Opening Bell: 3.24.08

JPMorgan in Negotiations to Raise Bear Stearns Bid (NYT) The speculators may get paid off: JPM is said to be considering a quintupling of its original bid for Bear Stearns, meaning it would pay $10/share, rather than the original $2. Despite all this talk about folks sopping up the stock at any price just so they could vote for the $2 offer, the move is seen as helping JPM win over shareholder holdouts. According to the report, it's the Fed that's hesitant to see the renegotiations, partly because it doesn't want to have seen as engineering a bailout of Bear shareholders.. If the two sides do agree on the $10 price, Bear may invoke a rule, legal under Delaware law, allowing JPM to buy up to 39.5 percent of the company without shareholder approval. Caveat investor: the talks could still collapse at any moment.