Bear Stearns went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1985.
Founded in New York in 1923, Bear Stearns began as a securities-trading partnership created by Joseph Ainslie Bear, Robert B. Stearns, and Harold C. Mayer. For decades it operated under the traditional Wall Street partnership model, in which senior partners owned the business and shared directly in its profits and risks.
The firm’s public offering came during a broader transformation of American investment banking. Exchange rules had historically limited member firms’ ability to become publicly owned corporations, but regulatory changes allowed major partnerships to sell shares to outside investors. Bear Stearns reorganized as a public company in 1985, gaining access to a larger capital base while retaining its investment-banking and securities businesses.
The date is sometimes confused with later milestones, including Morgan Stanley’s 1986 offering and Goldman Sachs’s 1999 IPO. Bear Stearns remained publicly traded until JPMorgan Chase acquired it during the 2008 financial crisis.