At a meeting of 1000 employees -- in JP Morgan's cafeteria, CEO Jamie Dimon and investment banking co-heads Steve Black and Bill Winters admitted to the newly combined investment banking staff what the rest of the world pretty much knew already -- that Bear Stearns is worth much more than the $10 bargain bin price that they stole it for. Another 2,000 or so heard it via the phone. Other revelations that came out of the meeting according to a CNBC report by Charlie Gasparino is that the integration of the two firms is going "smoothly" and more layoffs could be on the way. Gasparaino also told a Dimon anecdote during the CNBC segment:
Dimon is notorious for cost-cutting; last year when the subprime meltdown began, analysts in one of JPMorgan's buildings say, they received a memo stating that milk would no longer be available at coffee pantries. After an uproar, the firm began serving milk again. During the call, Dimon said "wasting money is a sin," and then quipped that "It is not true that I ordered smaller hamburgers for the café, but if I [had] thought about it, I would have done it."
Later, Dimon was asked by an employee if he could have "access to the Bear cafeteria, because they serve bigger hamburgers there." Dimon did not answer the question.
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