US Cracks Down On Corporate Bribes (WSJ)
“At least 120 companies are under investigation, according to Mark Mendelsohn, a deputy chief in the Justice Department division overseeing the prosecutions, up from 100 at the end of last year.”
Ackman Pledges To Hold Target Shares For Five Years (Dealbook)
That’s how much he loves this company.
Accounting Rules Help JP Turn WaMu Deal Into Money Maker (Bloomberg)
“Faced with the highest U.S. unemployment in 25 years and a surging foreclosure rate, the lenders are seizing on a four- year-old rule aimed at standardizing how they book acquired loans that have deteriorated in credit quality. By applying the measure to mortgages and commercial loans that lost value during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the banks will wring revenue from the wreckage, said Robert Willens, a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executive who runs a tax and accounting consulting firm in New York.
“It will benefit these guys dramatically,” Willens said. “There’s a great chance they’ll be able to record very substantial gains going forward.”
How Satyam Supported PwC’s Schizophrenic Strategy To Reenter The Systems Integration Business (RTA)
“The firms may call these situations all anomalies, and “all in the past”, but they add up to real pathology – a case of incorrigible ingratitude for a government-sponsored, highly lucrative franchise to provide audit opinions for public companies.”
A Hedge Fund King Is Forced To Regroup (WSJ)
“Later that year, Mr. Asness frequently erupted in his office, smashing computer screens in anger, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Asness confirmed the account.”
GM Bankruptcy Will Tax Experts (NYT)
“How many lawyers will end up working on G.M.’s expected bankruptcy case still is not clear, but in legal circles, the joke is that there may not be enough experienced bankruptcy lawyers available to handle the filing.
In part, that is because so many top lawyers are already running up lots of billable hours working on the Chrysler bankruptcy case, while others have been hired by the government, which is financing the way through bankruptcy for Chrysler and, presumably, G.M.”
Lenders ‘Rewarded’ With Bookrunner Hirings (FT)
“So far this year, 40 per cent of corporate bond issues greater than $500m have used more than three bookrunners, according to Dealogic – up from 22 per cent a year a earlier and 13 per cent in 2007. Small deals of $100m or more have also employed more bookrunners.
The proportion of such deals with more than three bookrunners has doubled this year to 30 per cent.”
Immelt Warns Of Tough Growth Ahead (Reuters)
Good to see he’s out in front of this one:
“As consumers around the world get more conservative, we think that overall economic growth — not just for a year or two but even post the recession — overall economic growth may be slower,” Jeff Immelt said at a briefing in Tokyo.
“Our focus on research and development, our focus on globalization, our focus on customer service and customers has to be increased… in an even more substantial way because growth will be harder to come by and we are going to have to work harder to get it.”"
MIA Analysts Give Companies Worries (WSJ)
Long story short: the down economy has seen a lot of analysts leave the business, and companies are getting less exposure. Less exposure means lower prices in their stocks, and CFO’s are a little worried about that.
“Between September and mid-May, a period capturing the worst of the troubles for Wall Street and the economy, there were more than 2,200 cases of analysts formally dropping coverage of a company, representing about a quarter of research reports during the period, according to data compiled by FactSet Research Systems Inc.
By comparison, from September 2006 to mid-May 2007, capturing the run toward the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s all-time high above 14000, just 6.4% of research reports were issued to announce an end to coverage.”
Love that fighter spirit, Ackman!
anyone surprised that Chase marked those loans at ‘fair value’, yet balks at mark to market accounting when it comes to marking assets already on the books down??
Asness sounds like he needs to be institutionalized.
JPM gets heralded for producing artificial income! GR8!
@3- I want to know how the smashing went down. Was he, like, throwing them clear across the room or putting his fist through them?
asness, wtf?
I applaud the press’ new found religion when it comes to finding all the “green shoots” whereas they once looked for all the doom and gloom they could unearth. however, these green shoots may turn out to be weeds (yep – took that from rich bernstein on cnbc this am). loans are all performing until the stop…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124330158365953109.html
of course mark downs will add to the bottom line if experience is better than expected. as I shake the magic eight ball asking whether or not the write downs will prove to be too conservative it tells me “all signs lead to no”.
@3 he loves to punch shit:
Quote:
I can’t believe I got my f**king hopes up again. Just unreal. Thought with giant moves -175 may have been error. On a terrible terrible day you have crushed me again so now instead of going to sleep I need to f**king punch something.
I thought the “smashing computer screens” schtick was Cramer’s?
@8- seriously?
@10 Yes, seriously.
Asness is a moron. He’s an egomaniac to the 10th power who surrounds himself with spinless yesmen.
Notice how all his letters and articles are never about investing? It is always about himself or how he thinks the world should be. That is because the guy is full of himself and devoid of any market knowledge. This guy couldn’t tell you if S&P 500 was up or down last year.
“But last year’s turmoil hurt AQR’s complex trading strategy. As rumors swirled about the size of AQR’s losses on a message board on the Wall Street blog Dealbreaker on Dec. 4, Mr. Asness, sitting in his office at AQR’s headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., responded.
“This is Cliff Asness,” he began, launching into a diatribe against the “cowardly posts” and “little liars” spreading rumors. He posted the message on the message board, and quickly realized he had made a mistake.
“It was stupid,” Mr. Asness said. While he said the rant was an extreme reaction, the hedge-fund manager is known for speaking his mind.”
Wow, this is scary. My kids play with his, that is the last time they’re doing a playdate at their house. Good grief, it’s not like people act one way at work and another, 180-degrees different, at home.
@14- Mrs. Cohen?
“BREAKING: Obama to Nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor (2nd Cir.) to Supreme Court.” http://tinyurl.com/258zvk
@13
still cannot believe that was him