Opening Bell: 04.19.13
Boston Is Locked Down With City Frozen From Tufts to Trains (Bloomberg)
Boston area residents awoke to a city virtually paralyzed after a night of mayhem that left at least two dead and police searching house to house for a suspect believed to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings. As dawn broke over the city, police had already ordered a shutdown of all public transit in the region while officers armed with assault rifles conducted a search in Watertown, 10 miles west of downtown Boston, looking for Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old foreign national who had escaped during a confrontation with police. Governor Deval Patrick ordered businesses closed in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and Boston, while area schools from Harvard University to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College canceled classes. Companies that have told employees to stay home included Athenahealth, Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. “I’m watching CNN and looking at the streets around our office,” said Guy Macdonald, the CEO of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals in Watertown. “It looks like a movie around our office right now.” Tsarnaev ran over the other suspect, his older brother Tamerlan, during the shoot-out in Watertown, according to a federal law enforcement official.
Blackstone Pulls Out of Dell Bid on Falling PC Sales (Bloomberg)
In a letter to Dell’s board, Blackstone cited an “unprecedented” 14 percent market decline in PC volume in the first quarter, according to a statement today. The world’s biggest buyout firm made a non-binding offer to acquire Dell last month, rivaling a $24.4 billion joint bid by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC, the largest proposed leveraged buyout since the financial crisis.
Fed Officials Back Higher Capital (WSJ)
A pair of Federal Reserve officials suggested Wednesday that major financial institutions may need to hold even higher levels of capital, a sign of a growing concern over the efficacy of current regulatory efforts to address the risks posed by large, complex firms.
AIG wins bid to transfer Bank of America mortgage lawsuit (Reuters)
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of American International Group in concluding that the insurer's $10 billion lawsuit against Bank of America Corp over mortgage losses belongs in state court, not federal court. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday threw out a lower court order denying AIG's bid to move the case to a New York state court. AIG's lawsuit was filed in August 2011 but has been largely on hold because of the venue fight.
German Banker Warns Crisis Far From Over (WSJ)
Germany's top central banker warned that Europe's debt crisis would take as much as a decade to overcome, adding that a lasting solution would only come once politicians stopped relying on the European Central Bank and pushed through far-reaching structural overhauls.
Frustrated by delay, Georgia cop allegedly pulled gun in McDonald’s drive-thru line (NYDN)
Student Ryan Mash, 18, was waiting for his order at the drive-thru window of a Forsyth County McDonald's when he was taken by surprise — and it was not a Happy Meal toy.
It was a gun allegedly brandished by Sgt. Scott Biumi, 48, a member of the DeKalb County Police Department for more than 20 years, authorities suspect. Biumi apparently grew frustrated that the fast food experience was not faster, so he stepped out of his car and yelled, "Stop holding up the drive-thru line," according to Mash. Mash claims Biumi thought his sincere apology was sarcastic. Then witnesses reported hearing Biumi scream, "You don't know who you are (messing) with!" "And that's when he pulled the gun on me," Mash said, "and kept on yelling at me for about 30 more seconds. And then walked off."
European Fund Managers Seen Doubling Salaries on Bonus Caps (Bloomberg)
About three-quarters of mutual fund managers’ total compensation is from bonuses and long-term incentives, meaning salary increases of 50 percent to 100 percent would be needed to negate the cap, said Jon Axcell, head of asset management at London-based Morgan McKinley. A European Parliament committee last month proposed to limit fund managers’ bonuses to no more than base salaries.
Gorman Gains on Blankfein in Bet on Brokerage (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley’s reputation as Wall Street’s weakest link is diminishing in debt markets as Chief Executive Officer James Gorman’s bet on a brokerage unit that has amassed $1.78 trillion in client assets starts to pay off. The cost of credit-default swaps protecting investors against losses on Morgan Stanley’s debt is about the lowest relative to the bank’s peers in almost two years, with the gap between it and its closest rival, Goldman Sachs, narrowing to 14 basis points from as wide as 111 last year, prices compiled by Bloomberg show.
Private Equity Groups Renew Listing Plans (FT)
More than a dozen offerings this year have rekindled private equity groups' hopes to list some of their largest assets bought during the bubble. The initial public offering of Intelsat on Thursday shows that it is feasible, but can also be painful.
Drunk man tossed from hotel, accused of stealing shuttle (K11)
Bloomington Police say a man tossed from a local hotel for being drunk early Wednesday morning made matters worse when he commandeered the hotel's shuttle van and crashed it into a stand of trees. Commander Kevin Herman says officers were called to the Quality Inn and Suites at 814 E. American Boulevard around 3 a.m. on reports of a drunk man causing a commotion. Staff members told officers they asked the man to leave about the time the hotel shuttle pulled up to the entrance. Witnesses say when the driver left the keys in the ignition and ran inside the drunk man ran out, jumped in the van and stole it.