We read this on CNBC’s website so it must be true, right? Under the headline “FINALLY, WEDDING BELLS FOR BECKY QUICK?” Jane Wells brings us the report about speculation that “while CNBC’s Becky Quick on assignment in China, followed Boone Pickens around, they got married: ‘The CNBC co-anchor will go by her new name, Becky Quick-Pickens.’”
We ran this story by a squad of young women who toil away as Fashionistas in our offices. They’re initial reaction: Jane Wells might be out to tear Quick down. It’s all in the subtleties, they explained.
“I know it’s a joke but it’s the edges that cut. Asking whether wedding bells rang for Quick is one thing,” a top Fashionista said. “Asking if they finally rang for Becky is just hateful. Also, calling her ‘quick-pickens’ is a bit like calling her ‘fast-n-easy.”
Neither Quick or Wells could be reached for comment because we couldn’t bring ourselves to ask about this stuff.
Finally, Wedding Bells For Becky Quick? [CNBC.com]
CNBC
- Posted in:
CNBC
An Extra Hour Of Squawk On The Street Sweetie
Claman, Under 90-Day Non-Compete Contract, Leaves 90-Days Ahead of Fox Business Launch
By John Carney 
Viewers of CNBC just witnessed a change in the network’s programming line up. With the departure of Liz Claman yesterday, CNBC decided to immediately to expand Squawk on the Street to two hours. Claman had anchored Morning Call from 10 am until noon. Squawk has been extended to 11 am, while Morning Call has been reduced to a one hour program.
Claman’s Morning Call reportedly has been the number one rated show during the business day on the network since it was launched in 2002. Squawk on the Street, which is regularly anchored by Mark Haines and Erin Burnett, reportedly has better demographics, however. We think that’s television folk speak for being a hit with the kind of folks in front of whom advertisers want to put their products. Burnett was recently crowned the “Street Sweetie” in the New York Post. Prior to that, she came in first in a DealBreaker poll of which CNBC anchor “moves your market.”
Erin Burnett was not seen on today’s launch of the two-hour Squawk on the Street. Her place was taken by Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. She could not immediately be reached for comment on her absence because we didn’t bother to ask her. But we’ve already received speculative emails from readers guessing at the reason for her absence. Speculation ranges from recovering from a late night out celebrating the capture of an additional hour of air time to first day nerves to contract negotiations.
Burnett’s regular co-host, Mark Haines, was on set today, and opened the show with a elongated announcement that this is: “Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-v from the financial capital of the world in the heart of lower Manhattan, this is the new super-sized, bigger, better, faster, Squawk on the Street.” Throughout the first hour, Haines hosted with a higher than usual level of energy. Perhaps he is, like, totally psyched about the two-hour format. Or maybe the coffee in his personal thermos was just extra-strong today. As the second hour of the program opened, Haines alluded to his former multi-hour co-hosting duty on the network by announcing that “the second hour of Squawk Box begins…right now!” Squawk Box airs in the three hours before Squawk on The Street.
Claman is widely believed to be heading to the business news network set to be launched by News Corp in October. Although a spokesman for the new network has denied that a contract with Claman is in place, her departure is well-timed for moving to the network. She reportedly has a 90-day non-compete agreement with CNBC. October 15th, which is the launch date planned for the Fox Business Channel, is 90 days from yesterday.
The changes were announced yesterday with an email from CNBC Senior VP Jonathan Wald, which was reported on by Media Bistro’s TV Newser.
- Posted in:
CNBC
Breaking: Liz Claman Become A Fox Business Babe
Rupert’s New Business News Network Poaches CNBC’s Feisty Redhead
By Bess Levin 
Liz Claman has left CNBC after nine years with the network. She is headed for the competing business network Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp plans to launch this fall. CNBC veteran Alexis Glick had previously signed on as the director of business news for the new network.
Claman anchored Morning Call on CNBC, which airs from 10-Noon ET.
We’ve don’t mind confessing that we have a bit of a crush on Erin Burnett. She’s pretty, scrappy and holds her own every morning against both CNBC’s Mark Haynes and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. But we it looks like we’ve got a bit of competition for her these days. After yesterday’s full page spread in the New York Post, Burnett’s no longer the best kept secret of Wall Street.
We knew she was destined for greatness when she handily won our reader poll. But we had no idea she had become a full-fledged super-star. According to the New York Post, rating for “Squawk” are up 79 percent over last year in the crucial 25-to-54 year old demographic. And we’ve even heard rumors that sometimes people turn the volume up on the televisions when she comes on. And now she’s even got her very own nickname: Street Sweetie.
Erin has certainly come a long way since her humble origins as a political science major at Williams. She worked as an M&A analyst in Goldman Sachs, and left that job when CNN’s Willow Bay offered her a job writing for the network and booking guests. But it was at Bloomberg where someone had the sense to get her in front of a camera and she really began to shine. Even Bess Levin says nice things about her.
We already knew Erin was an early riser, getting up around 5 am to head down from the Upper West Side to the cluttered little CNBC booth at the New York Stock Exchange. But from Zach Kouwe’s New York Post interview, we learn that Erin is a bit of a gym rat—she’s there four times a week—and that her favorite restaurant is Henry’s End in Brooklyn Heights. Henry’s End is an unusual choice that marks her as well-informed about dining in our fair city. It’s a favorite of DealBreaker’s, located just a few blocks from our Brooklyn Heights branch office. (Note to Erin: When you are in the neighborhood, you should totally try Noodle Pudding and Jack The Horse.)
A word of advise, Street Sweetie. Don’t let this fame go to your head. Becky Quick, who has always been perfectly charming to us on the set of Squawk Box, gets up earlier than you do and we don’t imagine she’s going to rest easy with her second place showing. And you’ve got CNBC’s ace Hamptons reporter Margaret Brennan coming up fast. Who knows how big she might get if Stevie Cohen decides to open up a second front in the war against Jim Chanos’ beachside manse?
To tell the truth, we’re not too worried. You seemed to be taking it all in stride this morning when Joe Scarborough did his best to embarrass you on Morning Joe. You seemed, well, sweet.*
*So sweet, in fact, that we can’t think of anything nasty to say. Which is totally why we’re trying to stir up trouble between Erin and the other lovelies at CNBC.
Street Sweetie [New York Post]
Morning Joe with Erin Burnett [MSNBC]
- Posted in:
CNBC
Philip Goldstein, Episode III: The Revenge of the Regulators!
On The Money Smackdown Tonight
By John Carney 
It wasn’t quite the ‘shot heard ‘round the world’ that Ralph Waldo Emerson said set-off the Revolutionary War in Concord, Massachusetts, but Philip Goldstein’s rebellion against hedge fund regulators certainly seems to have caught their attention. And tonight the revolution will be televised.
Goldstein, who founded the Bulldog Investors hedge fund, was the money manager who sued the Securities and Exchange Commission over a requirement that hedge fund managers register with the commission. The rule overstepped the SEC’s legal authority, Goldstein claimed. And when a federal appeals court agreed, the rule fell by the wayside. The SEC declined to pursue the case further with an appeal to the Supreme Court, and hedge funds were relieved of the burden of government registration.
We’ve come to think of that as Episode I in the saga of Goldstein. It obviously annoyed some at the Commission who had sought the authority. But it bugged state lawmakers and regulators too. Many state lawmakers and regulators who would like to exercise authority over hedge funds suddenly found themselves without the shield of federal authority. Without that shield, state lawmakers wanting to regulate hedge funds risked driving them away in search of laxer regulatory environments.
In Episode II, Goldstein filed a lawsuit against mandatory disclosure provisions in securities regulation. This time he argued that the disclosure amounted to the government taking his intellectual property—meaning, his investment strategy—without compensation and without any real justification. That case is still making its way through the courts.
In Episode III, the regulators struck back. Earlier this year, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin sued Goldstein, alleging that he was soliciting ordinary, non-accredited investors to buy into his funds. Goldstein responded that he was simply exercising his rights under the First Amendment and accused Galvin of not understanding the concept of free speech. On CNBC’s On The Money, Goldstein took his challenge to Galvin a step further, offering to wager $100,000 that he will win his case.
“I’m not going to let some pompous ass sitting in Boston tell me I can’t talk to somebody or give somebody information when they ask for it,” Goldstein said in February. “This is not really about hedge funds; it’s about the First Amendment, and I think Galvin is just trying to get a trophy.”
Earlier this week, Goldstein’s lawyer launched a strongly-worded letter at the Secretary of State’s office. At a hearing, someone called James Cappoli from the Secretary of State’s office had accused Bulldog of soliciting investors with a brochure available through its web site. “Bulldog Investors has produced above average returns with below average risk, enticing the investor to invest with no risk,” James Cappoli said. Goldstein’s lawyer pointed out that Cappoli’s reading seemed to confuse the notion of “below average risk” and “no risk.”
It should all come to a head tonight, when Goldstein makes another appearance on CNBC’s On The Money. Our spies inside of the network tell us he will be up against Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, better known as Connecticut’s answer to Eliot Spitzer.
The first time Goldstein offered to wager $100,000 on his case, both Blumenthal and former SEC boss-lady Laura Unger turned him down. We hope that Blumenthal will man up and take Goldstein’s bet this time. But somehow we doubt it.
Meet Mary Sue Williams. She’s a waitress at Undo’s, a restaurant that overlooks Interstate 70 in the sleepy town of St. Clairsville, Ohio, population: 5,057. She enjoys taking care of regulars, and has plenty of them, as she’s been working at the Italian eatery for nine years. She has two daughters, Jenni and Sarah, and a husband named Mark, who works as a cook at the local Denny’s. Mary Sue’s never bought or sold real stock in her life, though she may be the winner of CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.
Currently in sixth place (Williams says she used the “Warren Buffett approach” and invested in things she knew about: lubricant manufactuerer WD-40 (WDFC) and Crocs (CROX)), there’s a good chance that she’ll be bumped to first place in the fake contest because the contestants ahead of her have proven themselves to (possibly) be lying cheaters who can’t even stop themselves from trying to scam a simulated game on the internet, run by CNBC and promoted by Tim Sykes. So far, nothing’s been said about players 1-5 doing hard time for their misdeeds, but this seems like punishment enough. Mary Sue Williams, we salute you.
The Million-Dollar Waitress [BusinessWeek]
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? It’s a perennial challenge that the people who write about finance for a living get from those who are actually doing finance. Another version of it is a twist on an old saw: those who can do finance do, those who can’t, report on it.
Both challenges are more or less fair. Journalists reporting on Wall Street rarely have the skill set and mentality that leads to grand success at trading or investment banking. Many are talented writers and insightful critics. But often great journalism is built upon an attitude of skepticism that can be out of place in the world of dealmakers and traders who prize “conviction.”
But many journalists have at least felt the temptation to step over the line from Wall Street watcher to Wall Street warrior. And on occasion someone does. The latest victim to this perennial temptation is Ron Insana, the sixteen-year veteran of CNBC who is starting Insana Capital Partners Legends Fund.
This morning on Deal Journal Dennis Berman reveals that Insana’s Legends Fund will be structured as a fund-of-funds, and will access the management talents of at least 13 top money managers. SAC Capital Advisors, Renaissance Technologies Corp., Perry Corp. Third Point, Omega Advisors and Icahn Management are among the funds that Legends plans to invest in.
Although it applies to all fund-of-funds, it seems fair enough to ask what added value Insana is bringing to investors if his “strategy” is going to be investing in some of the most well-known hedge funds in the world. The Legends Fund plans to collect a 1.5% annual fee plus another 2.5% placement fee for the initial investment, and will require 24 month lockup. So what do investors get for those fees and the risk and opportunity cost of the lock-up?
Well, according to fund documents Berman looked at, investors will be able to take advantage of a “macroeconomic outlook as guided by Ron Insana.” Without disparaging the acuity of Insan’s outlook, that’s probably not worth the price admission. It seems what’s really being marketed to investors is the opportunity to get in on the returns of some of the biggest names in the hedge fund world with a relatively small investment. Many of the most prominent funds are closed to new investments or require enormous initial investments. You can buy into Insana’s fund for as little as $500,000, and have access to a diversified group of hedge fund returns. You probably couldn’t get Stevie Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital, to even answer your calls with a $500,000 check.
“As any good reporter knows, access can be money in the bank. And here the document is up front about what Insana is offering, saying it capitalizes, in addition to financial analysis, ‘on the long-standing relationships of the Firm’s founder Ron Insana,’ Berman writes.
Berman points out that not everybody is as confident as, well, Insana is about the fund’s prospects. “The 16-year CNBC veteran raised some media eyebrows when it was revealed last fall that he was launching the fund. One Dow Jones columnist said the move signaled that “it’s probably time for everyone else to get out” of the hedge-fund business,” Berman writes.
That columnist was MarketWatch’s David Weidner, who said that Insana’s entry into the fund management business was a sign that “the glory days of hedge funds are over.”
Insana apparently isn’t replying to requests for comments on the Legends Fund. But somewhere we suspect he’s reading these journalists carping about his new venture and thinking, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?”
Access Wall Street: Starring Ron Insana’s Hedge Fund [Deal Journal]
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
