So if JP Morgan is willing to pay $10 a share for Bear Stearns, what does it say about its previous $2 bid?

It's a much sweeter deal, although not quite the 5x the share price suggests. "[C]urrent shareholders will get only about 60 percent of that. The JPMorgan stock given to Bear Stearns in exchange for the new shares the smaller firm is issuing will end up back in JPMorgan's hands when the deal is completed. Bear Stearns's current owners will receive $1.5 billion of JPMorgan shares, four times the amount they were promised under the previously negotiated deal."