Archive for March 2011

  • 07 Mar 2011 at 8:38 AM

Opening Bell: 03.07.11

By Dealbreaker

JPMorgan Number One Investment Bank Driven By Emerging Market Deals (Bloomberg)
The world’s best-paid investment bank in 2010 was JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which ranks No. 1 in the Bloomberg 20 for the third year in a row, with total fees of $4.14 billion. The bank also led the field in fees from bond and equity issues. Morgan Stanley supplanted Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) for the No. 2 position in total fees for 2010, earning $3.67 billion. Goldman Sachs is No. 3 overall with $3.60 billion. It ranks No. 1 in earnings from mergers and acquisitions, as it has every year since the Bloomberg 20 started in 2004.

Raj Rajaratnam’s Biggest Bet Yet May Be To Take The Stand (WSJ)
The 53-year-old founder of Galleon Group has told people close to him that he intends to testify at his own trial, the biggest legal showdown over insider trading in a generation.

Barclays Awards Chief Executive $11 Million Bonus (Bloomberg)
Bob Diamond was awarded a 6.5 million-pound bonus for 2010 and a further 2.25 million pounds depending on the lender’s performance, London-based Barclays said in a statement today. His base salary will rise to 1.35 million pounds from 250,000 pounds after he became CEO on Jan. 1.

Brian Moynihan Said To Look Ahead To ‘Normal’ Performance (Bloomberg)
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan will tell investors tomorrow what profits to expect as the U.S. economy stabilizes and detail progress on his vow to increase shareholder equity, said two people with knowledge of his plans. The bank’s guidance to investors will include credit losses and estimates for return on tangible equity, a measure of shareholder returns that excludes goodwill, said the people. “The last two or three years have been anything but normal for Bank of America, and with indications we’re entering into a better environment, the company wants to give a sense of how its businesses ought to perform,” said David Havens, a managing director at Nomura Holdings Inc. “The disappointment that could occur is that the presentation will reflect the new reality” of lowered returns after U.S. bank regulations.

Most Economists Say Fed Easing Is Helping (CNBC)
The survey from the National Association for Business Economics found 62.4 percent of the economists polled think the central bank’s $600 billion stimulus plan is working. Another 21.8 percent see the policy, which has come under fire from some conservative politicians and a number of emerging market policy makers, having no impact. Another 15.8 percent said the program was actively harmful.

Mark Cuban, Charlie Sheen In Talks (ESPN)
Cuban confirmed Sunday evening that he’s had several conversations with Sheen recently about developing programming for HDNet, the cable network Cuban owns. “You’ve got somebody that everybody has a whole lot of interest in who’s doing some interesting things, to say the least, and we always look for interesting programming by featuring interesting people doing interesting things,” Cuban said before the Mavericks’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies. “I reached out and we’ve had some conversations, and we’re going to work on doing some things.” Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 4:43 PM

Write-Offs: 03.04.11

By Bess Levin

$$$ “On Friday, prosecutors also gave a preview of their case against Raj Rajaratnam, saying the first two witnesses will be a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey consultant and a cooperating witness in the case. Prosecutors indicated that they planned to play recorded telephone conversations between Mr. Rajaratnam and Mr. Kumar, as well as conversations between Mr. Rajaratnam and his employees and with his younger brother, Rengan Rajaratnam.” [WSJ]

$$$ Completely unimaginative UBS employee spends investor funds on “expensive cars, prostitutes and large gambling debts.” [WSJ]

$$$ “Our industry has a terrible, terrible reputation,” Anthony Scaramucci said as he accepted an award from the Hedge Funds Care charity Thursday night in front of 1,200 of his closest friends and expressed why he believes hedge fund managers should donate to charities. “I don’t care how many PR firms we hire. I don’t care how many lobbyists we hire. The only way we’re going to be able to change that is through our philanthropy,” he told the industry audience, at the annual gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan. [Reuters]

$$$ Charlie Sheen Radio Station, Tiger Blood Radio, By Sirus XM [HP] Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 4:05 PM

George Soros: “Oil Wealth Must Be Shared With Citizens”

By Bess Levin

Talking of the wave of governments being challenged in North Africa and the Middle East, Mr Soros said: “What has caused the revolutions is a revulsion against a corruption that is fed by the misuse of natural resources like for instance in Libya. “Transparency and even more importantly accountability in the use of natural resources is what you need for people living in those countries to get the benefit of those national resources. “Libya produced enormous wealth which Gaddafi took as his own and now the people rebelled against it.” Asked whether there should be more transparency with what happened to oil incomes, Mr Soros said: “Very much so.” And he said the US and Europe needed to more actively support the revolutions in Libya and elsewhere so that the new regimes will co-operate with the West. [BBC]

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 3:16 PM

Morgan Stanley’s Gary Lynch Is Leaving The Firm

By Bess Levin

Apparently the vice-chairman is not retiring but “pursuing opportunities outside the firm,” though it’s unclear where. [BW]

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 3:03 PM

Are You In The Market For A “Money-Making Machine”?

By Bess Levin

Whether you need a new gig because you’ve been banned from the securities industry or just looking to supplement your income in the hopes of retiring early, might we suggest trying your hand at selling “incense” that will get you high? Derek Williams knows what we’re talking about. Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 1:57 PM

New Movie With Proud Goldman Sachs Plotline Suggests Masters Of The Universe Are BACK

By Bess Levin

The past few years have been an interesting time for Goldman Sachs. They’ve never lost “it” and in fact have only grown stronger, yet the public seems to have thought otherwise. It got to the point where GS employees were told point blank not to mention the firm’s name in public, and you’d be hard pressed find someone using the phrase “I work at Goldman Sachs” as a means to impress people or get laid. It was like bizarro universe; what’s up was down, what’s down was up and it was a confusing, scary time. But today, we’re happy to report that the universe once again make sense, according to Hollywood, which knows all. Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 12:43 PM

Former Guns ‘N Roses Bassist Starts Wealth Management Firm For Rock Stars

By Bess Levin

Your new financial guru

One day in 1994, while recovering from a ruptured pancreas, Guns ‘N Roses bassist Duff McKagan was puttering around his basement when he happened upon GnR’s financials from the previous six years. Flipping through the reports he had a bit of a panic attack when he realized, “I couldn’t make sense of it. I didn’t know how much we had made or lost on the tour,” and got himself into even more of a tizzy when he though about admitting to someone, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.” So he decided to take some finance classes at Santa Monica Community College and while fronting his new band, Velvet Revolver, started giving financial advice on the side.

…word started spreading that he knew something about managing money. He began getting regular calls from musician friends with questions about everything from whether to buy a house to where they should invest their money.

It was around that time that McKagan realized a coupla things. 1) That he was pretty good at this money management stuff and 2) fellow musicians were comfortable being counseled by him because he didn’t “wear a suit” and therefore wasn’t representative of The Man. And that’s when a lightbulb went off. Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 11:29 AM

Third Point’s Top Winning! Positions For February

By Bess Levin

Gold, NXP, El Paso Corp, Technicolor and Williams Companies. Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 11:10 AM

SAC Capital Up 1.15% In February

By Bess Levin

The (befleeced) Juggernaut is now up 2.90 percent YTD. [FINalternatives]

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 9:45 AM

Cowen Managing Director Charged With Assaulting Sister Because She’s “Thin”

By Bess Levin

Mary Sadrakula, pictured in both the glamour shot and mugshot at left, is a New Jersey councilwoman and a managing director at Cowen and Company. If colleagues have noticed that it seems like her head’s been in another place lately, it probably has, given that, in the last two weeks, she’s been charged with 1) assaulting her sister and 2) trying to cover up the incident. Why would a grown woman resort to physical violence- which included a punch so hard it broke a nose- toward anyone, let alone her own blood? According to the abused, it’s because Mary had an issue with the fact that her sis “is thin.” Continue reading »

  • 04 Mar 2011 at 9:29 AM

Which MBA Program Will Be The First To Put This In The Curriculum?

By Bess Levin

Following a human sexuality class last week on Northwestern’s Evanston, Ill., campus, Prof. John Michael Bailey invited students to stay for an extracurricular demonstration that he warned would be explicit and graphic. Of the 567 students enrolled in the class, about 100 stayed to watch a sexual act involving a woman, a man and an electric-powered device…the couple who performed were Chicagoans Jim Marcus and Faith Kroll. [WSJ]