To: tips at dealbreaker dot com
From: redacted
Subject: DealBreaker Tip
Goldman just cut free water/soda for employees.

Update: Goldman has something to say: “We’re not tanking, we’re conserving. Do you see the distinction?” Regardless of their spin you know the alternative is work at Bear Stearns. You want to keep your job? Let me introduce you to Mr. Tap, and his friend, Senor You can afford to pay for your own Coke.

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Comments (30)

  1. Posted by golden girl | March 18, 2008 at 5:24 PM

    I’m skeptical. There was no free soda to begin with. It’s no Bloomberg, that’s for sure …

  2. Posted by american bandersnatch | March 18, 2008 at 5:30 PM

    Just don’t mess with the coffee: “I’m telling you, free coffee is a constitutional right! Just look it up – Juan Valdez versus the state of California!”

  3. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 5:31 PM

    Free soda? Not in my GS days. Hell, on any floor other than the trading floor at 1NYP, you couldn’t even be certain what day the coffee in the urn was brewed. And that was back in 2005…

  4. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 5:31 PM

    Good for them. Soda’s bad for you. And bottled water is bad for the environment. More importantly, people sucking earnestly on a bottle of water think that it makes them look evolved but truth is it looks stupid. No other way to describe it.

  5. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 5:32 PM

    wow. that’s gotta save them at least .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%
    of the average partners ’07 bonus.
    buck up!

  6. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 5:33 PM

    Of course there were free sodas. Ever been to the Americas Financing Group? It was a mad dash at 7am to get the two Dr. Peppers they put in the drink bin everyday

  7. Posted by Lowly Assistant | March 18, 2008 at 5:45 PM

    “Senor You can afford to pay for your own Coke.”
    You and your goddamned gold pen!

  8. Posted by golden girl | March 18, 2008 at 5:49 PM

    actually, now i realize what the tipster must mean. they did away with ordering catering service for internal meetings without approval, that’s all.

  9. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 5:51 PM

    Dammit, why isn’t Cramer in hysterics on CNBC over this?
    “YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BAD THIS IS! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! WHEN I WORKED FOR GOLDMAN SACHS (AFTER I WENT TO HARVARD) WE HAD SODA! WE HAD COFFEE! WE HAD TRAYS WITH LITTLE DANISHES ON THEM! BERNAKE HAS NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON! THESE PEOPLE ARE HURTING!

  10. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 6:07 PM

    I remember at UUNET in 2000 after WorldCom had begun its collapse. Suddenly, the coffee wasn’t free nor was the water. It only went downhill from there, like the stock.

  11. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 6:09 PM

    get rid of all the crap on the right side of the front page..

  12. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 6:14 PM

    best comment ever
    seriously, the ‘new’ format isnt that new anymore….time adjust the format

  13. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 6:31 PM

    anyone have list of Visas 13 underwriters

  14. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 7:01 PM

    Underwriters are conveniently listed on the front cover of the prospectus. If you don’t know where to find that, I can’t help you.

  15. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 7:06 PM

    Not knowing the underwriters for the Visa IPO…Priceless! For everything else there’s MasterCard.

  16. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 7:06 PM

    @6:31PM
    J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.,
    Goldman, Sachs & Co.,
    Banc of America Securities LLC,
    Citigroup Global Markets Inc.,
    HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.,
    Merrill Lynch,
    Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated,
    UBS Securities LLC and
    Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC

  17. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 7:16 PM

    7:01 Fuck you and you mother
    7:06 Thanks.
    Yes, S-1s are at edgar, with 8 senior co’s; but some douchebag cnn.com story notes there 43 underwriters!, and another cocksucker says 13….
    Just want to slam one banker who didnt get in and a piece of the $500M fee pie.

  18. Posted by Jmoney | March 18, 2008 at 7:17 PM

    I overheard from bbg TV that National City has 500 mil of the Visa IPO.

  19. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 9:16 PM

    i could 41, but my eyes have started to glaze over. i could be wrong.

  20. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 9:17 PM

    could = count

  21. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 9:30 PM

    this site needs some boobs!

  22. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 10:01 PM

    (*) (*)

  23. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 10:20 PM

    Agreed, the new format is not at all an improvement…

  24. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 10:26 PM

    Put that coffee down! Coffee’s for closers only.

  25. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 10:38 PM

    NYC has the best tap water in the world. Special delivery from the Catskill Mountains! Drink up!

  26. Posted by guest | March 18, 2008 at 10:48 PM

    7:16–Look at the section titled “Underwriting” in the S-1 that lists all of the underwriters.

  27. Posted by guest | March 19, 2008 at 9:35 AM

    Absolute horseshit, there never was free water/soda at goldman. Only coffee and two kinds of milk.

  28. Posted by bittergreen | March 19, 2008 at 9:46 AM

    Following in the footsteps of Bear Stearns. There wasn’t free anything at 373 Madison. If wanted some water, and didn’t want to pay anything for it, you were filling a cup in the Men’s room.
    Funny that having their employees paying for everything off a magnetic strip on the back of their employee ID didn’t save Bear from liquidation.
    GS might want to think about more drastic cost-cutting measures, along of the lines of re-evaluating their CEO’s $80 million bonus.
    Then again, forgoing bonuses by executives didn’t save Bear either.

  29. Posted by guest | March 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM

    I worked at Goldman from 1989 to 1991 on the equity trading floor at 85 Broad. They had private waiters come to each trading desk every morning to take our lunch orders. Even the clerical staff off the trading floor was included. They would give us menus from five or six local restaurants, including Delmonico’s, Harry’s, Yip’s Chinese, etc. and we could order whatever we wanted, and regardless of price the meal was always free. I had to slow down on the lobster tails at one point!
    Of course those were the days that GS was a private partnership. I guess going public caused them to rethink their food policy.

  30. Posted by guest | March 19, 2008 at 11:17 AM

    harumph, working conditions were better 17 years ago, what a shock.

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