Bear's Face, Ace, to Remain in Place

Ace Greenberg is evidently not yet ready to retire to the bridge table.

Alan "Ace" Greenberg, the 80-year old trader who essentially built Bear Stearns into the fifth-largest investment bank on Wall Street before its spectacular collapse into the arms of J.P. Morgan last month, has agreed to take a position at its new owner.

As for what precisely his role will be, the details are a still bit murky. According to an S.E.C. filing, Greenberg will be vice chairman of Bear Stearns' retail business. According to a Reuters report, Greenberg is learning what will be expected of him at a lunch with J.P. Morgan executives today.

By all appearances, Greenberg's position is little more than a gratuitous gesture to the man known as face of Bear Stearns. The bank's retail brokerage was just a tiny part of Bear Stearns before its implosion--it contributed just 7 percent of the bank's total revenue in 2007.

So Greenberg has essentially been demoted from chairman of the entire bank to vice chairman of a sliver of it. Still, he's "very excited," he told Bloomberg.

And his compensation package wouldn't be described as extravagant even by the most scrupulous of corporate governance activists. According tot the filing, Greenberg's payout will be 40 percent of the commission revenue he generates. There is no mention of a salary at all, although it does note that "Mr. Greenberg continues to have discussions with J.P. Morgan Chase regarding the terms of his employment, including additional economic terms."

The filing also says that Jeffrey Mayer, who was co-head of fixed income at Bear, has agreed to stay on as vice chairman of the investment bank at J.P. Morgan. The bank is still in talks with controller Jeffrey Farber, chief finance officer Samuel Molinaro, and general counsel Michael Solender.

What role Bear chief executive Alan Schwartz will take at J.P. Morgan, if any, remains unknown.

by Megan Barnett

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