Skadden and Wachtell seal Bear Stearns buyout

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have scooped lead roles on JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of troubled investment bank Bear Stearns.

Skadden partner Peter Atkins is leading the team advising beleagured bank Bear, while Wachtell partners Edward Herlihy and Nicholas Demmo are leading the team advising JPMorgan on its $236m (£116.43m) acquisition.

The deal comes after JPMorgan funded emergency loans to the bank on Friday (14 March) in an attempt to rescue the ailing bank.

Sullivan & Cromwell partner Mitch Eitel and firm chairman Rodgin Cohen are advising the Bear Stearns board, while Cravath Swaine & Moore partner Erik Tavzel are advising financial advisors Lazard on the deal.

Bear Stearns, which is valued at $2 (99p) per share under the terms of the acquisition, is the latest bank to suffer from the impact of the credit crunch.

Last month (1 February) The Lawyer reported that Sullivan & Cromwell and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Citigroup on its $19bn (£9.37bn) equity offering. Sovereign wealth funds, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Prince Alwaleed Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud all took a stake in the bank.

Cravath, Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell were unavailable for comment.