Top Team Move Spoiled By Support Staff

The ABN team instead moved to Jeffries & Co after Bob Lyons, Bear Stearns' chief adminstrative officer for equities, is thought to have asked the team to start sooner than the late summer start-date the team had in mind. It is also believed that the final straw came when the team were advised that networking days with clients, such as golf outings, would have to be taken as holiday.

Mark Murphy, the head of the Bear Stearns Boston office, and the man who would have been the boss of the team, has resigned from his position in disgust at the way the matter was dealt with.