Bear Stearns collapsed in March 2008 before the wider global market crash.
The investment bank ran into severe liquidity problems after losses in mortgage-related securities and the failure of two hedge funds it managed in 2007. In March 2008, JPMorgan Chase agreed to acquire Bear Stearns with support from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury.
The emergency deal was arranged at a price initially equivalent to about $2 per share, later revised to approximately $10 per share. The rescue signaled that authorities feared a disorderly failure could spread through the financial system.
Bear Stearns was not the same institution as Lehman Brothers. Bear Stearns was acquired in March, while Lehman filed for bankruptcy in September. That later failure produced a much broader shock. Both banks had significant exposure to the U.S. housing and mortgage-finance boom, which had already begun to unwind by 2007.