Bear Stearns to Take Write-Off on Specialist Unit (Update4)
May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. slashed the value of its New York Stock Exchange specialist unit and will take a $225 million charge as the shift to automated trading eliminates the need for brokers on the floor of the Big Board.
Bear Stearns also bought the 40 percent of the Bear Wagner unit it didn't already own from Hunter Partners LLC to ``give us more flexibility in managing the business in this changing environment,'' Chief Executive Officer James Cayne said in a statement today. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.
The NYSE's new automated trading system has eliminated work for floor traders who now handle about 18 percent of the 1.6 billion shares traded daily on the Big Board, down from 86 percent at the start of 2006, according to the exchange's Web site.
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