Bear Stearns Staffers Gird for Mass Layoffs After $3B Hit

The Icarus-like fall of Bear Stearns stock, trading as high as $170 a share a year ago before plummeting to $2 last week, has cost Bear employees—who once owned nearly a third of the company—more than $3 billion. That's even after JPMorgan raised its bid for the investment bank to close to $10 a share, reports Reuters.

Now the other shoe's about to drop. In addition to losing massive amounts of personal wealth—the stock plunged 88% in less than a month—some 7,000 of the company’s workers are facing layoffs as JPMorgan integrates Bears operations into its own. "It's devastating. I thought I was going to work here my whole life," lamented one Bear staffer. (More JPMorgan Chase stories.)