This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Going, going, gone!

No more Bear Stearns. What a shame. It did not have to be, but alas -- bad management, greed, and too much negativity on Wall Street made it unsustainable when sustainability is the word of the day. It is, or should I say was, one of the foremost investment banks on Wall Street for many decades.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) completed it acquisition of Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) on May 30, 2008. As a result, Fitch Ratings has upgraded the ratings of BSC and removed them from Rating Watch Positive, where they were originally placed on March 17. As the direct and sole owner of BSC, JPM has assumed the capital structure of BSC.

Bear Stearns had been one of the top investment banking, clearing, and brokerage firms in the United States, serving major corporations, institutions, governments, and high net worth individuals. Through several subsidiaries, it provided asset management, lending, and merger and acquisition advisory services. It's been a leading market-maker for NYSE-listed securities (through Bear Wagner Specialists), as well as for OTC shares, corporate and government bonds, and derivative products.

It was these derivative loan instruments that did them in. Bear Stearns, a company that for decades was relied upon to help its customers assess risk, fell short when it came to managing its own. Management was not watching very closely, and if they were, they did not understand what they were seeing. (See Serious Money: The page on Buffett Part V: Company Management.)

I also get the feeling that once BSC was wounded by a heavy debt burden, unknown or uncertain future risk, and liquidity issues throughout the financial industry, the vultures began to circle, preying on them until it could sustain itself no more. It's sad to see this once-venerable company disappear, but others will thrive in its absence.

What makes me saddest about the whole affair is not the loss of Bear Stearns or my personal loss, but that I see little or no evidence that anyone in government or on Wall Street has learned any lessons from our current financial crises. There is plenty of finger pointing, CEO firings, congressional hearings, press conferences, and the like, but not much more. Perhaps the removal of the worst offenders from their leadership positions is the best we could hope for. Good luck to those that carry on the clean-up.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I had owned shares of BSC and now own JPM.

Let us know in the comments what you remember about Bear Sterns. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.