Investor Carl Icahn has been buying up debt of LightSquared Inc., the wireless network backed by billionaire fund manager Philip Falcone, according to people familiar with the matter. The stake could enable him to take control of the company should it restructure or file for bankruptcy, one of the people said. Mr. Icahn snapped up LightSquared loans, which are traded on the market like securities, after prices of the debt nosedived last year. Two other distressed-debt investors, David Tepper and Andrew Beal, also bought some of the loans. [WSJ]
David Tepper
Nate Thoma is 33 year-old with “scruffy beard” who lives in Queens and sometimes wears plaid shirts. He’s also a sometime day trader who has “about $500,000 in investments” and in fall 2008, saw his investment in Washington Mutual wiped out after regulators seized the bank. Thoma spent “weeks in front of his Scottrade account, trying to figure out how to recoup money he had lost” and after studying WaMu’s capital structure “saw an opportunity to make it back.” Continue reading »
As you may recall, last fall, Appaloosa founder David Tepper told New York that it would be fair to interpret the fact that he bought the $50 million beach house belonging to the ex-wife of Jon Corzine, the man who passed him over for a Goldman partnership, with the intent of demolishing it and building a bigger, better house in its place as his way of rubbing his success in Corzine’s face. “You could say there was a little justice in the world,” Tepper, who left Goldman to found his hedge fund and become a multi-billionaire, said with a smile on his face. Today brings word that Tepper’s dream will be seen to completion- Sagaponak has approved the demolition of the home, as well as Tepp’s request to build a much more luxurious house (large enough to accommodate his noted balls), where the hovel once stood. Continue reading »
In 2009, the 25 best paid hedge fund managers made a combined $25.33 billion. To score a place on the list, you had to make at least $350 million. This time around? The group took home a collective pool of $22.07 billion (down 13 percent) and a mere $210 million got you access to the VIP lounge. We’re not mad, we’re just…disappointed. And hope game will be upped next year, whether it’s through improved performance, increased fees, or a trimmed staff. Here’s the Top 10, as ranked by AR Magazine: Continue reading »
Former NFL Player Lawrence Taylor Invokes Words Of David Tepper, Other Greats To Explain Patronizing Underage Prostitute
By Bess LevinIf you’ve been keeping up with your ex-Hall of Famer and/or hooker news, you know that former linebacker Lawrence Taylor was recently sentenced to six years of probation for having sex with an underage prostitute. Interviewed on the verdict this afternoon, Taylor was probed on the question of whether or not he knew the girl was underage and if the answer is no, as he claims, how could he have not known? Taylor offered a whole bunch of explanations, all of which had him loosely quoting various men who would probably rather not have their words sullied by his extracurricular activities. Herewith, the rationales offered by Taylor, and the individuals from which he cribbed the lines. Sayeth Taylor:
* “This was a working girl who came into my room. She told me she was 19. It is what it is.” [David Tepper claims to have popularized the phrase 'it is what it is.']
* “I made a phone call to a friend and he made a phone call. It’s the world of prostitution. You never know what you’re going to get.” [Forest Gump] Continue reading »
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