The Waiting Game

To the extent that I'm allowed to say anything about all the craziness, here's the basic shape of things:

Like any transaction of this magnitude, it'll take some time before JPMorgan can sort everything out. There will be law suits, whiny shareholders, angry folk, and all sorts of mayhem. Once the papers are signed, a shitload of work lies ahead, conducting diligence on all the business units, figuring out what exactly they bought and what the hell to do with all of it.

So that means until our new bosses are ready to talk to us, my team is runnning standard business. Currently, our salary and benefits remain the same and we're still doing what we do best: closing deals, buying assets, and processing money. It's all a waiting game now, to see what they decide to do with the operation. Best case, they like our market segment and keep funding us as a subsidiary. Worst case, they sell off the assets and dump the employees.

The next couple weeks are going to be much busier than normal, since anytime you have a new parent company, you have to essentially "sell" yourself again and make a case for the business model. Obviously, I think we have a good one, but whether we fit into JPMorgan's big picture is thoroughly up to them.

The real losers here are the shareholders. Luckily, I didn't have any Bear stock, so I've actually suffered no monetary loss from all of this. Nervous about the future, sure. Needless to say, the resume is getting a good dusting and polish. But that's something many people have to deal with. As Heidi Klum would say in her sexy, sexy accent, One day you're in....