Some major blowups preceded Bear Stearns

The bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. by JPMorgan Chase & Co. adds the fifth-biggest Wall Street firm to a list of rescues that includes Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. and Kidder Peabody Group Inc.

JPMorgan, the third-largest U.S. bank, will pay about $240 million for Bear Stearns, which was crippled last week after clients pulled their money from the company and investors were scared off by losses on its subprime-mortgage holdings.

By contrast, Bear Stearns' market value was $13.6 billion on Nov. 30, the end of its fiscal year.

The Federal Reserve will provide financing for JPMorgan, including support for $30 billion of Bear Stearns' "less-liquid assets." Bear Stearns is the biggest financial blowup since hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management L.P.'s $3.6 billion rescue almost a decade ago.

The takeover of Bear Stearns ends 85 years of independence for a company that survived the Great Depression.

Following are some noteworthy financial blowups:

Northern Rock P.L.C. Last September, it received emergency funding from the Bank of England after a jump in credit costs left the mortgage lender unable to make new loans. In February, Prime Minister Gordon Brown nationalized Northern Rock.

Long-Term Capital Management L.P. The hedge fund started by former Salomon Bros. Inc. trader John Meriwether lost $4 billion in September 1998 after a debt default by Russia prompted investors to shun corporate and mortgage-backed bonds. Fourteen securities firms led a $3.6 billion bailout to avert a forced sale of LTCM's investments.

General Electric Co. It sold its Kidder, Peabody Group Inc. brokerage unit to PaineWebber Group Inc. in 1994 for $670 million, less than half what it had pumped into the firm during an eight-year, money-losing Wall Street foray. Kidder lost more than $300 million in its final year, hurt by a bond-market slump and a bond-trading scandal.

Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. It filed for bankruptcy in 1990. Michael R. Milken, who while at Drexel popularized junk bonds and helped spawn a takeover boom culminating in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s $26 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1989, pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

E.F. Hutton & Co. It agreed in 1987 to be acquired by Shearson Lehman Bros. Inc. for $961 million, one month after it had put itself up for sale and 21/2 years after its guilty plea to 2,000 felony counts relating to check-kiting charges.