On May 29, shareholders approved a Fed-orchestrated purchase of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan for $10 a share. The vote brought an end to Bear Stearns after 85 years.

Below is the story of the bank’s unraveling, as told through headlines that appeared in The New York Times from December 2002 through April 2008.

Bear Stearns Threatens Again to Leave City and Seeks Third Set of Deals to Stay

Big Raise Given to Chief of Bear Stearns

Buoyed by Mortgage Bonds, Profit at Bear Stearns Rises 52%

Bear Stearns Surmounts a Grim Market

Profits Rose 91% at Bear Stearns

Bear Stearns Officer Will Get $117 Million in Deferred Pay

Bear Stearns and Lehman Top Forecasts

Bear Stearns Bond Unit Is Under S.E.C. Investigation

Hunting Bear, or Maybe Bear Is the Hunter

Bear Stearns Reports Strong Quarterly Results

Bear Stearns to Pay Fine Over Mutual Fund Trades

A Fine That Fits the Crime

Bear Stearns Profit Rises 81%

Strong Trading Lifts Profit at Bear Stearns

$14.8 Million Bonus at Bear Stearns

Bear Stearns Told to Pay $160 Million to Investors

The Bankruptcy Development That Has Wall St. Worried

13 Are Accused of Trading as Insiders

Crisis Looms in Market for Mortgages

Bear Stearns Profit Rises 8% Despite Weak Subprime Market

Bear Stearns Will Write Down $225 Million

Wall St. Firms Hurt by the Subprime Lending Fallout

Mortgages Give Wall St. New Worries

Some Lenders Dislike Plan to Save Bear Stearns Fund

Bear Stearns Staves Off Collapse of 2 Hedge Funds

A Stock Filing Gone Awry for Bear Stearns

Bear Stearns Shakes Up Funds Unit

Meltdown Didn’t Hurt His Golf Game

Bear Stearns Says Battered Hedge Funds Are Worth Little

Jittery Stock Market Drops as Mortgage Fallout Spreads

Markets Fall as Lender Woe Keeps Mounting

A Top Official At Bear Stearns Ousted

Bear Stearns Heir Apparent Tries to Restore Some Faith

How Missed Signs Contributed to a Mortgage Meltdown

Billionaire Buys Big Stake in Bear Stearns

Buffett Said to Consider Bear Stake

Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse Announce More Layoffs

Bear Stearns, on Upswing, Sees No Need to Seek Cash

Bear Stearns and Chinese Bank to Form Joint Venture

Bear Stearns Announces New Round of Job Cuts

Bank Sues Bear Stearns in Fund Collapse

Bear’s Cayne to Quit as Chief Executive

A Wall Street Domino Theory

Look Deeper. You’ll See a Bright Side.

JPMorgan Acts to Buy Ailing Bear Stearns at Huge Discount

Fed Acts to Rescue Financial Markets

Fears That Bear Stearns’s Downfall May Spread

Who Will Come to the Rescue?

Socialized Compensation

What Created This Monster?

Behind the Deal, the Hand of the Fed

Moral Hazard

Copyright Last Exit 2008