At Bear, Jimmy Cayne's Apology Met With Silence
New York Times:
Mr. Cayne, on his second to last day as chairman of Bear, presided over the meeting at the firm's auditorium, which was filled with more than 400 employees. Sitting next to him was Alan D. Schwartz, Bear's chief executive.
Mr. Cayne, who joined the firm in 1969 and lost more than $900 million in the firm's collapse, had been conspicuously absent in March, when Mr. Dimon presided over a stormy meeting in the same location.
The gathering was very much a Bear Stearns affair, with Mr. Dimon in Italy meeting clients and no other top JPMorgan operating executives attending. Mr. Cayne's presence was a powerful reminder to the Bear Stearns community that the fight was finished.
"I have no anger, only regret," Mr. Cayne said, as he departed from the script of his prepared remarks. "Fourteen thousand families were affected. I personally apologize. I feel an enormous amount of pain and management feels an enormous amount of pain."
The audience of Bear employees, directors and investors, many of whom Mr. Cayne has known for years and who lost large parts of their savings and fortunes, received his remarks in dead silence.
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First Posted: 05-30-08 07:53 AM | Updated: 06- 7-08 05:12 AM