At Bear Stearns
Cos.' stockholder meeting on Thursday, Chairman James Cayne for the
first time publicly shared his feelings about the demise of the company
he ran for 14 years.
Addressing several hundred
Bear Stearns shareholders, many of them employees, he spoke of his
regret about the dryup of cash that had led to the company's fire sale
to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in March. "I personally apologize," he
said, according to attendees, fiddling with the microphone as he spoke.
"I'm sorry. Words can't describe the feelings that I feel."
Mr. Cayne said, "We ran
into a hurricane... . There's no anger; there's simply remorse."
At about 10:05 a.m., Mr.
Cayne announced that the merger had been approved. Some 84% of
shareholders voted in favor of the merger. He added that the deal is
expected to close on Friday.
Mr. Cayne, 74 years old,
noted that he was proud of Bear's 14,000 employees and that,
particularly over the past five years, Bear Stearns had had outstanding
results, and was viewed as one of the most admired companies in the
country. The chairman, who was named chief executive in 1993, stepped
down from that role in January, when he passed the reins to longtime
deputy Alan Schwartz. "That was a sad moment," Mr. Cayne said at
Thursday's meeting. "This is equally sad. The bottom line is, that life
goes on."
He also quoted Nietzsche,
saying: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." He added that
media accounts of Bear Stearns's bank run had been inaccurate. "Don't
believe what you read in the press," he said. "It isn't true -- it isn't
even close."
Mr. Cayne, who led the
meeting, was accompanied on the dais of the firm's second-floor
auditorium by CEO Alan Schwartz.
In his own brief remarks,
Mr. Schwartz expressed his admiration for Bear Stearns's employees.
"They continue to act like the consummate professionals they always have
been," he said. "I, for one, will always be proud to say I was a member
of that team."
Write to Kate Kelly
at
kate.kelly@wsj.com5
and Randall Smith at
randall.smith@wsj.com6
