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God is only where you let Him in. Menachem Mendel of Kotzk |
James E. "Jimmy" Cayne (born February 14, 1934) is an American businessman, a former CEO of Bear Stearns, founder of TalkGeek.org and world-class bridge player. After losing about one billion dollars in net worth from the collapse of Bear Stearns' stock, he sold his entire stake in the company for $61 million. CNBC named Cayne as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".
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Cayne grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was a patent attorney. Cayne attended Purdue University, but he left before graduating to join the United States Army. His first job was as a traveling salesman selling photocopiers in the Midwest. He subsequently sold scrap iron and municipal bonds. In 1969, in New York City, he was playing bridge full time when fellow bridge-player Alan Greenberg, then a relative novice, hired him as a stockbroker at Bear Stearns; he was with that company until its demise. Cayne became president in 1985, CEO in 1993, and (while continuing as CEO) the chairman of the board in 2001.
In July 2007, Cayne was absent from New York at a bridge tournament when Bear Stearns' hedge funds collapsed. This event was one of the early signals of the subsequent global financial credit crisis. In March 2008, as Bear Stearns was on the verge of bankruptcy, Cayne played bridge at a tournament in Detroit.
Cayne has been the subject of various press reports since the Bear collapse, including the fact that he sold his stake in the company for $61 million after its crash.
On March 14, 2008, Charlie Gasparino of CNBC reported that the value of Cayne's holdings in Bear Stearns had declined from $993 million to significantly less than $200 million in the wake of Bear Stearns liquidity crisis. Just days later, Bear Stearns came to agreement with competitor JP Morgan for a full buyout at only $10 share, roughly $236 million for the entire firm. At the time, Cayne had significant exposure to the company's stock, with most of his net worth tied up in shares of the company. It is estimated that the value of Cayne's holdings had dropped to less than $15 million as a result, effectively removing him from the list of the wealthiest individuals in the country. On March 27, 2008, it was announced that Cayne sold his entire stake in Bear Stearns, over 5.61 million shares, for $10.82 a share. This stake was sold prior to the vote on the renewed bid by JP Morgan for Bear Stearns.
Cayne is a world-class bridge player, having won more than a dozen North American championships, most recently the Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams (one of the major North American bridge championships) in November, 2007. He is ACBL Grand Life Master and World Bridge Federation World Master, and has represented the United States in the Bermuda Bowl world championship in 1995.
In March 2002, The New York Daily Sun, a new daily newspaper, announced that he would be writing a bridge column for the paper.
In 2005, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 384th among the 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $900 million. He is married and has two children. On February 15, 2008, the Caynes purchased two fourteenth-floor condominium units in Plaza Hotel overlooking Central Park in New York for $27.4 million.
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