Brokers sit pretty. The rest wonder how will they be “made whole.”

Big numbers and general themes are starting to emerge from the reports about Bear Stearns.

MOOD ON THE GROUND

We’ve not had a lot of commenters update us about the situation at Bear (Bear employees — please comment on the accuracy of this info below), but here’s some on-the-ground news from the NYT: JPMorgan execs have “appropriated offices” at Bear Stearns and have “begun placing calls from the desks of Bear executives”. Not surprisingly, there have been awkward moments where Bear employees lashed out at their new JPMorgan bosses, according to the NYT. At JPMorgan, co-heads of IB Steven D. Black and William T. Winters, addressed the top 200 bankers at JPMorgan; the info trickle-down then resulted in execs addressing the masses in the JPMorgan cafeteria.

WORLDWIDE LAYOFFS

Asia seems to be a relatively good place to be right now, while the outlook for those in London looks dim.

A senior banker at Bear Stearns told the Financial Sunday Express that the bank has “little interest in Bear Stearns’ UK business because it already has a joint venture with investment bank Cazenove.” The paper estimated that London layoffs could be in the 1,200-range (various reports put total London-based Bear employees at 1,300 - 1,500).

The Observer’s estimates tend more conservative — they estimate that as many as 8,000 employees worldwide will be axed, with about 600 (out of 1,350 jobs) in London. They also reported that JPMorgan execs, in a meeting with Bear Stearns staff last week, tried to reassure staff by “outlin[ing] severance terms while at the same time highlighting generous incentives to employees they want to retain, in a move designed to prevent them being poached by rival banks.”Bear Stearns staff in Asia face less duplication with JPMorgan’s business than in other areas of the world, but still fear layoffs.

A JPMorgan spokesperson told the Guardian that they “are hiring 1,900 people in Hong Kong in the next three years and are looking to expand the business in every country. So we have the need for high calibre staff … by acquiring Bear, we have the potential to help satisfy this demand for additional staff. They have 500 people in the region in various businesses. We are looking at how best to integrate these businesses to maximise the advantage.” “It’s better to be out here in Asia than to be in New York,” one trader in Hong Kong told the Guardian.

POACHING BEGINS

Meanwhile, the poaching has begun for the brokers. The IHT (Bloomberg) reported that Morgan Stanley has already hired 12 Bear Stearns employees bringing a total of $26.5MM in revenue. Morgan Stanley spokesman James Wiggins told Bloomberg “We’re seeing very substantial interest on the part of Bear Stearns brokers to come to work at Morgan Stanley.”

And brokers are getting offered a sweet deal. Mindy Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants, told Bloomberg that Bear Stearns brokers are getting offered packages that are 2x the revenue that they bring in; i.e. Brokers bringing in $1MM in revenue are eligible for bonuses of $2MM+ (structured forgivable loan with $1.5MM in cash).

The WSJ reported that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon placed calls to top bankers at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse asking them to hold off on hiring Bear Stearns employees. Though its unclear whether the request is for just Bear brokers or for other types of employees.

“‘He is asking everybody to lay off [from hiring Bear people] for a while,’” said a person familiar with Mr. Dimon’s move. Mr. Dimon is said to want time to come up with retention packages.”