Billionaire Lewis Warns He May Try To Stop Bear Stearns Deal

Billionaire Lewis Warns He May Try To Stop Bear Stearns Deal

Bear Stearns shareholders are understandably furious about the investment bank's sale to JPMorgan Chase for about $2 a share. Now one of the largest of them is warning that he intends to try and stop it.

Joseph C. Lewis, the reclusive billionaire investor who is Bear's second-largest shareholder, said in a regulatory filing that he will do anything "necessary and appropriate to protect the value" of his shares. What Mr. Lewis will do is left vague, but he says he may try to encourage Bear and others to consider "strategic transactions or alternatives."

Through various entities, Mr. Lewis, a commodities trader who is friends with Bear chairman James E. Cayne, owns 12,136,724 shares, or an 8.35 percent stake.

Read more on Lewis' losses here

Read more about others who lost big money over Bear Stearns here

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