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Laid Off SAC Capital Employees May Find New Home With Louis Bacon

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Life without Steve won't be easy, and they'd have to get used to an entirely different management style, but it's something.

SAC Capital Advisors LP portfolio managers and analysts in London have held discussions with rival hedge funds including Moore Capital Management LP about moving to those firms as SAC prepares to close its office here, according to people familiar with the matter. SAC's abrupt move last month to shutter its London office by year-end, as the U.S. hedge-fund giant retrenches following a record insider-trading settlement, has spurred a flurry of discussions between SAC traders, analysts and portfolio managers and their rivals at other firms, according to people close to firms involved. Besides Moore, SAC employees have had talks about potential jobs with people at Millennium Management, BlueCrest Capital Management and Balyasny Asset Management, according to people close to discussions with those firms. About a dozen SAC employees in recent weeks have held discussions, including at face-to-face meetings in London, with executives of Moore, Louis Moore Bacon's $12 billion U.S. hedge-fund firm, according to people briefed on the meetings.

Hiring Talks Pick Up as SAC Prepares to Close London Office [WSJ]

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Louis Bacon Recruits Brother To Have Tough Conversations With Employees Re: The Fact That They No Longer Work At The Firm

One thing you may or may not know about hedge fund manager Louis Bacon is that he likes to keep his human interactions to a minimum. It's not a personal thing, just people in general thing. He doesn't like 'em and he doesn't want to talk to or look at 'em. For example, rather than taking five minutes to tell a subordinate he disagrees with a trade idea, Bacon has been known instead to "retreat to his office and place an opposing trade, a tactic known as 'fading' a colleague." Clients are treated similarly ("During meetings with...investors, Bacon, who often draws the blinds in his private office, frequently turns to his lieutenants to answer questions, often sitting silently through presentations") and if you thought that being, say the fruit of his loins meant special treatment, you were sorely mistaken ("One longtime assistant negotiates annual spending allowances with the elder of his children individually...Once they've agreed on the number, the assistant invites the child for a sit-down meeting with his or her father, during which Bacon usually signs off on the terms"). So it probably did not come as much of a surprise when LB hired his brother, the improbably named Zack Hampton Bacon III, to speak with a dozen or so members of the staff re: security waiting to escort them out of the building. Moore Capital Management LLC, the $15 billion hedge fund run by Louis Moore Bacon, cut 10 to 15 investment jobs as it restructures one of its equity teams, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The portfolio managers and research analysts were let go on Sept. 11, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Patrick Clifford, a spokesman for New York-based Moore, declined to comment. “Apart from a few hedge funds, it’s not that typical to see a large reduction in headcount in the industry,” said Ronen Schwartzman, founder of Ten Capital Advisors LLC, a New York- based firm that advises clients on investing in hedge funds. “Performance must be having an impact.” Bacon, 56, hired his older brother, Zack Hampton Bacon III, in February to oversee strategic planning, a person briefed on the matter said that month. Bacon told clients last month that he planned to return $2 billion, or about 25 percent of his main fund, to investors, saying it may be too big for him to generate returns in line with historic profits as “liquidity and opportunities have become more constrained.” On the bright side, no one was "sprayed in the face" with lead pellets, so not all bad. Moore Said to Reduce Positions Amid Equity Restructuring [Bloomberg] Related: Louis Bacon Has Better Things To Do Than Explain How Big An Idiot You Are

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Louis Bacon Has Better Things To Do Than Explain How Big Of An Idiot You Are

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