company town

Bear Stearns Execs Cashed Out Before Stock Dropped

FINANCE
• James Cayne and three other top Bear Stearns execs cashed out $57 million in stock before the bank took a nose dive, pawning off $16 million in losses on regular investors. [TheStreet.com via DealBreaker]
• With Ellyn McColgan’s departure, Fidelity president Rodger Lawson has gone from new guy in town to likely successor. [Boston Globe via DealBook/NYT]
• Blackstone raised $21.7 billion for its latest private-equity fund. Apparently drumming up the last $6 billion was pretty tough. Cue the violins! [Deal Journal/WSJ]

FASHION
• Karen Elson (a.k.a. Mrs. Jack White) gave birth to a baby boy, named Henry Lee White. [British Vogue]
• Uniqlo’s parent company dropped its bid for Barneys. The Dubai firm Istithmar will pay $942.3 million for the department store. [Forbes]
Vogue contributing editor Lauren Davis can be seen in Lord & Taylor’s fall print campaign. [Fashionista]

MEDIA
• Rupert Murdoch outlined his plans for Dow Jones — selling smaller papers, investing heavily in the Journal — and complained about being treated like a “genocidal tyrant.” [The Guardian via Gawker]
• Lucy Danziger is taking time off from being EIC of Self to address a sex-toys convention. [WWD]
• Money Honey Maria Bartiromo ran afoul of PETA when she posed in a $3,695 Michael Kors wool coat with fox-fur cuffs. [NYP]

LAW
• A Greenberg Traurig lawyer sent a more than candid resignation letter to his former employers: “There’s no good way to spin this other than I’m kind of screwing you on this one.” [Above the Law]
• Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito complains that his colleagues talk too much. [Legal Times]
• Hugh Verrier is the new chairman of White & Case. How happy must he be to get out of the Moscow office? [New York Law Journal]

Bear Stearns Execs Cashed Out Before Stock Dropped