Subject: Dust to Diamonds event, Patriarch Partners March 17 //To: newyork@gsb.columbia.edu, privateequity@gsb.columbia.edu.//The Sanford C. Bernstein Student Leadership and Ethics Board presents: Dust to Diamonds- Lynn Tilton, CEO and Principal of Patriarch Partners, LLC.
Archive for March 2011
Remember the Fairfax Financial vs hedge funds bit? Five years ago, the Canadian insurer got it in its head that SAC Capital, Kynikos and Third Point conspired together to drive down the company’s stock and that part of its plan was to “spread disinformation to business journalists” who, as pawns in their game, would help disseminate the negative news re the neighbors to the north. Anyway, this thing is still going on and last month, Third Point subpoenaed a bunch of reporters though apparently had a change of heart on using their depositions. Continue reading »
February performance for RIFF. Continue reading »
As we’ve previously discussed, one of the tricky things about being David Tepper is figuring out what to do with your stack and stacks of money. Making it rain every single year is great but there is the downside of finding the space for all that cheddar. At this point in Tepper and Appaloosa’s history, they’re about one quarter away from busting at the seams and in order to remain nimble, need to figure out something, stat. Ideas rejected by Tepp so far include: having yet more molds of his lucky balls made, this time cast in gold- but nothing can beat the original brass ones; buying a private jet, but he already has NetJets, so no sense there; buying a professional sports team (he already has a minority stake in the Steelers and one naughty quarterback is more than enough to handle) and so on and so forth. Tepper has thrown around the idea of putting money to work sticking it to pricks who have it coming (“Sometimes if someone is an asshole, like a waiter at a restaurant, I think, I could just buy this place and fire that guy”) but you don’t need more than a few million for things like that and Tepps is trying to figure out what to do with billions. At the moment all he’s come up with is investing it in other hedge funds so if you need money for that sort of thing, do consider getting in touch. Continue reading »
Jon Corzine’s got an itchy finger and $1 billion in unmarked singles to spend. Continue reading »
Like most of you, we’ve come to expect a lot of from the ‘top emerging markets fund of 2010′ and its fearless leader. So we’re being admittedly a bit hard on Ping Capital gang about a less than stellar February when, year to date, they’re beating many a manager. Still, though, if it wasn’t previously clear, we’re looking for fireworks month in and month out, and will support whatever methods it takes to get there. Continue reading »
Does Lenny Dykstra Not Understand The Concept Of Tipping Or Does He Think His Signature Is Worth $200?
By Bess Levin
Though he’s told reporters he’s in the midst of a huge comeback, economically speaking, Lenny Dykstra is still a few paychecks away from getting his $24 million house back from the bank, flying private, paying hookers for services rendered in forms other than the IOU, and taking dates out for a nice steak dinner. As luck would have it, though, last Friday Nails got lucky and after participating in an interview with NBC’s “Sports Final,” got his dinner at the Palm covered, which is apparently a standard arrangement between the restaurant and the station. After hearing that the tab for him and his “attractive blonde” lady friend would be taken care of, LD proceeded to feast like he wasn’t sure when his next meal was coming, ordering two bottles of $150 wine, salads, and surf-and-turn at the table and “crab cakes and assorted desserts” to take back to their room at the Ritz. One would like to say he stopped short of making his date put the silverware in her purse but the scene seems to suggest otherwise. After being handed a bill to sign, Dykstra wrote $200 in the tip section, signed his name, and got out of there, leaving the manager to compensate LD’s waiter. Continue reading »
Mitt Romney says that if he runs for president, “I won’t be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works—or Larry Summers how to start a business.” Have you ever talked business strategy with Governor Romney? He was very interested in what Harvard and I could do to help during the time when he was governor of Massachusetts. Are you surprised to hear him attacking your business acumen? No. You shouldn’t work in Washington if you are not prepared to become an object of symbolic attack. My recollection is that in his highly successful business career, Governor Romney did a fair amount of job-destroying at a number of companies that his firm purchased. [Newsweek]
Take your money and light half of it on fire and you’ll get a pretty good idea. Continue reading »
As you may have heard, the Galleon insider trading trial kicks off this week, with Raj Rajaratnam himself expected to take the stand at some point. Like every trial by jury, the process of selecting jurors will prove a formidable task, given the complicated nature of the case, and that the defense needs to make sure the fate of their client will not be left to biased individuals, with certain opinions about Wall Street and Raj in particular. The thing about prejudice, though, is that it doesn’t always present itself in the most direct possible way. Few people will probably offer, for example, that they’re “of the mind that anyone working in the financial services industry is a greedy, corrupt bastard guilty of whatever he or she has been accused of,” but if you took a gander at their reading material and saw highlighted and underlined articles by a certain writer for Rolling Stone you might get an inkling of their point of view. To that end, the questionnaire potential jurors will be asked to fill out for the Galleon trial hit on every possible area where one’s bias could be revealed. Here’s a sampling of the questions:
* Do you like to read books? ______ Yes ______ No If yes, What types of books do you read? ___________________________________
* What TV shows, newscasts, radio shows and internet websites do you enjoy on a regular basis?
* Do you have strong positive or negative views about any of the following individuals. Federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI? ____ Yes ____ No Wall Street Executives? ____ Yes ____ No Technology Company Executives ____ Yes ____ No Prosecutors? ____ Yes ____ No Defense Counsel? ____ Yes ____ No If Yes, what are your views? ___________________________________
* Hedge Funds have been reported in the news over the past few years. Do you have any feelings concerning this industry? ____ Yes ____ No If Yes, please describe your feelings: _________________________
* How knowledgeable or familiar do you consider yourself to be about Hedge Funds? Please explain.
_____________________________________________________________
* How honest do you think Wall Street Executives are?
1 Not at All Honest
2 Below Average Honesty
3 Average Honesty
4 Above Average Honesty
5 Extremely Honest
Please explain your answer. ________________________
And here are some questions that will be posed in a follow-up session: Continue reading »
