Opening Bell: 5.27.15
Greece Said Likely to Miss May Deal Deadline as Talks Go Nowhere (Bloomberg)
Greece is nowhere close to an agreement with the European Commission and International Monetary Fund over the terms of a continued bailout for the country, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations.
RBS Seen Facing $4.5 Billion Tab to Settle U.S. Mortgage Lawsuit (Bloomberg)
The FHFA, suing on behalf of government-owned lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is seeking to add to more than $19 billion it’s already collected in settlements from 16 other banks. Edinburgh-based RBS has set aside about 2.1 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) to cover the cost of the lawsuit.
Tech Firms Seek Ways to Fend Off Activist Investors (WSJ)
Scott Kupor, a colleague of Mr. Andreessen’s at Andreessen Horowitz, says that some tech executives, fearful of being ousted by shareholders, are making short-term moves to boost share prices while neglecting broader technology shifts. The danger, Mr. Kupor says, is that shareholders “are left with a company that is a shell of its former self.” To forestall such outcomes, Mr. Andreessen urges startups to mimic Facebook and Google Inc. by granting founders special types of stock that give them control over key decisions. He says that tactic will insulate the companies from outside pressures after they are public. Many entrepreneurs are heeding the call. Seven of the 10 most-highly-valued, venture-backed private tech companies have multiple classes of stock, according to Fenwick & West LLP. The law firm says it agreed not to disclose the companies’ names as a condition of gathering the data.
FIFA Raided by Swiss Authorities in 2018, 2022 World Cup Probe (Bloomberg)
Swiss investigators have seized data from soccer governing body FIFA’s headquarters as part of a criminal probe into the controversial 2010 vote that delivered the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar. The raid on the soccer body’s hilltop office in Zurich followed dawn arrests at a five-star hotel where FIFA’s ruling executive was based ahead of President Sepp Blatter’s re-election bid on Friday. The arrests were at the instruction of the U.S. Department of Justice which is probing corruption in soccer dating back 20 years. “The collection of relevant bank documents had already been ordered beforehand at various financial institutes in Switzerland,” the Swiss Attorney General’s office said in a statement on its website. “The files seized today and the collected bank documents will serve criminal proceedings both in Switzerland and abroad.”
NYPD boss spent $60K on dance studio for cops (NYP)
An NYPD boss dropped $60,000 to turn an old printing room at Police Headquarters into a Zumba dance studio — in a move that infuriated top cop Bill Bratton, police sources told The Post on Tuesday. It was just the latest oddball idea from Deputy Commissioner of Personnel Michael Julian, who lost his post in charge of training earlier this year for trying to arm cops with baby oil to deal with protesters and breath mints to clean up their foul language. To set up the Latin-dance-inspired fitness center, Julian had workers install workout mats and flat-screen TVs in basement room S66, the sources said. He was so proud of the setup that he gave Bratton a tour — but the commissioner ripped him for blowing the cash. “That’s not what I wanted!” snapped Bratton, who ordered the equipment torn out and had the room locked, the sources said.
David Petraeus is now being rolled out by private equity firm (DM)
The former US Army general pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information with his lover and biographer, but now mixes with wealth managers for rich families in hopes of getting them to invest with private equity firm KKR...'They didn’t really pitch products... they brought out General Petraeus,' Rockside Capital Partners' Matthew McCarthy told Bloomberg. McCarthy was flown from Ohio, where he manages the wealth of a family that founded a consumer-products company, to New York to meet the former general in an attempt to woo him. Petraus's turn as a star attraction from the private equity firm comes after he joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. in the middle of his scandal in 2013, heading its Global Institute that had just been created.
Frenetic Trading of 3 Stocks Confounds Hong Kong Market (Dealbook)
Shares of Goldin Properties, which lost 40 percent last Thursday, were up 43 percent on Tuesday. Shares of a related company, Goldin Financial — which, like Goldin Properties, is controlled by the billionaire Pan Sutong — plunged more than 40 percent last Thursday. And a day before that, shares in the Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, a solar equipment manufacturer controlled by the Chinese billionaire Li Hejun, fell 47 percent before trading in the stock was suspended. All three companies have offered no explanation. Regulators, too, have been quiet.
The Wrath of Hank: Ex-AIG CEO Greenberg Won’t Give Up at Age 90 (Bloomberg)
Maurice “Hank” Greenberg spent some of his 90th birthday party like he’s spent much of the past decade: angry. As he addressed his family at a lunch at a private estate this month, one of his sons made another laugh. Then their sister cracked up. Greenberg told her to leave if she couldn’t keep it down. “It got held onto for the rest of the day, so that when we were leaving he still gave me grief about it,” his daughter, Cathleen London, a 52-year-old family physician, said a day later. “I said, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Woman Faces Bribery Charge For Lick Offer (TSG)
A Louisiana woman is facing a public bribery charge after allegedly making an indecent proposal to the cop who arrested her for pummeling her live-in boyfriend, according to court records. Diane Thomas, 52, was busted earlier this month for punching her beau in the face “multiple times” and scratching him with her fingernails during a confrontation in the couple’s Monroe home. When Thomas was read her Miranda rights by a Monroe Police Department officer, she stated that her boyfriend was a “bitch,” adding that he “got in her face so she beat his ass,” according to a May 16 probable cause affidavit. After Thomas was handcuffed, she told Corporal Chris Ballard that she could not go to jail since she “has a good job.” At that point, Thomas allegedly made Ballard an offer he would refuse. "If you won't take me to jail I will get on my knees right now," she reportedly declared. "Officer I will even lick your butt hole."