Will Billionaire Joe Lewis Be Wiped Out By Bear Stearns (BSC) Collapse?

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: March 17, 2008 11:18 am

Billionaire Joe Lewis invested in Bear Stearns (NYSE BSC), buying as much as 10% of the brokerage firm.

Now, he may be out over $1 billion. On Sunday, the Times wrote that Lewis has lost about $800 million on his investment. That was before Bear Stearns accepted a $2 per share offer from JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM).

Lewis’s holding company Tavistock Group owns the Isleworth golf course in Windermere, Florida, and has stakes in companies including sporting-goods maker Puma AG, luxury-car maker Bristol Cars Ltd. and Ambrx Inc., a genetics-engineering firm. Tavistock is also developing real estate in Orlando, Florida, and the Bahamas, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

It is probably safe to expect that he will not own all of those businesses come next month.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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