company town

Bear Stearns, Really Into Bridge

FINANCE
• Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, ranked 611 in the world at contract bridge, fired Warren Spector, ranked in the top 225, for his role in the subprime crisis. Spector, a co-president at Bear, who took home $37 million, spent a whole two weeks at a bridge tournament in Nashville, while Cayne made do with a mere two days. Meanwhile, the firm announced 310 job cuts. [Bloomberg, DealBook/NYT]
• Merrill Lynch canned three top executives before even disclosing its own subprime losses, which could exceed $4 billion. Dow Kim, the former co-head of institutional securities, Osman Semerci, global head of fixed income, and deputy Dale Lattanzio were all shown the door. [WSJ]
• Zoe Cruz, co-president of Morgan Stanley, is the highest paid woman in America. At least there’s good news for somebody! [CNN, WSJ]

MEDIA
Newsday only discovered three of its Pulitzer medals had gone missing when they were sold at an auction in Long Beach. Reporters consoled themselves by noting the medals are only a symbol, but why go to all that trouble when you too can own a Pulitzer for a mere $4,000? [Newsday]
• No surprise, Don Imus is in talks with ABC Radio and may be back on the air as early as January. But what kind of offensive-comments clause will they work into the new contract? [Variety]
• Just how bad of a financial bust was TimesSelect? Something tells us the $20 million the Gray Lady took home wasn’t worth the 1.3 billion page views she lost. [Odd Numbers/Portfolio]

LAW
• Cadwalader’s bedbugs are back! [Above the Law]
• Big Law vs. Investment Banking, round MXII. So what if bankers win all the glamour? At least lawyers have job security, right? [Bankers Ball]
• Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge of New York’s highest court, finally got his law license back fourteen years after he fell from grace for stalking an ex-lover. [Law Blog/WSJ]

FASHION
• Giles Deacon is in talks to take over Schiaparelli. The Brit designer can do no wrong. Better watch your back, McQueen. [WWD]
• Condé Nast’s fashionable social networking site, Flip.com, is so not hot right now. [WWD]
• Charlotte Gainsbourg is editing the December issue of French Vogue. Next up: Jerry Lewis. [Fashion Week Daily]

Bear Stearns, Really Into Bridge