An invitation. Continue reading »
Archive for June 2011
As was previously rumored, (part of) the team is waving good-bye to the palace on I-95. Continue reading »
As the Appaloosa manager may have his hands tied at the moment, we’re happy to pass it on.
Subject: HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW? Continue reading »
“He has a reputation for being stubborn, volatile, and aggressive, and now the word on the Street is that, well, maybe you can’t trust him, either,” says one hedge fund investor. “He lives by his own set of rules,” says another. “Dangerous, hockey player, high-life guy.” A fund manager sums him up this way: “A roll-the-dice, put-everything-on-red kind of guy.” [Vanity Fair]
Do you have a great idea for a business but have pitched it to potential investors who couldn’t spot genius if they tried? Visionaries, take heart. Seed capital is available and it’s coming from Charles Barkley. Continue reading »
If This LiqhtSquared Bet Goes According To Plan, Phil And Lisa Maria Falcone Will Be Able To Buy A Whole House Of Dancing Pigs- And Ones For Their Haters, Too
By Bess Levin
For the latest issue of Vanity Fair, reporter Bethany McLean got personal with one of our favorite hedge fund couples, Phil and Lisa Maria Falcone. If you’ve been keeping up with the travails of the Harbinger Capital founder and his wife, you know that despite living in a 25,725-square foot mansion on 5th Avenue (which was renovated to include a bar inside Lisa’s closet), a few billion or so in the bank, unparalleled eyes for fashion and Manhattan’s premier singing and dancing pig who can also play the piano, the last couple years have not been the easiest for the Falcones. Everywhere they turn they feel like people are beating up on them, taking shots. To their chagrin and bewilderment, New York “society,” for the most part, doesn’t accept Lisa and many of Phil’s investors, when they’re not being held by a gate, have run for the hills, causing Harbinger’s assets under management to drop from a peak of $26 billion to $7 billion and counting. Things have gotten so bad, in fact that, several months back, Falcone “almost took off the Ganesh charm- the elephant-headed Hindu deity that represents good fortune- that he wears around his neck.” As he told McLean, “I thought, You have got to be kidding. I get very superstitious.”
But he kept it on and why? Because 1) You have not seen the best of Phil Falcone yet:
“You take your lumps and get your bruises. you get knocked down. The key is getting back up,” Falcone says. “I’m already standing. I’m 48. It’s not even the second period of my career, and I’ve had a pretty good first period.”
And 2) Phil’s got a big bet in the works, one that he’s pretty sure will shut everyone up, about everything, if the elephant can pull through for him. You know the one. LIGHTSQUARED. Yeah. Just let it sizzle there, in the air. It’s going to be huge and then all you people are going to be begging to invest with the best.
“I think [the wireless bet] could be bigger than subprime for me,” he says.
You know what else it will rival? Hairbrushes. Continue reading »
Apparently Goldman Sachs is cooperating and as Brad Hintz said yesterday, shouldn’t be worried about a thing.
Gang, something big has come up this morning and we need to discuss it right now. Don’t want to scare anyone but also don’t want to minimize the enormity of this news so let’s just get right to it. Wall Street has been keeping a secret. Look around at your colleagues this morning. The ones who attended schools like Yale, Princeton and Harvard and played sports like lacrosse and squash and use the word ‘summer’ as a verb and describe the color red as Nantucket red and argue the HJs don’t count if you give them to a guy whose named ends in IV and get aroused at the mere thought of an ACK sticker? They might have had an easier time breaking into the industry than those who graduated from lower ranked universities and did not get their WASP on. Yes, really.
After you’ve picked your jaws up off the floor, you’re presumably going to want to fight us on this and shout “It can’t be!” and “You lie!” Sorry to say it, pumpkins, it’s the truth. But don’t take our word for it- someone actually did a study on the shocking phenomenon. Continue reading »
As you may have heard, lots of people have been leaving UBS lately, which may have something to do with the fact that people would like to get paid. While a handful of marquee names (within the industry) have been lured with big checks, many senior bankers have heard nary a peep re bonuses in several years (and the staff’s pay overall is nothing to write home about, either), making employment with places like Citi look good. Possibly seeing recent defections to Vikram’s House of Kicks as one indignity too far, management tried to put a stop on the exodus late yesterday. Continue reading »
SAC Capital Said to Face Insider Trading Inquiry (DealBook)
…the S.E.C.’s investigation into trading by SAC appears to be much broader. In addition to the inquiry into trading in health care stocks — trades that took place from at least 2007 through 2010 — the agency is examining SAC’s use of expert network firms, companies that connect Wall Street investors with outside experts in various industries, the person briefed on the matter said.
Goldman Accused of Withholding Lehman Emails (Deal Journal)
Lehman Brothers is accusing Goldman Sachs of intentionally delaying turning over emails in a bankruptcy probe of whether a secret Wall Street campaign helped short sellers profit at Lehman’s expense from the investment bank’s implosion. In a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Lehman said that despite agreeing last month to search for certain terms in emails from 37 proprietary trading-desk custodians, Goldman has only searched 11 custodians’ messages.
Geithner to meet Republican skeptics on debt limit (Reuters)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meets an influential group of freshman Republican lawmakers on Thursday to try to improve chances that Congress will increase his borrowing authority and prevent a government default.
Belarus to seek IMF bail-out (FT)
Belarus has said it will seek a $3.5bn-$8bn bail-out from the International Monetary Fund to try to ease a financial crisis that has forced a sharp devaluation and sparked panic buying of some goods. Such a move would be a significant volte-face by authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, who had sought support from Russia and other former Soviet states and recently lashed out at foreign interference in the Belarus economy.
E. coli: Russia bans import of EU vegetables (BBC)
Russia has banned the import of all fresh vegetables from the European Union because of the E. coli outbreak centred on Germany. The country’s chief medical officer said EU-produced vegetables would be seized across Russia…The EU regarded the Russian ban as “disproportionate” and would be lodging a protest, European Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said. He added that the total value of EU exports of fresh fruit and vegetables to Russia was 3-4bn euros a year, with Spain, France, Germany and Poland the biggest exporters. Russia banned vegetable imports from Germany and Spain earlier this week.
Big Banks Cash In on Commodities (WSJ)
A group of 10 large banks—including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Barclays PLC—saw their commodities revenues increase by 55% in the first quarter, according to Coalition, a firm that analyzes the performance of investment banks…Commodities trading is a bright spot for institutions that face new regulatory clampdowns on practices that previously fattened bank profit margins, such as trading with their own capital and slapping customers with hefty “overdraft” fees.
Shark! Dorsal fins from two 18-footers sighted near Long Island beach (NYDN)
A seal carcass also washed up near the East End beach, but it was unclear if it had been killed by the sharks, officials said. Cloudy skies made it difficult to confirm the exact species of the large predators, but authorities closed the West Hamptons Dunes beach after they saw the dorsal fins poking from the ocean surface. Continue reading »
Groupon Files For IPO
By Bess LevinAndrew Mason wants $750 million. Continue reading »
Tags: Cramer- comment?, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Groupon, IPOs, Morgan Stanley