Barbarians at the gates: the balance of pros and cons Private equity houses’ media strategy ‘naive’ Schwarzman, Doughty Urge LBO Action Against Intrusion New Wall St buyout tool seen carrying risks No buyout bubble, but concerns loom -Carlyle Group
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Stanislav Shpigelman, the former Merrill Lynch analyst at the center of an insider-trading ring, is arguing that he was "deceived, intimidated and flattered" into providing the illegal information to his cohorts, according to a recent legal filing.
The former mergers and acquisition analyst – long one of the most sensitive posts on Wall Street – Shpigelman was sentenced to 37 months in prison last month for his role in a wide-ranging insider trading plot.
He provided the tips for collaborators and former Goldman Sachs analysts David Pajcin and Eugene Plotkin to trade on.
In papers filed last week seeking clemency, Shpigelman’s lawyer paints a picture of a man whose initial mistake in providing illegal information was compounded when his associates in the ring used intimidation and deception to draw him in further.
Shpigelman Was Bullied To Give Info: Lawyer – New York Post
Tags: Eugene Plotkin, Goldman Sachs, Insider Trading, Merrill Lynch
Feds Probe UBS Tips Blackstone CEO says public markets ‘over-rated’ TPG’s Bonderman plays down size of private equity Public or private equity? They will become more alike Lehman Trio Earns A ‘Low’ $92.3 Million MatlinPatterson seeks $4.5 billion for new fund
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KKR, Texas Pacific Agree to Buy TXU for $45 Billion UBS Passes Goldman, Morgan in New Hedge Fund Business Hedge Funds Join Grains Boom TPG drives private equity revolution into Moscow Carlyle plans to list $1bn fund
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Investors not pestering hedge funds to cut fees MatlinPatterson launches $500 mln hedge fund US hedge funds face new guidelines The Bankruptcy Development That Has Wall St. Worried Hedge Funds Pay More Trading Commissions in Asia, Study Shows Nymex Plans Stock Offering
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Apple, Cisco Reach Accord Over iPhone Goldman awards bumper pay-outs Morgan Stanley May Opt for Larger Tankers to Support Oil Trades Morgan Stanley Hires Eight in Latin America Buildup Merrill strategy threatened by bad loan market
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CSA Plans to Boost Oversight of Hedge Fund Managers Questioning Blackstone’s big deal KKR, Blackstone Push for Lowest LBO Rates as Bankers Roll Over Buyout Funds May Take Over $2 Trillion of Stocks Blackstone Makes Quick Cash Equity Firm Said to Raise Big New Fund [Providence Equity]
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Sirius, XM deal to create satellite radio giant Some Doubt Merger Will Get Past FCC A Good Word for Hedge Fund Activism Hedge funds seek return of risk game US presidential hopeful Obama targets hedge funds with tax haven bill
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YouTube’s got a bunch of recent Wharton Follies’ videos up. Sadly, this batch is pretty disappointing. Here are a few of them:
Snakes at Au Bon Pain:
Tags: Entertainment, MBA
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And the hits just keep on coming: With Maria Bartiromo now under nearly daily assault over her relationship with former Citi exec Todd Thomson, her role in his ouster, and her silence, Page Six has dug up some dirt on the teenage Maria, whose sources say she "was a big-haired, boy-teasing, high-school honey who cheated on her squeeze and nearly caused a Brooklyn gang rumble":
"Maria and I grew up in Dyker Heights. She was the girlfriend of Joey Maria, who ran with the 13th Avenue Boys, a group of toughs that hung on the corner of 13th and 78th," a longtime Page Six source said.
"Joey was a handsome, wiry thing, a very cool kid. Maria [a student at the Catholic all-girl Fontbonne Hall Academy on Shore Road] was a gorgeous thingy whose eyes melted all the guys’ hearts."
Our source, a member of the rival "7th Avenue Boys," said: "Maria was always there on Joey’s arm, all Jordache’d up in heels. She had a great bum, too, but even though she dressed like a hot chick . . . inside she was a real down-to-earth, intelligent sweetheart."
One day in the ’80s, "We were just talking innocently, then started flirting, and then some full-on making out that got to about second base. I was in heaven. She was a great kisser. We thought the concrete handball walls provided cover, but it didn’t – somebody saw us and told Joey . . . Rumors started spreading the 13th Avenue guys were going to come down to kick my ass." .
As the 7th Avenue Boys were boozing and listening to a boom box in the woods of the Dyker Beach Golf Course that night, the 13th Avenue mob showed. "We were surrounded," our source relates. "Joey accused me of making out with Maria. Naturally I told him, ‘You’re [bleeping] crazy.’ It looked like it was going to turn into an all-out brawl when . . . Maria starts yelling at Joey that he’s being stupid, she loves him . . . and would never make out with anyone else, let alone [me] and that she brought her girlfriend along so he could hear it from her…..
Risky Kiss With Money Honey – Page Six New York Post
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo
Penny pinching Brady Dougan, who ordered fewer color copies and staff parties last year as a way to rein in expenses, is getting the top job at Credit Suisse:
Credit Suisse named Brady Dougan, its 47-year-old American investment banking head, as its new chief executive today to replace the retiring Oswald Grübel.
The move, which took some investors and analysts by surprise, came as annual profits at the Swiss-based financial services group almost doubled to a record SwFr11.3 billion (£4.7 billion).
Mr Dougan, at present based in New York, will take charge at Credit Suisse in May, when Mr Grübel leaves after a career spanning almost 40 years.
Credit Suisse names Dougan to top job - The Times of London
Ultra-Swank Offices Go Fast as Hedge Funds Splurge on Space Bear Stearns May Have to Repay Failed Hedge Fund $180 Million Steinhardt Is `Very Sensitive’ to Signs U.S. Stocks May Fall US regulators target hedge funds LSE believes it can work in harmony with Nasdaq
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This year there was no faux Marilyn impersonator to sing him ‘Happy Birthday’. Instead, Blackstone CEO and birthday boy Steve Schwarzman was serenaded by a special Rod Stewart performance at a birthday party said to cost over $3 million, held at the Park Avenue Armory. Page Six has part of the 500 person guest list helping Steve celebrate the big 6-0:
But, after all, the titans who partied control more than $3 trillion a day. They included Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs; Jimmy Cayne, the chief of Bear Stearns; Merrill Lynch boss Stan O’Neal; JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon; and investment-banking chief Jimmy Lee.
CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo and Charlie Rose of PBS blew kisses, as entertainment enchiladas Barry Diller, Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer and Donald Trump glowed in their tans.
Along with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, former New York Gov. George Pataki and NYSE chief John Thain, the party drew a big turnout of buyout moguls, including Wilbur Ross, Joe Parella, Leon Black, Bruce Wasserstein, Byron Wein, Thomas H. Lee and David Rubenstein.
$3M Party Fit For Buyout King – Page Six / New York Post
Tags: Blackstone
Floored: 43 More BOFA Specialists Cut Heard on the Street: Wrong Numbers for Telecom-Equipment Companies For Aluminum Companies, A Crush of Consolidation? JMP Group files for $100 million IPO A Question for Chairman Bernanke: Is It Time to Yank the Punch Bowl? Deutsche Boerse buys 5 pct of India’s BSE
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Shell hedge fund for sale: If you’re in the market to own your very own hedge fund, one can be had for as little as $70K….
Could it be the carcass they call Amaranth?…..
Tags: Ebay, Hedge funds
Jefferie’s equtiy head Scott Jones didn’t retire — he got the boot according to the New York Post:
Jones’ departure was just the latest echo from Jefferies’ ill-fated attempt to win business from Fidelity by showering the money management giant’s powerful stock trading desk with $2 million in gifts and travel.
Starting in 2002, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission order, Jefferies stock sales star Kevin Quinn wooed Fidelity traders with cases of wine and lavish trips to the Caribbean. The bank even helped finance a raucous bachelor party in Miami Beach for a trader that featured dwarf-tossing and strippers.
The SEC tagged Jones – a popular, 24-year veteran of Jefferies – for his failure to supervise Quinn, levying a $50,000 fine and a three-month supervisory suspension. The firm also was fined more than $15 million, and Quinn was barred from the industry for life.
Jefferies’ ‘Party’ Boss Gets The Boot – New York Post
Tags: Banking Culture, Fidelity, Jefferies
J&J Executive Departs In Wake of Payments Disclosure SEC chief awaits final Senate report on Pequot Lehman revises investment banking roles Cerberus Opens Hong Kong Office With Plans to Expand Into China Citigroup’s shares still fail to impress
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Full length classic TV shows including Gumby and I Spy are making their way to YouTube:
The Mountain View, Calif., company signed an agreement to post more than 4,000 hours of video content provided by Digital Music Group Inc., an online distributor of independently owned music, TV and film catalogs. Under the deal, YouTube will also use a filtering technology to identify songs for which Digital Music controls the rights that are being used without authorization in videos on the site. Digital Music Group then can be compensated for them.
Digital Music Group, Sacramento, Calif., will receive an undisclosed portion of revenue from ads that YouTube shows on the Web pages featuring its video and music programming, which will be free to users when it becomes available in the coming weeks.
The deal is among the first that gives users free access to full-length commercial television shows through YouTube. TV companies such as CBS Corp. post video from shows on YouTube, but it is generally limited to short clips. In addition, the pact marks a further development in YouTube’s efforts to generate ad revenue, as YouTube typically doesn’t display ads on the "watch" pages where the videos actually play, something it will do with the Digital Music Group content.
Google’s YouTube in Deal To Air Classic TV Shows – Wall Street Journal
Thanks but no thanks: It seems as though the little guys that the SEC was trying to protect by hiking the required hedge fund minimus don’t want to be protected:
The latest is the furor over the SEC proposal, made in December, to lift the minimum wealth required to invest in hedge funds. In 1982, the bar was set at $1 million in net worth; the SEC proposed adding to that a requirement that a would-be investor also have $2.5 million in investments.
"We are therefore proposing to define a new category of accredited investor, which is called an ‘accredited natural person,’ which is designed to help ensure that investors in these types of funds are capable of evaluating and bearing the risks of their investments," wrote the SEC.
Who could quibble with the SEC on this one? After all, everyone, from politicians to the press, both here and abroad, has been shrieking in increasing apocalyptic terms about the myriad dangers that big, bad hedge funds pose to poor, small investors. Why not protect those poor, small non-accredited and presumably unnatural people from themselves?
But comments on the SEC website show that there are a lot of unhappy campers who don’t want the SEC to get involved:
SEC slammed over hedge fund ‘wealth’ test – Fortune
Tags: Hedge funds
Sounds like there’s a story in the departure of George "Woody" Young, a top telecom banker who up and left Lehman Brothers over the weekend:
Woody Young, a top banker at Lehman Brothers and a prominent US Democratic party fundraiser, left the bank unexpectedly over the weekend without offering an explanation….
Lehman only issued a short statement on Saturday in response to Mr Young’s departure. "Woody Young has made valuable contributions to our investment banking franchise," the bank said.
Although Mr Young leaves an able team of telecoms bankers behind, his abrupt departure could raise questions on whether issues that caused his departure could affect the health of Lehman’s M&A franchise.
Top Lehman banker leaves unexpectedly – Financial TImes via MSNBC
Heard on the Street: Bristol-Myers Appears Primed for Bid; Time to Sell? Hedge Funds Start to Look Like Risky Bets Should You Buy When Private Equity Sells? Gray’s Anatomy – Blackstone Exec, 37, New Dealmaking King Zell’s The Canniest $6B Man
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A famous series of jokes attempts to define political systems. In communism, for example, you have two cows, your commune seizes them and charges you for milk. In a democracy, you have two cows, the cows outvote you 2-1 to ban all meat and dairy products, and you go bankrupt and starve to death.
Similar thinking can be applied to financial markets. Here, then, is the world of money recast in bovine terms.
Leveraged Buyouts
You have two cows. You come home from the fields one day to find Henry Kravis chatting to your spouse at the dining-room table. Two days later, you have no spouse, no farm, and no table. Two guys the size of sumo wrestlers have saddled up the cows and are riding them around the farmyard.
Currency Market
You have two cows. China has 1 trillion cows. Guess who sets the price of milk?…..
If Hedge Funds Kept Cows, Your Milk Would Go Sour: Mark Gilbert – Bloomberg
Tags: Humor
Watch out CNBC, Fox Business News is set to debut in the fourth quarter of 2007 according to News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. And It’s got its own extremely popular ‘money honey’ of its own in Alexis Glick:
"We have long considered the business television market to be underserved," Murdoch said. "Having built Fox News into a cable news leader and a cultural phenomenon against all expectations, I’m confident Roger Ailes can do the same in business news."
Murdoch indicated that Fox Business Channel will follow the FNC template in the way it reflects his philosophical outlook and the way it differentiates itself in tone and attitude.
"It will have a more pro-business stance … CNBC leaps on every scandal. It’s a negative attitude," he said. "I won’t announce too much detail on the programming, because everything we say, CNBC will immediately copy."
"Bring it on," CNBC spokesman Kevin Goldman said. "We welcome the competition, if it ever shows up."
Well maybe CNBC doesn’t leap on every scandal as Fox alleges. It seemed to go out of its way to selectively not cover Maria Bartiromo’s scandalicious plane rides and her seemingly all-too-cozy-for-a-serious-reporter relationship with now former Citigroup exec Todd Thompson.
Fox launching business network - Variety
Tags: CNBC, Maria Bartiromo, Rupert Murdoch
Hedge Funds May Be Putting Their Golden Goose in Jeopardy Hedge Funds Charge Too Much for Average Returns, Calpers Says Distressed funds eye M&A mania for signs of crisis Introducing David Swensen Goldman Joins Private Equity’s Upper Echelon
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