For about a year now, hedge fund manager Phil Falcone’s relationship with his investors has been a bit rocky. While many expressed displeasure at his decision to tie up a good chunk of money in a wireless bet that may or may not pan out, what really set a lot of people off was Falcone’s decision, last November, to loan himself $113 million from a fund in which redemptions has been suspended, in order to pay personal taxes he hadn’t set aside enough cash to cover. Since then, Phil has not only paid the $113 million back, but 1) proved he learned his lesson re: borrowing money from humorless clients (in July he failed to pay $201,101 in property taxes, which he could have loaned himself from you know who but didn’t) and 2) offered investors interested in redeeming the opportunity to receive illiquid shares of his new company, or to sell their stakes on Craigslist. All of which is to say, he’s grown a lot in the last year. BlueLine fund investors, who were told in Harbinger’s most recent letter that their redemptions have been suspended, should keep that in mind. Continue reading »
Harbinger Capital
- Posted in:
Hedge Funds
Phil Falcone Has Great News For Harbinger Capital Investors, Less Than Great News For The City Of New York
By Bess Levin
Over the last 10 months or so, the relationship between hedge fund manager Phil Falcone and his investors has not exactly been mutually satisfying. Not that they’ve been keeping a list but, if pressed to get into specifics, Harbinger Capital clients might cite a few reasons why they’ve been less than thrilled with Falcone of late such as: 1) The lackluster returns in Harbinger Capital’s flagship, which have in no way mimicked the highs of 2007. 2) That time he told reporters his investors are idiots. 3) The fact that he’s come to adopt a loose definition of the term ‘hedge,’ and put a whole lot of their money in a wireless venture that the universe seems hell bent on making sure never even has the chance to cause GPS interference. 4) The note those who requested their money back received in July, informing them that rather than getting cash, they’d be the lucky recipients of illiquid LightSquared equity. And then there would be the incident about which they really get pissy, and where things started to go down hill: 5) The time Phil choose to “loan” himself $113 million from a gated fund in order to pay personal taxes. Today, however, brings word that should do a lot to smooth ruffled feathers. On points 1-4, not much to say there. No one changes in a day. But! On point 5? Big progress. Huge. Continue reading »
- Posted in:
Hedge Funds
Next Time You Want To Ask Phil Falcone A Question, Make It One You Don’t Already Know The Answer To
By Bess Levin
LightSquared is a wireless venture that seeks to create “convenient connectivity for all.” But, as the careful listeners among us know full well, it stands to do much more. In short, it will make or break backer Harbinger Capital. Success will mean billions for manager Phil Falcone and his investors. Failure will mean Wilbur Falcone going back to where it all began, peddling ZJ’s on the 5:54 Metro North to Greenwich.
As one can expect when one is doing ground-breaking, visionary-esque work, LightSquared has encountered some opposition. The yachting community worries the interference will cause them to get lost at sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it “may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses.” Mars is similarly pissed.
The most recent hostility came last week from various parties claiming that the White House pressured certain officials to change their testimony before Congress to favor LightSquared, in order to help the network’s plans to move forward. Now, any and all donations the company’s CEO and Falcone have made to Democratic organizations are being scrutinized. Earlier this morning, Phil told Fox Business that allegations of influence via money sicken him (“People think we’ve made contributions to grease the wheels, that is so wrong, it’s disgusting,”) and this afternoon, took the time to explain the impetus for one donation in particular. Apparently all roads lead back to a woman with many fans round these parts. The First Lady of the hedge fund industry. Her Excellence: Lisa Maria Falcone. Continue reading »
As you know, Harbinger Capital has a big bet going on a wireless company called LightSquared. Should it succeed, Phil Falcone will make billions and his investors will receive the triple digit returns they scored on subprime. Should it fail…it’s an outcome to dire to even think about but will most likely involve the Grammy-award winning Wilbur Falcone being forced to go back to playing Three-card monte in the UBS parking lot just to put food on the table. While LightSquared has so far encountered some opposition (as one often does when one is doing groundbreaking, visionary-esque work), the company has most recently been making the case that its satellite system will be huge for “coordinating enforcement and emergency response teams during natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.” According to various US agencies, it’d be the least they could do, as LS might screw up the tracking of future natural disasters.
Philip Falcone’s LightSquared wireless service needs more testing because it may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses, Congress is being told today. LightSquared’s signals may disrupt precise gear that reads data from the satellite-based global-positioning system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Transportation Department and a federal advisory body said in testimony prepared for a hearing by the House science committee.
“We support further testing of LightSquared’s proposal,” Mary Glackin, a deputy under secretary at NOAA, said in the testimony obtained by Bloomberg News before the hearing. Concerns include LightSquared’s potential effect on a satellite system that increases accuracy of hurricane tracking, Glackin said. Options for mitigating interference would be limited because the GPS satellites are in orbit and cannot be modified, she said.
According to LightSquared, Glackin and her friends can go fuck themselves. Continue reading »
DoJ Tries To Block AT&T/T-Mobile Merger; Not Yet Taking Competition From LightSquared Seriously
By Matt Levine
LightSquared, the wireless-broadband company owned mostly by Harbinger and its disgruntled former investors has had a good run recently, announcing a spectrum deal with Sprint, helping with Hurricane Irene, and not actually killing anyone yet (that we know of). You might think that it’s well on its way to fulfilling its mission of increasing competition in the wireless broadband industry.
But it’s not enough for the Department of Justice, which today sued to block the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The DoJ’s suit relies on the conclusion that wireless is basically a 4-party national game (among T, VZ, S, and T-Mobile), and gives short shrift to the notion that smaller regional wireless companies can be counted on to provide competition and limit price gouging by an engorged AT&T. From the complaint:
Continue reading »
This comes as a bit of a surprise as we were under the impression LightSquared was still in the testing/trying to prove it’s not going to cause “devastating interference,” sink a battleship, kill some people/working out the kinks phase. Still, it’s wonderful to hear regardless, not just since it’s nice thing to do but because it suggests this thing might actually work, and Wilbur Falcone may not have to start asking for his old shift at Rick’s Cabaret just to put food on the table. Continue reading »
As you know, Harbinger Capital currently has a big bet going on a wireless company called LightSquared. Should it succeed, Phil Falcone will make billions and his investors will receive the triple digit returns they scored on subprime. Should it fail…we don’t even want to go there but someone will need to take in the family’s award-winning singing and dancing pig, who’s made it clear he “doesn’t do” 2-bedroom rentals North of 86th Street. So far, unfortunately, LightSquared, illiquid shares of which were recently awarded to redemption-seeking investors, has encountered a few bumps in the road (as one often does when one is doing groundbreaking, visionary-esque work). Most recently the company has been making the case that its satellite system will be huge for “coordinating enforcement and emergency response teams during natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.” On the flip side, according to a new study by the FAA, it might kill a few hundred people. Continue reading »
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
