Joe who? Takes a stake in Bear Stearns

The news that a British billionaire had acquired a 7.0% stake in Bear Stearns had a lot of people asking, who? Few people can afford to plop down $860.4 million to buy 8 million shares. Lewis has a net worth of $2.5 billion according to Forbes and is known as an art collector. He is a resident of the Bahamas, the AP reports. In the mid-1990s, he took a 30 percent stake in Christies. The issue now is what does he intend to do with his lastest avocation. Most likely, he's in it for the buck. Bear Stearns trades at a multiple of about eight, compared with the Standard & Poor's 500 mulitple of 14.9. But then again maybe he's always had dreams of making it big on Wall Street. Maybe he wants more. That would be fun.  

For more:
- here's the AP article
- here's a Financial Times profile

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