Dell had lots of news this evening. They warned. Kevin Rollins is out. And Michael Dell is coming back. The stock got an after hours bump on the excitement of Dell’s return. But really, will that change anything? We kinda doubt it.
Tags: Dell
Archive for January, 2007
Kevin Rollins is out at Dell and Michael Dell is back in. But has anything really changed?
On January - 31 - 2007
Uncategorized
Vault.com’s best video resume search: Aleksey Vayner need not apply
On January - 31 - 2007
After watching the hilariously ridiculous video resume from aspiring investment banker Aleksey Vayner that went viral last summer, it’s hard to envision anyone serious who wants a job on Wall Street going the same route. But Vault.com is looking for the next video resume star:
The infamous video résumé in which Aleksey Vayner shatters bricks with his bare knuckles and boldly refers to himself as a symbol of success made the Yale University student the laughingstock of Wall Street and became an example for young bankers of how not to apply for a job.
But despite the negative attention Mr. Vayner attracted, a large career services network focusing on the financial industry is now challenging aspiring bankers to compete for the crown of Wall Street’s best video résumé.
"We’re reclaiming the video résumé for the forces of good," a cofounder of Vault.com, Mark Oldman, said. "Clips of bench-pressing and pontificating about life philosophies won’t be rewarded."
Tags: Aleksey Vayner
Uncategorized
Board of directors pay inflation
On January - 31 - 2007
Average pay for corprate directors moved above $160K last year:
The average pay for directors of nearly 1,500 companies tops $160,000, as boards now spend more time monitoring the performance of publicly traded companies, says a study released Tuesday.
Corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year show total cash and stock-based pay for directors rose an average of 11.6% to $160,493, according to Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy research firm in Rockville, Md.
Carol Bowie, ISS vice president of governance research, says, "Pay for directors has never been at the lofty levels that executive pay has reached, but it’s still accelerated with increased workloads and responsibilities in the aftermath of Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley."
Company directors’ average pay passes $160,000 – USA Today
Tags: Compensation
More problems for Citigroup Japan
On January - 31 - 2007
More problems with Citigroup, this time with its Japanese venture partner Nikko Securities. It seems that the firm’s top managers were accused of accounting fraud. Oops.
An outside investigation commissioned by Nikko Cordial concluded that Junichi Arimura, its former president, who resigned last month over the scandal, must bear “grave managerial responsibility” for the accounting fraud, which padded the broker’s net profits by 33 per cent in the year to March 2005.
Nikko Cordial has persistently denied involvement by top management in the fraud. The scandal had already affected business at Nikko Citigroup, the investment bank which is 49 per cent owned by Citigroup and 51 per cent by Nikko Cordial, Mr Arimura said last month.
Nikko’s problems are the latest setback for Citigroup in Japan. Regulators forced Citigroup to close its private bank in Japan in 2004 following a series of regulatory breaches. It recently announced a $415m charge to cover massive restructuring of its consumer finance business after the government capped lending rates.
Nikko’s top bosses named in scandal – Financial Times
Tags: Citigroup
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 1/31/07
On January - 31 - 2007
Dimon sees a sign of recession Deals on ‘dark pools’ set to surge Blackstone to invest $275m in Indian media group NYSE, Tokyo exchange poised to detail far-reaching alliance Thain Wins A Delay In Trial Over IPO Notice Owner of Hedge Fund Firm Is Sentenced
More headlines below
Maria Bartiromo finally getting her own talk show?
On January - 30 - 2007
Talk has resurfaced again that Maria Bartiromo may be getting her own CNBC talk show, even as controversy swirls around her about her journalistic ethics connected with the Citigroup / Todd Thomson affair. According to the New York Post:
Bartiromo is in talks with the network about launching her own branded TV show, following a format used by people like Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers.
The move coincides with her filing at least eight applications to trademark her Wall Street pet name, the "Money Honey," which sources stressed may not signal the name of a show.
"She’s pitching it to the network," said one source. "There’s no guarantee that if it were ever developed that ‘Money Honey’ would even be a part of it."
Maria Angles For Q&A Show - New York Post
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
Also in the WSJ: Hedge fund milestones
On January - 30 - 2007
Also in this morning’s Wall Street Journal in addition to the Amaranth article detaling the big winners in the fund’s implosion, is a timeline of hedge fund milestones. Here are a few of them:
June 1995– Highlighting the difficulties faced by many hedge funds in the mid-1990s, Bruce Kovner, a legendary currency and commodities speculator, disbands his U.S. fund and returns about two-thirds of the $1.8 billion he managed at Caxton Corp., founded in 1983. Caxton had averaged annual returns of at least 30% for most of its existence, but lost money in 1994 and was struggling again in 1995. Caxton’s troubles weren’t unique: Hedge funds’ total assets under management shrank for the only time in industry history in 1994. Analysts blame rising interest rates and the industry’s unwieldy size after a 1991-93 growth spurt.
October 1995– An even more shocking closure follows a few months later, when Michael Steinhardt shuts down his $2.6 billion investment partnerships. Mr. Steinhardt’s decision came despite the fact that he had enjoyed good returns in 1995 after a disastrous 1994. Mr. Steinhardt, known for his aggressive, short-term trading and big, risky market bets, started his fund in 1967 and was a pioneer of the industry. His average annual returns of 30% or more helped his assets under management balloon to $4.4 billion at their peak.
Tags: Hedge funds
WSJ: Winners in the Amaranth collapse
On January - 30 - 2007
As Amaranth bet the ranch and imploded, some institutions like JP Morgan Chase and Citadel profitted handsomely from the collapse. This morning’s Wall Street Journal chronicles the collapse and how some of the players won big:
It did negotiate a rescue plan, requiring it to pay nearly $2 billion to Goldman Sachs Group to take toxic trades off its hands. Strapped for cash, Amaranth aimed to get the money to do the deal by using cash collateral on deposit with its middleman for natural-gas trades, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
But on Monday morning, just after Amaranth had told its investors a rescue was close, J.P. Morgan said it wouldn’t release the collateral. The firm was effectively responsible for making sure parties to Amaranth’s trades got paid, and it said the rescue plan didn’t free it of this risk, according to people familiar with its stance. J.P. Morgan’s refusal killed the plan. Amaranth’s situation went from dire to desperate.Two days later, J.P. Morgan itself agreed to take over most Amaranth energy positions. With a partner, it cut a deal that turned out to be lucrative for J.P. Morgan — earning it an estimated $725 million — but more painful for its longtime client, Amaranth.
Tags: Amaranth, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, Hedge funds, JPM Chase, Merrill Lynch
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 1/30/07
On January - 30 - 2007
Heard on the Street: Citigroup’s Sears Problem Citigroup undeterred by the puns and losses Taking AIM at Small Caps Verizon wireless closes gap with Cingular Freedom To Choose Was Friedman’s Secret to Success
More headlines below
Journalism professors weigh in over the CNBC / Maria Bartiromo flap
On January - 29 - 2007
The more they avoid the issue, the bigger it’s gonna get: There’s more heat this morning over CNBC and Maria Bartiromo, and the coverage — or rather, lack thereof — of her relationship with now ousted Citigroup exec Todd Thompson. This time it’s coming from journalism professors — they aren’t liking what they’re seeing and hearing — since CNBC and Maria have just stuck their heads in the sand and have mostly avoided the issue:
“To say these are personnel matters and shouldn’t be talked about publicly would be disingenuous when journalism itself is all about shining the light of scrutiny on powerful people,” said [Bob] Steele [a journalism ethics professor at Poynter Institute]. “It’s essential that she and CNBC address these issues.”
Bartiromo declined to comment on the matter last week in Davos, Switzerland, where she was covering the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. Thomson, 45, hasn’t returned repeated calls to his home in Connecticut
Edward Wasserman, the Knight Professor of journalism at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, said CNBC’s response suggests the company is more interested in Bartiromo’s value as an envoy than her independence.
“I locate the problem with CNBC,” he said. “They have obviously been using her and their other high-profile people as brand-creation devices and encouraging them to cozy up to people in the financial community.”
CNBC’s Bartiromo Irks Professors Over Citigroup Ties – Bloomberg.
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
YouTube gonna share the wealth with its users
On January - 29 - 2007
YouTube content providers are gonna get to share the wealth as the company prepares to compensate them for their contributions:
Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, said Saturday that the wildly successful site will start sharing revenue with its millions of users.
Hurley, who along with the site’s co-founders sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in November, said one of the major innovations the site is working on is a way to allow users to be paid for content.
"We are getting an audience large enough where we have an opportunity to support creativity, to foster creativity through sharing revenue with our users," Hurley said at the World Economic Forum. "So in the coming months, we are going to be opening that up."
YouTube to Share Revenue With Users – AP via Washington Post
Nasdaq listed porn firm AIMs for UK
On January - 29 - 2007
Another U.S. listed firm is abandoning these shores for listing a-broad: Private Media Group, one of Europe’s biggest purveyors of porn that is currently listed on Nasdaq, is moving its listing to the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative investment Market (AIM) by this summer:
The company’s president, chairman and chief executive, Berth Milton Jnr, said it was also switching exchanges because it was "extremely unhappy with the treatment small cap companies get from the US market and US regulatory bodies". Mr Milton added that moving "seems like a good idea and also a way of saving money".
Private Media was founded in Sweden in 1965 when Berth Milton Snr, Mr Milton’s father, began publishing Private magazine, widely considered to be the world’s first legal hardcore title.
Mr Milton bought out his father in 1991 and began expanding the business into new areas, including videos and then DVDs. He licensed the company’s name for a variety of products, including condoms, and set up websites.
Porn group turns its back on Wall Street – The Independent
Perella Weinberg snags two more Morgan Stanley bankers
On January - 29 - 2007
With bonuses paid or just days away for several banking firms, poaching season is now underway: Perella Weinberg has hired two bankers from Morgan Stanley, including the former co-head of its European technology goup:
Scott Bruckner, who had accepted a transfer to New York for Morgan Stanley but had not yet physically relocated, will be making the move to Perella Weinberg along with colleague Arnaud Dassy, an executive director on the telecoms team at Morgan Stanley.
Bruckner helped advise Virgin Mobile in its deal to be acquired by cable operator NTL Inc. last year, and Millicom in its attempts to sell itself last year, which ultimately fell through, among other clients.
Perella Weinberg nabs M. Stanley bankers -sources – Reuters
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 1/29/07
On January - 29 - 2007
Citigroup directors voice support for Prince Clear Channel Showdown Signals Investor Wariness of Privatizations Davos Elite Brushes Off Policy Makers’ Warnings of End to Boom Is New York Losing Its Financial Edge? Behind a Link Of NYSE, Tokyo Are Two Friends
More headlines below
Shaking her Moneymaker: Maria Bartiromo trademarking “Money Honey”; did you know there’s an X rated video by the same name?
On January - 27 - 2007
Maria plans to sell herself: According to Page Six which continues to cover Maria Bartiromo’s relationship with former Citigroup wealth management head Todd Thomson, the so-called "Money Honey" is trademarking the term so that she can pocket some cash:
NOT even CNBC anchorbabe Maria Bartiromo’s bosses can say for sure how many flights she took on the Citigroup corporate jet with the bank’s wealth-management chief, Todd Thomson, who was jettisoned last week over his lavish spending.
Bartiromo logged tens of thousands of miles on at least "six trips" on the plane, two sources at the bank told The Post.
Bartiromo, meanwhile, wants to take her "Money Honey" nickname to the bank. She’s trying to trademark her pet name for potential uses ranging from stuffed animals to coloring books. Her lawyer filed on Jan. 16 at least eight applications for use of the moniker, TVNewser reported.
We had to laugh after spotting this: With a little bit of searching, we discovered that she already shares the name with an XXX rated movie from Torrid Video that came out in 1990, starring among others, the ubiquitous (and hairy) porn star wonder Ron Jeremy. So we had a little fun with Photoshop and gave the original star the boot in favor of the hopeful trademark owner. Here’s the movie’s "plot":
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
Selected Barron’s Headlines
On January - 27 - 2007
 |
|
MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman on the CNBC’s absense of coverage of the Maria / Todd Thomson story
On January - 26 - 2007
MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman thinks that CNBC has damaged its credibility by ignoring the story and not covering it.
Has anyone noticed how CNBC has covered The Story?
And you couldn’t blame anybody for smirking.
Actually, they meant: Has anyone noticed how CNBC has NOT covered The Story (smirk, smirk).
This saga goes beyond being titillating gossip. This is news. It encompasses a shake-up at one of America’s most important companies, business and journalism ethics — as well as, ultimately, CNBC’s credibility and image.
Apparently, CNBC’s damage-control strategy is to hope that this unwanted intrusion will play itself out and simply go away. The network may not be so lucky, in this age of blogs.Anyway, CNBC bills itself as The Worldwide Leader in Business News. Bartiromo is a legitimate TV star. Those two factors alone make the story worthwhile and compel CNBC to report on it.
CNBC erred by giving Bartiromo a free pass – MarketWatch
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
“Empty voting” is getting the SEC’s attention
On January - 26 - 2007
The SEC and other regulators are taking a look at how some are invfluencing corporate elections by borrowing shares and then casting their votes:
In some cases, the strategy has allowed speculators to gamble that a company’s stock will drop, and then vote for decisions that will ensure that it does — without their ever having to own any stock themselves. Some outside interests have used the strategy to hide their voting power within a company until the last moment. Often, individual shareholders don’t realize their own stocks, and their voting rights, have been borrowed from their brokerage accounts, until it’s too late.
Fueling the practice — dubbed "empty voting" in a study by two University of Texas professors — is a booming business in lending shares. That business has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to one report, and now earns $8 billion a year for big brokerages and banks plus an unknown amount for institutional investors. Voting rights are lent along with the shares, and increasingly, that is leading to unintended consequences.
CNBC defends Maria Bartiromo after all of the pubility over her private plane jaunt with ousted Citigroup exec
On January - 26 - 2007
While there’s been a lot of salacious tittering and "mile high club" referencing peppering Wall Street conversations about CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo and her role in the dismissal of Citigroup’s wealth management head Todd Thomson, CNBC is coming out in her defense. From the Wall Street Journal:
"Maria Bartiromo … works tirelessly around the world in the service of business journalism," CNBC said in a prepared statement. "In 2006 alone, she made 46 public appearances on behalf of CNBC. Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments. Her record and reporting speak for themselves." CNBC, a business-news channel, is owned by General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.
CNBC says any trips by Ms. Bartiromo on the Citigroup jet were preapproved and fell under the "source development" section of its code of ethics. The channel considers the matter closed and says it isn’t investigating Ms. Bartiromo’s relationship with Citigroup.
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 1/26/07
On January - 26 - 2007
New EOP Offer From Blackstone Heats Up Fight Hedge fund, private equity specialists found own firm Paulson, Bernanke Study Financial Markets’ Leverage "Event risk" tops worry list for Europe’s banks Lehman’s Fuld Laments High Staff Turnover in Emerging Markets
More headlines below
Video: Warren Buffet sings with a bunch of fruits at the 2006 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting
On January - 25 - 2007
Warren Buffett singing with the Fruit of the Loom Fruits at the 2006 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting. He ad libs about his daughter Susie at the end. (1:11)
UK: Pissed off wives of huge bonus earners having the last laugh in divorce court
On January - 25 - 2007
Future ex-wife club members in the UK can rejoice: Big bonus earners over there have huge dollar sign targets on their backs and the wives are out for (and increasingly often getting) blood:
London bankers are celebrating a record 8.8 billion pound ($17.4 billion) year-end bonus pool. Thanks to a court ruling on future bonuses, spouses and their divorce lawyers may have the last laugh.
The judgment involving an antique dealer and his wife may let ex-wives claim a portion of payouts awarded long after a breakup, burnishing London’s reputation as a top venue for big- money divorce settlements. Legal experts say that a divorce hearing now before the High Court cites the case, Rossi v. Rossi, as a precedent for a bonus claim.
The climate is so favorable to ex-wives that divorce lawyer Jeremy Levison advises bankers and hedge fund executives to avoid the altar altogether. Pre-nuptial agreements offer little protection because U.K. judges aren’t bound to follow them.
“Don’t get married,” said Levison, a partner at London- based family law firm Levison Meltzer Pigott. “If you must, make sure your other half is as rich as you are.” ….
Britain’s Angry Wives Target Bonuses in Big-Money Divorce Cases – Bloomberg
Hedge fund titans pick their horses
On January - 25 - 2007
The New York Times profiles some of the big hedge fund money backing ‘08 presidential president hopefuls, including Perry Capital and Elliott Associates:
Lisa Perry loves Hillary Rodham Clinton.
So much so that two large portrait photographs of the senator by Chuck Close grace the hallway of her 1960s-themed penthouse apartment on Sutton Place in Manhattan.
“It’s a beautiful picture because Hillary is beautiful,” said Ms. Perry, a top Democratic fund-raiser, whose husband, Richard, runs a prominent $12 billion hedge fund. “I will be there for her emotionally, and I will raise.”.
There are no Pop Art portraits of Rudolph W. Giuliani in the home of Paul E. Singer, a longtime hedge fund executive and a primary fund-raiser and policy adviser to Mr. Giuliani, but his support is no less ardent.
“Rudy Giuliani is the right leader for the times,” Mr. Singer said.
Tags: Avenue Investments, Elliott Associates, Hedge funds, Perry Capital, Political Contributions, Politics
Merrill’s O’Neal paid a $47.3 million bonus
On January - 25 - 2007
Not a new record, but nothing to sneeze at either: Merrill Lynch paid its CEO Stan O’Neal a 2006 bonus package of $47.3 million, second only in size to Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein’s:
O’Neal’s award, which includes cash and stock, was 30 percent higher than the previous year when he received a total bonus of $36.3 million. Payouts for 2005 and 2006 include $2 million retained by the company for O’Neal’s participation in the managing partner incentive program.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein set the highwater mark for Wall Street bonuses, receiving $53.4 million for 2006. Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack got $40 million in cash and stock.
Merrill Lynch CEO receives $47.3 mln bonus for 2006 – Reuters
Tags: Bonuses, Merrill Lynch
Two former hedge fund fraudsters will pay $4.6 million in fines
On January - 25 - 2007
Caught with their hands in the cookie jar: A former hedge fund manager and his fund’s trader will pay a total of $4.6 million in SEC fines and will be barred for life from working in the securities industry for pillaging funds from their clients:
Two former hedge fund executives will pay $4.6 million to settle charges they stole investors’ money to buy a $160,000 car and plane trips while promising clients they were getting rich, regulators said on Wednesday.
Robert Massimi, the founder and manager of collapsed Montvale, New Jersey-based hedge fund HMC International, LLC, agreed to pay $1.46 million while the fund’s former trader, Bret Grebow, will pay $3.1 million to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SEC lawyers said the pair lied to the fund’s roughly 80 investors between 2001 and 2005 by making up performance numbers. Meanwhile, Grebow "systematically looted the fund’s trading account," the SEC said.
"This is another case of hedge fund managers stealing from their clients and abusing their clients’ trust," said Bruce Karpati, one of the SEC lawyers who worked on the case.
Former NJ hedge fund executives settle with SEC – Reuters
Tags: Hedge funds, Legal
