There’s an old saying that goes “You can nail the $Honey or you can nail your former employer for $25 million but you can’t do both.” Or at least there should be, we think; pretty much makes sense, right? Anyway, going with the assumption that there is such a saying, former “Citi” CFO Todd Thomson is rumored to be saying “Fuck it, you all can adhere to that old truism all you want but I’m going to have my cake and eat it too, in the biblical sense.” According to mostly credible DB sources, Thomson may indeed be given the sizeable sum to stay mum about inner-Citi (<--you
liked that) turmoil, including dirt on CEO Charles Prince. This is a quasi-interesting turn of events in MariaGate, as it comes on the heels of a BusinessWeek article that essentially claimed that Thomson was a scapegoat whose errors were totally blown out of proportion to “obscure the disarray and dismal returns of Chuck Prince’s reign” (and if we’re going actually crunch the numbers on this one, a flight on a private jet from Asia is basically just a glorified dinner at Denny’s, so, mathematically speaking, there might be some truth to BW’S story). If Thomson is given his asking price, will the blood money be an admission of guilt on Citi/Prince’s part? $25 million seems like a lot to just say “Thanks for playing.”
Citi
Is all not well in the house of CNBC? We’ve mentioned again and again the love that CNBC executives, and their bosses at GE, have for Maria Bartiromo. But is their love unrequited? San Antonio Express-News business columnist David Hendricks writes that Maria didn’t even so much as mention the network at a recent speech in San Antonio.
Curiously, it was difficult to know from her speech Tuesday who employs Bartiromo: I don’t remember her mentioning CNBC even once. She was busy instead dropping the names of the people she has interviewed, from President Bush to Bill and Melinda Gates and the heads of high-powered private equity firms.
So is Maria giving CNBC the cold-shoulder?
Actually, that excerpt is probably unfair to Maria and Hendrick’s column, which makes it abundantly clear that she’s “an asset to business journalism” who understands the financial world better than many “award winning” business journalists, including “how private-equity acquisitions of public companies boost the value of U.S. corporations.” He just wishes she’d cut-out the “corporate promotional appearances”—which is the most polite way of describing all that time she spent with Citigroup executives we’ve seen in weeks.
Bartiromo avoids the difficult questions in San Antonio [San Antonio Express-News via Talking Biz News]
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Banks
Is Chuck Prince Being Protected By A Cabal of CEOs on Citigroup’s Board?
By John Carney
That was the allegation (*cough*) flying around last week. Several large Citigroup investors were quoted in a Financial Times story complaining that Citigroup’s board was dominated by chief executives from other large companies who were sticking up for Citigroup chief executive Chuck Prince because he is one of their own.
Some of Citigroup’s biggest shareholders have raised questions about the strong public support for Chuck Prince, the chief executive, from the bank’s board.
The large number of chief executives from other companies on the board made it “naturally sympathetic to Chuck”, said one of Citigroup’s top 30 investors, who declined to be named.
This very public criticism comes close on the heels of recent controversy at Citigroup following the firing Todd Thomson, a prominent wealth-management executive at the bank. Thomson was reportedly fired in part for his relationship with bigshot CNBC on-air personality Maria Bartiromo.
In a work of amazing Wall Street jujitsu, the Thomson-Bartiromo affair seems to be fueling criticism of the Citigroup CEO. Last week, Wall Street insiders heard rumors alleging that Thomson—who was until very recently considered as a potential successor to Prince—was fired because Prince viewed him as a threat to his position. According to these rumors, the Bartiromo affair was simply a pretext to get rid of Thomson.
A source familiar with the situation at Citigroup dismisses these rumors as “pure spin” likely coming from enemies of Prince. The Citigroup CEO certainly has his enemies. Prince inherited an ungainly and perhaps unmanageable corporate structure built by his predecessor, Sandy Weill. A legacy of scandal, corporate infighting, and rumors of high level resignations and job dissatisfaction, have not helped make the job of running Citigroup any easier. Some investors and analysts have been calling for Prince to dismantle Citigroup, a move Prince has strongly resisted.
Still, even if these rumors are nothing but the whispers of Prince’s enemies, this can’t be a comfortable time in the executive suites at Citigroup. It’s clear that the sharks smell blood in the water.
Meanwhile, CNBC and its corporate parent, GE, have stuck by Bartiromo. GE big shot Jeffrey Immelt was quoted in press reports saying, “I support Maria and I support CNBC.” Last week we reported that CNBC writers were allegedly penning some of Maria’s apparently off-the-cuff remarks at recent speaking engagements, including her crack that she was late to a dinner where she was scheduled to speak because she “had to fly commercial”—a sly-reference, self-deprecating to the fact that she no longer has access to the Citigroup corporate jet.
But the final chapter in the Money Honey scandal may not yet have been written. We hear that while Bartiromo is no longer involved with Thomson, she has begun seeing another Wall Street executive. But that’s probably way, way too good to be true.
Citi shareholders question support for Prince [Financial Times via MSNBC]
You’ve got to love how various news organizations struggle with how to handle the Money Honey-Citigroup scandal. On the one hand, it’s genuine news involving one of the top guys at one of America’s top banks and one of the top financial reporters in the business. On the other, it’s got all sorts of possibly tawdry implications that make news editors squirm. And on the all important third hand, it’s about another journalist and the prime directive in the secret manual of journalism meta-ethics is that we don’t bust each other for anything short of outright lying, plagiarism and other forms of dishonesty. Alleged sex scandals? You just don’t go there.
So you have to love how this article tries to act like its about Maria Bartiromo’s conflicting financial relationships but ultimately its about what all the articles are about: sex and Maria’s looks. Here’s the concluding paragraphs:
Columnist Dennis Kneale on Forbes magazine’s website defended her: “Bartiromo would not have been a target if she weighed 200 pounds and looked like Winston Churchill.”
True. Nor would CNBC have hired her.
And, of course, Todd Thompson would still have his job if she looked like Winston. Because he never would have invited Winnie Bartiromo onto that plane with him.
Oh, and big ups to whatever headline writer decided to work the words “sticky situation” into the paper.
Business relationships of CNBC’s ‘Money Honey’ could turn her credibility into a sticky situation [Star Tribune]
The one thing you can say about Bloomberg News is that they’re not afraid to get service-y. Case in point: Michael Lewis’s op-ed piece from yesterday, offering the bit of advice Todd Thomson only wishes he’d had a few months (/decades) earlier. Think of it as Bloomberg’s way of saying, “Hey John Mack and everyone else who’s been contemplating pulling a TT—if you’re going to do this, do this right”:
[Thomson’s problem is that] he was thinking, in other words, a lot like a man in his position circa 1985 might have thought. The man’s impulses were still designed for an age when, if you were a big enough hitter at a big Wall Street firm and you were caught in what appeared to be a dalliance with a prominent female journalist you got not a pink slip but a standing ovation. Even if you had used the corporate jet to pull it off.
If you unfortunately happen to be reading this after 1985, and would still like to partake in some TT-inspired activities, Lewis strongly advises you to get rid of the she-devils:
You’re fired, also, because while the CEO might be able to rationalize your behavior to his male subordinates, or at least cow them into submission, he can’t begin to explain it to the women in the firm. And, suddenly, there are a lot more of them around, in senior positions, who will make sure that the scandal, left unaddressed, finds its way into the newspapers. (Prince replaced Thomson with Sallie Krawcheck.)
Thomson, Bartiromo and Victorian Wall Street [Bloomberg]
“You wanna throw some money at the Thomson/Bartiromo problem, or get some guys to look into our ho-hum shares situation?”
“Nah, let’s focus our efforts on something really important, like distancing ourselves from that god damn umbrella. That thing’s been a thorn in our side for years. And don’t even get me started on the word ‘group’.”
Citigroup Says It Will Sell Its Umbrella Logo and Call Itself ‘Citi’ [NYT]
So, News Corp. is going to have its own business channel, yada, yada, yada. Aside from being immune to self-inflicted irony—yesterday at a press conference announcing the venture, Rupert Murdoch shamed future rival CNBC for being quick to “leap on every scandal,” the septuagenarian also confirmed that Fox would be producing a Borat sequel, when, in fact, no such deal exists. So nice to know your business news will soon be brought to you with a touch of senility and an Australian twang. Also of note? Murdoch’s statement that the Fox Business Channel will be “more business friendly than CNBC,” and the harsh words of Roger Ailes (chairman and chief executive of Fox News) that “Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be.”
CNBC isn’t friendly to corporations? Interesting. Out of curiosity (so we know when we roll out DealBreaker TV this June), what does one actually have to do to be considered a friend of firms? Threesomes? Role-play? Ritual sacrifices? Or by, “not friendly,” is Murds actually hinting at some hardcore S&M that’s left Todd Thomson with some notable battle wounds, of late? Let us know!
BTW, despite the fact that Alexis Glick has already been recruited as director of business news for FBC—and as an on-air personality, one assumes—RM noted that he needs to “recruit some Money Honeys,” for both the pursoses of reporting and for possible fourth wives.
News Corp. Builds Toward Business TV [WSJ]
Fox Business News vs CNBC [The Big Picture]
A ‘Borat’ boo-boo [Variety]
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