead on the deal with Cowen & Co. LLC. He says he hasn't talked to his Bear bankers since Friday's bailout news, but if he needs someone to replace Bear, he doesn't think it would pose a problem. And if J.P. Morgan Chase takes over Bear's underwriting business? "J.P. Morgan is a very reputable underwriter," he says.
Another IPO to watch: Salient Surgical Technologies, the most recent life sciences firm to file, has Bear and Piper Jaffray & Co. as co-leads. - Alex Lash
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See Bear Stearns Dealwatch
