Earlier this week, Ken Langone invited 50 hedge fund managers and other financial services employees to his office. The occasion? A sit down with with Chris Christie, who the Home Depot founder apparently forced to discuss the possibility of running for president. Here’s what the New Jersey governor had to say: Continue reading »
Archive for July 2011
At the end of May, it was announced that David Einhorn would pay $200 million for a 33 percent stake in the Mets. The deal appeared to be a win/win for both parties, Einhorn being a lifelong Mets (/Brewers) fan and the ball club’s finances getting to the point where they were considering passing around a collection plate during games. Seven weeks later a contract is yet to be signed, the sticking point seeming to be what percentage the Greenlight Capital founder will be able to increase his stake to, when, and for how much. While the negotiations remain open, people familiar with the matter stress that “Einhorn considers the deal on track” and for their part, The Mets said in a statement “We are in exclusive negotiations with David Einhorn and continue to have positive and productive discussions regarding David’s ongoing interest in an investment in the Mets.” Which is why it was interesting to hear that the management has been running around town with not one but three more potential suitors and then leaking it to the press in some sad sack attempt to get Einhorn to put a ring on it A-sap. Continue reading »
Morgan Stanley Results Beat Estimates (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley reported a second-quarter per-share loss that was smaller than analysts estimated as trading revenue increased from the first quarter. The net loss was 38 cents a share, compared with a profit of $1.09 a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. A $1.7 billion charge tied to the conversion of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.’s preferred stake wiped out earnings for the period. The loss was smaller than the 61-cent average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income was $1.19 billion, versus $1.96 billion in the same period of 2010. Trading revenue rose 14 percent from the first quarter, making Morgan Stanley the only major U.S. bank to post an increase. “Morgan Stanley is one of the most interesting stories and has tremendous upside, if they can get the execution right,” Roger Freeman, an analyst at Barclays Capital in New York, said before the results were released. “Some basic execution improvement could drive a lot of the discount to book value away.”
As debt talks intensify, Obama opens door to short-term deal to buy more time (WaPo)
Obama had pledged to veto any short-term measure, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president could accept an extension of “a few days” if it allowed a long-term deficit-reduction and debt-ceiling deal to work its way through Congress. The White House concession added to a whirlwind week in which negotiations appeared to be changing daily. At first, leaders were focused on a fallback plan that would raise the debt ceiling but do little to control future borrowing. Then they started considering an ambitious, but complicated, bipartisan strategy for raising taxes and cutting cherished health and retirement programs. By Wednesday evening, as House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) huddled with Obama at the White House, aides in both parties said a grand bargain to slice $4 trillion out of the federal budget over the next decade was back on the table.
Wall St. Makes Fallback Plans for Debt Crisis (NYT)
These companies are taking steps to reduce the risk of holding Treasury bonds or angling for ways to make profits from any possible upheaval. And even if a deal is reached in Washington, some in the industry fear that the dickering has already harmed the country’s market credibility.
Fed planning for potential default (Reuters)
Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, said the U.S. central bank has for the past few months been working closely with Treasury, ironing out what to do if the world’s biggest economy runs out of cash on August 2.
Germany and France agree bond buyback plan for Greece, but rule out tax on banks (Telegraph)
Germany and France are willing to allow Greece to slip into a temporary default as part of a bond buyback plan aimed at preventing Europe’s debt crisis from spreading, and have ruled out a levy on banks.
McDonald’s Customer Throws Ice Cream, Slaps Employees (WFIE)
An unhappy customer sparked a 911 call at the Lincoln Avenue McDonalds in Evansville on Wednesday. Police say employees agreed to keep a woman’s ice cream cake in the freezer for her, but she wasn’t happy with the condition of the cake when it was returned. Police say the suspect actually slapped the employee after throwing the ice cream at the employee. So far, no arrests have been made in the case. Continue reading »
Appearing outside the courthouse after being sentenced to 30 months in prison for her role in the Galleon insider trading case, cracking herself up, Raj Rajaratnam’s number one gal told reporters that should she run into legal troubles again, she’d appreciate it if the FBI “knocked on my door in the afternoon, not at 6AM” before she’s had time to make herself presentable. Continue reading »
The bank isn’t hiring anyone at the moment and current CEO Oswald Gruebel has said he’s not leaving anytime soon but, naturally, they’d like to be prepared when the moment comes. Would you or someone you know be the right person for the job? Prerequisites for the gig include “the charisma to run a place like UBS” and being any nationality but German. Continue reading »
When Carl Icahn lobbed in his bid for Clorox last week, a lot of people had their doubts about his seriousness. They pointed out that he doesn’t really complete hostile deals all that much. They questioned his plans to raise $7.8 billion in debt, despite a highly confident letter from Jefferies. They suggested that his bid was just a weak attempt to drum up a third-party buyer.
These doubters seriously underestimate Carl’s almost pathological love for cleaning products of all kinds, and he had some strong, loud words for them in his letter today raising his bid to $80 a share:
Continue reading »
Over the course of the Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case, we got to meet many of his most-trusted tipsters, none of them more important to him than Danielle Chiesi. To be sure, guys like Anil Kumar and Rajat Gupta gave Raj good stuff too, but Chiesi had a leg up on the other tipsters because she “used her sexuality to build sources at male-dominated tech companies.” To those not up on industry jargon, that meant she fucked guys for information. In layman’s terms. Executives were apparently powerless against the allure of her “tight red suit with red fishnet stockings” and once they saw her “suggestive” dance moves it was game over. Chiesi had affairs with guys like IBM’s Bob Moffatt, who was more than happy to tip her off (not knowing he was just being used though, Moffat, who cried at least two times in public over Chieis, has since vowed to never open his heart to another woman again, besides his wife), and following coitus, DC would pass the info to Raj. Previously Danielle noted that “There is not even a chance [I] will do one day in jail,” which seems to indicate she did not sleep with the judge sentencing her, as she obviously would’ve gotten the number right, rather than being off by a factor of infinity. Continue reading »
Raise your hand if you work with alternative investments. Continue reading »
Unfortunate news for those who’ve been patronizing High Class NY: the “high-end” escort serviced based in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn has been shut down by the Feds, who today indicted 17 people involved in the business. For those of you not intimately familiar with HCNY, it was a family affair run by husband and wife Mikhail and Bronislava Yampolsky and their sons, Alexander and Jonathan. According to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, customers “came from the financial markets, many of them hedge fund people, with nothing but money, willing to pay enormous amounts for God knows what.” Prices ranged from $400 to $3,600 per hour, and girls of every stripe were available, though, Hynes noted somewhat smugly, no Irish girls sullied their family names by getting involved (“There were full-service options [of women]. There were Europeans, Americans, Australians and people of all races,” Hynes said. “No one Irish.”) When customers wanted to add cocaine or other paraphernalia to their order, they’d use code phrases like “I’d like a bottle of Champagne” and fork over an extra $170. What’d the guy who dropped $170,000 receive in exchange? Hynes doesn’t even want to know.
Continue reading »
SEC Reducing Systemic Risk by Moving Everything to Clearinghouses, Not Regulating Clearinghouses
By Matt Levine
SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro appeared on Squawk Box today for an early celebration of tomorrow’s one-year birthday of Dodd-Frank Act. And a happy birthday it will be, at least in the Shapiro household: Continue reading »
Expert Network Analyst John Kinnucan Enlists The Big Guns To Collect Money Supposedly Owed From Maverick Capital
By Bess Levin
You’re a former expert network analyst who ran a boutique firm called Broadband Research, counting hedge funds like SAC Capital, Citadel, and Maverick as your clients. In November, the Feds tried to use you as a pawn in their three-year insider trading investigation, by approaching you as you were “sipping wine on the porch,” threatening to arrest you, and then suggesting that rather doing so, they’d like you to “help” them by wearing a wire while speaking to “one guy in particular” they were after. Despite being told that if you didn’t cooperate, there’d be “trouble,” you told them to go fuck themselves, and not only that, you fired off an email to clients (not making use of the bcc field), informing them that “Two fresh faced eager beavers from the FBI showed up unannounced (obviously) on my doorstep thoroughly convinced that my clients have been trading on copious inside information. (They obviously have been recording my cell phone conversations for quite some time, with what motivation I have no idea.) We obviously beg to differ, so have therefore declined the young gentleman’s gracious offer to wear a wire and therefore ensnare you in their devious web.” Basically, you saved their asses.
Fast forward a few months and you’ve been forced to shutter your research firm and have run into some tough times. One of your former clients, Maverick Capital you say, still owes you money and you’re more than a little miffed the founder hasn’t responded to your most recent email in which you wrote:
“Yo Lee [Ainslie] homey, sorry to break it to you, but looks to me likely that Maverick will soon be charged with insider trading. Just thought I’d let you know…Regards, JK.”
What do you do? You get a guy known for delivering results to send a message. Continue reading »
