Can JPMorgan Chase’s Buyout of Bear Stearns Be Scuttled?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- Speculation began to mount that the JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) buyout of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc (NYSE:BSC) may never occur, at least not at the bargain-basement price of $2 per share that was agreed to last Sunday, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

"The run-up in Bear Stearns shares has set the stage for a high-stakes game of brinksmanship, with angry investors in one corner and JPMorgan Chief Executive James Dimon and the Federal Reserve, which pushed for the deal, in the other," The Journal reported in its article.

JP Morgan may be forced to pay a higher price because of Tuesday’s run-up in Bear Stearns's share value.

The other options are JP Morgan’s bid could be supplanted by a higher one from another financial institution or Bear Stearns could file for bankruptcy.

However, neither one of these options are going to be necessarily more palatable to the Bear Stearns Directors and its shareholders than the terms that JP Morgan already has on the table.

Moreover, the strong personal connections that exist between the two firms’ leadership could mean that additional behind-the-scenes negotiation will resolve any new issues that have emerged since Sunday.

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that illustrates several sets of personal connections between the current members of the two financial institutions’ Board of Directors, including board-room connections that run through the University of Chicago, the Con Edison Company of New York Inc, and a nonprofit named NYC2012 Inc.

To see the details of these connections, click here for an interactive and fuller version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).