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Opening Bell: 3.27.15

Morgan Stanley CFO turned Google CFO will make $70 million next year; Goldman tops JP Morgan; "Bacon rage shooting"; and more.
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Google Agrees to Pay New CFO Ruth Porat $70 Million by 2016 (Bloomberg)
Porat, who held the same role at Morgan Stanley, will get a $5 million one-time signing bonus and a $25 million stock grant this year that will vest through 2017, the Mountain View, California-based technology company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. She will also receive a $40 million biennial stock grant in 2016 that will vest by 2019 and a base salary of $650,000 annually.

Amid trial, Kleiner Perkins recruits next generation of partners (Reuters)
Once the dominant force in venture capital, backing Google and Amazon, Kleiner has delivered a more mixed record in the past several years. Its most recent flagship fund totaled $450 million, compared to $650 million three years earlier. The firm reorganized in 2013 and 2014, saying it wanted to be smaller and more agile. In the process, many younger partners left.

The Only Thing Oil Analysts Can Agree On Is Disagreement (Bloomberg)
Standard Chartered Plc’s Paul Horsnell forecasts oil will rise to $90 a barrel in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Francisco Blanch predicts $58. Six months ago, they were just $1 apart. That sudden divergence highlights a growing trend: Energy analysts are the most divided in at least eight years on the direction of Brent crude

High Risk but Little Reward for Whistle-Blowers (NYT)
Here’s what really happens on Wall Street: People who report wrongdoing get fired. And the wrongdoing they report is either ignored or covered up. The whistle-blowers are then blackballed from the industry and are rarely able to obtain jobs at the level or pay they earned before they reported the wrongdoing. There is the occasional whistle-blower who is rewarded for reporting wrongdoing �� for instance, Sherry Hunt, an employee at Citigroup’s mortgage unit who reported bad behavior and received $31 million — but most end up like her boss, Richard M. Bowen III, who reported wrongdoing up through the bank’s highest levels and instead was rewarded with being fired, no financial windfall and no hero’s welcome. He now teaches accounting at the University of Texas, Dallas.

Circumcision Protester Sells Fake Foreskin Sculptures For $1,000 Each (HP)
An Italian artist is attempting to protest male circumcision one foreskin sculpture at a time. Vincenzo Aiello is currently mounting a Kickstarter campaign to protest the practice of male circumcision through art. People who donate $1,000 to the campaign, titled "HUFO: The Missing Link," will get a framed replica foreskin made from silicon resin. Not willing to shell out a grand for a fake foreskin? A $50 pledge will get you a t-shirt with a foreskin on the front. Circumcision is a touchy issue for Aiello, who said on the Kickstarter video that he had to have his own penis circumcised about nine years ago "for medical reasons," but didn't elaborate further.

Goldman Overtakes JPMorgan in Commodities After Mercuria Sale (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan, which made the most money from commodities among the top 10 investment banks in 2013, ranked second last year and Morgan Stanley was third, according to a report published Friday from Coalition, a London-based business analytics firm. JPMorgan sold part of its physical commodities business to trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. last year.

RadioShack to Fight for Standard General Takeover (WSJ)
RadioShack Corp. said an offer from Standard General LP to save much of the iconic chain is the best to emerge from an auction, beating out rival offers that would see the retailer shut down...The Standard General deal still faces a challenge from Salus Capital Partners, which contends it didn’t get a fair hearing at the auction on a bid it tried to make in an alliance with liquidators.

Treasury Help Sought in Cross-Border Swaps Dispute (WSJ)
enate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R., Kansas) is pressing the Obama administration to help resolve a protracted cross-border dispute over derivatives regulation, a fight that threatens to harm big U.S. firms like CME Group Inc. that fall under the committee’s oversight. Mr. Roberts, whose panel has jurisdiction over derivatives markets, is asking the U.S. Treasury Department to help resolve a dispute over the cross-border treatment of clearinghouses—entities that are supposed to help prevent a market-wide collapse by ensuring either party in a derivatives transaction would get paid if the other side falters.

Jury Convicts Michigan Woman For "Bacon Rage" Shooting At McDonald's Drive-Thru Window (TSG)
A jury today found a Michigan woman guilty of firing a shot into a McDonald’s drive-thru window after employees failed to put bacon on a cheeseburger she ordered...Torres fired a single shot into the McDonald’s at 3:10 AM last February 10, according to Grand Rapids police. The gunplay came after Torres and another woman “complained that the order was incorrect,” cops noted. When a McDonald’s employee walked away from the drive-thru window, “one shot was fired from the suspect vehicle,” reported police, who added that the bullet entered the eatery at “head level” and “traveled through the window, across the dining room, and exited the restaurant through another window on the east side of the restaurant.”

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Opening Bell

Opening Bell: 05.14.12

JPMorgan Loss Claims Official Who Oversaw Trading Unit (NYTimes) The $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase will claim its first casualty among top officials at the bank as early as Monday, with chief executive Jamie Dimon set to accept the resignation of the executive who oversaw the trade, Ina R. Drew. Ms. Drew, a 55-year-old banker who has worked at the company for three decades and serves as chief investment officer, had repeatedly offered to resign since the scale of the loss became apparent in late April, but Mr. Dimon had held off until now on accepting it, several JPMorgan Chase executives said. Two traders who worked for Ms. Drew also planned to resign, JPMorgan Chase officials said. Her exit would mark a stunning fall from grace for one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, as well as a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Dimon...Former senior-level executives at JPMorgan said it was a shame that Ms. Drew has ended up suffering much of the fallout from the soured trade. 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An exit was “technically” possible yet would damage the euro, he said. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble reiterated in an interview in Sueddeutsche Zeitung that member states seeking to hold the line on austerity for Greece could not force the country to stay. LightSquared Moves Toward Bankruptcy Filing (WSJ) Hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared Inc. venture was preparing Sunday to file for bankruptcy protection after negotiations with lenders to avoid a potential debt default faltered, said people familiar with the matter. LightSquared and its lenders still have until 5 p.m. Monday to reach a deal that would keep the wireless-networking company out of bankruptcy court, and there were some indications over the weekend that a final decision hadn't yet been reached on its fate. Still, the two sides remained far apart, and people involved in the negotiations expected LightSquared to begin making bankruptcy preparations in earnest. 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