Another director of Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BSC) has unloaded his holdings as the stock was trading north of a buyout price for some time.  Paul A. Novelly, a director, has unloaded 125,000 shares in a direct share sale with an average sale price of $10.67. 

The sale date was listed as March 28, 2008, which would have been last Friday.  His share holdings are now also listed as ZERO.  Jimmy Cayne did the same last week.  If these guys thought a much higher bid was coming shortly, would they be unloading their stock after JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) already juiced its buyout offer for a better public relations campaign?

This says that Novelly’s sale did not include 3,523.244 shares held in the Non-Employee Directors’ Stock Option and Stock Unit Plan.

We frequently discuss restructurings, insider activity, activist investor trends, IPO’s, back door plays into IPO’s, SPAC’s, spin-offs, and more on our open email distribution list.

Regardless of if a higher bid will or won’t materialize, shares are up 4.1% at $10.92 in late-afternoon trading before the close.

Jon C. Ogg
April 1, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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