A look back at the key issues for the bank from early signs of problems in the mortgage market last June to the announcement of emergency funding from the NY Fed and JP Morgan.
June 22nd, 2007:Bear Stearns agrees a plan for a $3.2bn secured loan to one of its hedge funds under pressure from bad bets on the US subprime mortgage market. The move proves an early sign of problems in the mortgage market, which begin roiling Wall Street in the subsequent months.
July 17th:Bear Stearns reveals to investors that one of the hedge funds with significant subprime mortgage exposure has lost all of its value. Another hedge fund is said to have about nine cents remaining for every dollar invested. The losses are far worse than expected.
August 5th:Warren Spector, long seen as the likely successor to chief executive Jimmy Cayne, resigns in the wake of the collapse of the two mortgage-exposed hedge funds.
August 17th: Bear Stearns cuts 240 jobs in two mortgage origination units. In early October, the bank cuts another 310 positions.
October 22th:Citic Securities, China's largest securities firm, agrees a share-swap deal with Bear Stearns. Citic agrees to pay $1bn for securities that would convert to about 6 per cent of Bear Stearns and the US investment bank would eventually pay the same amount for about 2 per cent of Citic.
November 1st:A Wall Street Journal article suggests that Mr Cayne was out of touch during the meltdown of two hedge funds run by the bank's asset management arm in the summer. Mr Cayne urges Bear Stearns employees not to be distracted by the "noise".
December 7th:Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis increases his Bear Stearns stake to 8 per cent, indicating that he continues to believe the shares are undervalued.
December 20th:Bear Stearns reports the first quarterly loss in its 84-year history. The loss - nearly four times analysts' forecasts - includes a $1.9bn writedown on its holdings of mortgage assets.
January 7th, 2008:Mr Cayne reveals plans to step down. Alan Schwartz subsequently takes president and chief executive roles, while Mr Cayne remains non-executive chairman.
February 14th:It emerges that Citic is renegotiating its share-swap agreement with Bear Stearns, a reaction to the post-agreement fall in their stock prices.
February 28th: Rebel investors seize two failed Bear Stearns hedge funds - a move that prepares the ground for the investors to try to win back some of the $1.6bn lost in the collapse of Bear Stearns funds the previous July.
March 7th: Shares in Carlyle Capital Corporation, a seven-month-old, $22bn hedge fund exposed to mortgage-backed securities, suspended in Amsterdam, after the fund reveals it has received substantial additional margin calls and default notices from its lenders.
Bear Stearns seen as heavily exposed to Carlyle Group, founder and 15 per cent owner of CCC.
March 13th: CCC collapses. Shares in Bear Stearns fall as much as 17 per cent as investors grow increasingly worried about the investment bank's exposure to CCC and other troubled investment funds. Mr Schwartz says: "Our balance sheet has not weakened at all. We don't see any pressure on our liquidity."
March 14th:Bear Stearns arranges for emergency funding from JP Morgan and the New York Federal Reserve amid a deepening liquidity crisis.
Shares in the Wall Street bank plummet by as much as 50 per cent.
March 16th:JP Morgan Chase agrees to buy Bear Stearns for $236m or $2 a share. That compares with $169 a share reached in January last year and $30 on Friday.
