There have been plenty of big names to bite the dust on Wall Street: Shearson, Paine Webber and DLJ, to name a few. The veterans at your firm no doubt remember them well. They'll even add a few names. It looks now like Bear Stearns is about the join that infamous list.

According to the Financial Times, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is about to rebrand the last business unit with the Bear Stearns name. Bear Stearns Private Client Services will soon be changed to JPMorgan Securities, and then "the Bear name, which came to epitomize Wall Street's scrappier, more swashbuckling side, will live on only in industry lore and the memory of employees."

While a few Wall Streeters may shed a tear in private, you will not find anyone up in arms, not even Ace Greenberg and Jimmy Cayne. You can't really blame JPMorgan for wanting to avoid a brand that has come to symbolize sheer ineptitude and financial disaster. Who knows? Someone may bring it back in the future. Stranger things have happened. 

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
Jurors in Bear Stearns case go public
Bear Stearns trail wraps up
Bear Stearns hedge fund execs' trial underway
Bear Stearns hedge fund trial to get underway
Lessons from the Bear Stearns hedge fund fiasco?