“Ex-Bloomberg employees (this Alphaville contributor included) have been aware of the power of UUID for a long time. It’s only one of the, erm, “informational advantages” that comes from working at Bloomberg. Another prominent one being the internal database reporters are required to contribute to on a regular basis. That database includes personal contact details of their sources – readily accessible to other Bloomberg employees – as well as personal details such as the names of their children, favourite foods and hobbies.” [FT Alphaville, earlier]
Bloomberg Employees Know, Openly Talk About Your Beloved Long-Haired Pekingese, Insatiable Appetite For Applebees’ Triple Chocolate Meltdown
By Bess LevinLodestone Natural Resources is packing it in. Read more »
Let’s take Carl Icahn’s bid for Dell seriously because, y’know, no one else will. At first I was a little underwhelmed by Icahn’s bid of $12 in cash or stock for Dell, which careful noticers will notice is less than the $13.65 offer on the table from Silver Lake and Michael Dell, but that $12 is in addition to hanging on to your pre-existing stock, so it’s not that bad a deal. It’s a slightly juiced version of Southeastern’s $11.86/share special dividend idea, though a rather de-juiced version of Icahn’s original $15-a-share part-cash-part-stock merger. In this one, for instance, Icahn isn’t stumping up any more cash than the $1.1 billion he already has, whereas in the old one he was proposing adding another $1 billion.
If you own a Dell share, under Icahn’s plan you keep your share and get to pick whether you also want (1) $12 in cash or (2) $12 “in additional shares valued at $1.65 per share,” which is just a long way of saying 7.27 more shares. Here’s how that might look if roughly 1/3 of the non-Icahn/Southeastern holders pick new shares: Read more »
Icahn and Southeastern Ready Rival Bid for Dell (DealBook)
The effort by Mr. Icahn and Southeastern, disclosed in a letter to Dell’s board Thursday night, is intended as a last-ditch effort to fight the management buyout led by Michael S. Dell, the company’s founder and chief executive, and the private equity firm Silver Lake. Unlike that bid, which would pay shareholders $13.65 a share in cash, Mr. Icahn and Southeastern are offering to pay shareholders about $12 a share either in cash or in additional shares in the company. The offer would still leave a portion of Dell publicly traded.
Yen’s Fall Trickles Through Japanese Economy (WSJ)
Just over a month after Japan’s central bank vowed to reignite economic growth by flooding markets with yen, the currency fell to ¥100 to the dollar for the first time in four years, a milestone in efforts to end nearly two decades of economic stagnation. … In new signs of the impact of Abenomics, Japanese domestic institutional money started flowing overseas in pursuit of higher yields while bank lending rose at the fastest pace in four years, data released Friday showed.
Heading to G7 meeting, U.S. tells Japan to stick to currency rules (Reuters)
The United States warned Japan on Friday to stick to the rules when it came to the value of its currency, setting the stage for a potentially uncomfortable meeting of G7 finance ministers outside London. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that Japan had “growth issues” that needed to be dealt with but that its attempts to stimulate its economy needed to stay within the bounds of international agreements to avoid competitive devaluations.
JPMorgan sued over credit card debt collecting (FT)
JPMorgan Chase has been sued by California’s top law enforcement official for allegedly flooding the state’s courts with thousands of “unlawful” suits aimed at collecting credit card debts. The state’s attorney-general, Kamala Harris, filed suit against JPMorgan on Thursday, saying the bank “engaged in widespread, illegal robo-signing, among other unlawful practices, to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers over at least a three-year period.” The state is seeking a $2,500 civil penalty for each violation.
Blackstone Targets Bulging Corporate Coffers Via New Unit (Bloomberg)
The firm has started a money-management unit called Blackstone Treasury Solutions Advisors LLC that will cater exclusively to corporations. Its portfolio managers include Blackstone Chief Financial Officer Laurence Tosi and Treasurer Matthew Skurbe, who help run New York-based Blackstone’s internal cash management strategy. Blackstone is targeting company treasurers as the U.S. considers requiring money funds to shift from stable share prices to floating valuations.
Terminally nosy (NYP)
Irked Goldman Sachs brass recently confronted Bloomberg LP over concerns reporters at the business news service have been using the company’s ubiquitous terminals to keep tabs on some employees of the Wall Street bank, The Post has learned. … In one instance, a Bloomberg reporter asked a Goldman executive if a partner at the bank had recently left the firm — noting casually that he hadn’t logged into his Bloomberg terminal in some time, sources added. Goldman later learned that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals but also how many times they had used particular functions, insiders said. … “In light of [Goldman’s] concern as well as a general heightened sensitivity to data access, we decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients,” Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet said.
Man Attacked by Alligator While Fleeing Deputies (AP)
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says 20-year-old Bryan Zuniga was pulled over for failing to maintain a single lane Thursday at about 2:50 a.m. Deputies say Zuniga stopped the vehicle and jumped out of the passenger door. He then broke through a vinyl fence and escaped. The Tampa Bay area man was found at a local hospital a few hours later. He told deputies he had been attacked by an alligator near a water treatment plant. He was being treated for multiple puncture wounds to the face, arm and armpit area.
Read more »
$$$ Fannie Mae to Pay Treasury $59.4 Billion After Record Profit [Bloomberg]
$$$ California Sues J.P. Morgan on Card Collections [WSJ]
$$$ Goldman cuts investment fund pledges in half since Dodd-Frank-filings [Reuters / Lauren Tara LaCapra]
$$$ Paulson hedge fund puts hotel unit in bankruptcy to escape lawsuit, “terrorization” [Reuters]
$$$ Everyone Who Started Watching ‘Mad Money’ In 2005 Now Billionaires [The Onion] Read more »
KPMG Doesn’t Fire Every Client It’s Accused Of Being Less-Than-Independent With Regard To
By Jon Shazar
KPMG’s problems extend beyond some misunderstandings about the propriety of sharing some anecdotes with golfing buddies in exchange for cash at its Los Angeles office. Read more »
The theme Mr. Cohn kept returning to was the primacy of clients. Asked what his daily routine looked like, his answer was simple. “The most important thing I do is deal with clients, client situations and opportunities for the firm,” he said. Mr. Cohn, a former trader, also said he had become a “better listener.” Still, Mr. Cohn retains something of an edge. When his father asks him how the market is doing, Mr. Cohn sometimes responds, “Which one?” even though he knows it’s unlikely his father would inquire about one of the many esoteric markets he works in, he said. [Dealbook]
Spandex-Clad, Billy-Club Brandishing Roller Girl Also Moonlights As ‘Ethical Fiscal Fairy’
By Bess Levin
Roller Girl/Bank Reform Bitch/EFF at a “small but fierce protest against Bank of America yesterday in the torrential rain.” This alter ego may at first glance appear slightly less intimidating than the ones that include hand-cuffs and bullwhips, but rest assured she won’t hesitate to stick that crown where the sun don’t shine. Read more »
A thing that happens from time to time, and also yesterday, is that people in or around the financial services industry say furious things about Ben Bernanke:
“Ben Bernanke is running the most inappropriate monetary policy in the history” of the developed world, said Stanley Druckenmiller, the retired head of Duquesne Capital Management.
A thing that happened a lot today and yesterday is that people asked, well, why do they say such horrible things? “Because they’re true” is a possible answer and if it’s yours you might want to stop here, not much good is going to happen from here on out.
If you don’t believe that Bernanke is a war criminal or whatever, you can read some other proposed answers – by Joe Weisenthal, Neil Irwin, and Matt O’Brien – but be warned, they’re tough going if you like 2-and-20 fees and/or gold. Here, though, is a take from Matt Yglesias that I’m particularly fond of: Read more »
A brief follow-up. Read more »
Richard Fisher is no fan of QE3, and he’s worried that his colleagues at the Fed have developed an unquenchable, $85 billion-a-month habit. Much as he finds their addiction abhorrent, he isn’t ready to abandon them to their fate—runaway inflation and the eventual loss of their teeth. So he’s pushing a 12-step program. First, admit you have a problem. Second, stop buying MBS. Read more »
Expert: You Can Only Fire As Many Employees As You Have, And If You Do, You Will Have To Hire Others
By Jon ShazarEconomics teaches us that companies do not have an unlimited number of employees to lay off. Data backs this up. Read more »
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