Sounds like lots of those at Bear Stearns were hard at work this weekend. But what’s in their future?

The WSJ reports on how the Bear Stearns deal worked out over the past few days:

Through the weekend, Bear Stearns bankers were summoned to the company’s headquarters on New York’s Madison Avenue, where they were told to prepare lists of ongoing deals and business relationships. Representatives from prospective buyers circulated through conference rooms, with J.P. Morgan executives asking questions of Bear Stearns’s senior management. A separate bidding group, including J.C. Flowers & Co. and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., also was in the mix, said a person familiar with the discussions.

Of particular interest was Bear’s prime brokerage business, which one investor called “the crown jewel” of the deal, according to Bloomberg. And JPMorgan had previously been considering Bank of America’s prime brokerage business, according to the WSJ.

Bloomberg reported that only JC Flowers and and JPMOrgan showed up for yesterday’s presentations, although Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC had previously expressed interest.

“Hundreds of Bear Stearns employees went to work yesterday to help with the sale process and the presentations,” reported Bloomberg.

It’s unclear how much value Bear’s investment banking business will be to JPMorgan, however.

J.P. Morgan executives, however, are far less interested in the rest of Bear’s operations, including its investment-banking unit. J.P. Morgan already has a substantial investment-banking operation with ties to many high-profile clients. Indeed, executives have scoffed at the idea that J.P. Morgan would buy a large Wall Street firm despite repeated speculation that the bank would ultimately buy a rival such as Morgan Stanley.

“Fill-ins, piecemeals, joint ventures, small purchases, where they’re filling gaps, [we are] absolutely, always open, always interested. But on doing something major that would create a dramatically different landscape, not in my lifetime,” Steve Black, co-head of J.P. Morgan’s investment bank, said last year.

Any thoughts on who’s next? A breakup of Citi perhaps?