- Private equity firms close in on Wasserstein’s ALM
- Credit Suisse And Quattrone: Dueling Sequels
Archive for May, 2007
Bruce Wasserstein must be happy that not everyone hates lawyers; Credit Suisse 2.0 vs Frank Quattrone 2.0
On May - 31 - 2007
Uncategorized
Trading irregularities in its “CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge”?
On May - 31 - 2007
"Unusual trading" and "potential irregularities" are tainting CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. 375,000 entered with the results due out July 8, but now that’s apparently up in the air:
The cable network said on Wednesday that it
is investigating whether entrants in its "CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio
Challenge" contest engaged in illicit trading to boost their results."CNBC has been contacted by several
contestants alleging unusual trading in violation of contest rules among some of
the 20 finalists," the cable news network said in a statement."Once these questions were raised,
CNBC immediately launched a thorough investigation to determine who may have
violated the rules," it added.
Tags: CNBC
Bill Hambrecht, Google exec and Mark Cuban looking to create a new football league
On May - 31 - 2007
San Francisco investment banker Bill Hambrecht (founder of Hambrecht & Quist) and his partner, Google senior exec Tim Armstrong are each ponying up $2 million to start a new football league to rival the NFL. It’ll be called the United Football League. It’s first owner: billionaire and Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban.:
Tags: Football, Google, Mark Cuban
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/31/07
On May - 31 - 2007
- Wachovia Agrees to Buy A.G. Edwards for $6.84 Billion
- Yahoo Says Technology Chief Farzad Nazem Resigned
- Citigroup may seek US retail banks after top executive resignation; pressure to grow in banking, sources say
- Man readies ‘true’ NY-listed hedge fund
- Barclays Settles Trading Probe By U.S. Regulator
- More headlines below
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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR, LBO / MBO, Private equity, Revolving Door
That sucking sound you hear is more air coming out of Goldman’s Global Alpha fund — down 3.4% since the beginning of the year
On May - 30 - 2007
SSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssss:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Global Alpha
hedge fund fell 3.4 percent in the first four months of this year hurt by losses
in the currency markets, according to a report sent to investors last week.The decline compares with the average
hedge-fund advance of 4.9 percent, data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund
Research Inc. show. Global Alpha dropped 12 percent since 2005, when it rose 40
percent and attracted more than $3 billion of new cash.The $10 billion fund, managed by Mark
Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski, struggled in a 16-month stretch when the Standard
& Poor’s 500 Index climbed 22 percent. Global Alpha’s decline has cut into
fees that reached $700 million after the gains of 2005 and has made New
York-based Goldman, the biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, vulnerable
to client withdrawals.
Tags: Goldman Sachs, Hedge funds
Ivanka Trump gives retailing a whirl, selling diamonds
On May - 30 - 2007
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend: Donald Trump’s little girl is branching out into retailing, selling diamonds in a new Madison Avenue, NYC store, one in Las Vegas and a third location yet to be disclosed:
Trump has formed a partnership with
Dynamic Diamond Corp., a Diamond Trading Co. siteholder, to create a complete
line of diamond jewelry under her name. The venture, which was first reported
by WWD in December, is not a license but rather a partnership between Trump
and Moshe Lax, principal of Dynamic Diamond, who became friendly through the
real estate world. Three Ivanka Trump boutiques are planned to open this year.
The first, a 1,100-square-foot unit, will open on Madison Avenue in September,
followed by one in Las Vegas. She declined to give the exact addresses or the
third location.
"I remember going to the couture
shows as a little girl with my mother," said Trump, decked out in a black
skirt suit from Brioni, Christian Louboutin pumps and, of course, several
pieces from her line. "I always had an appreciation for fashion and
[especially] jewelry."
Tags: Donald Trump, Retailing
Uncategorized
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/30/07
On May - 30 - 2007
- Heard on the Street: ABN Bid: Sweet and Sour
- Debt risks grow in private equity boom
- Private-equity gurus converge on Halifax
- Cantor to combine eSpeed, BGC in $1.3 billion deal
- ICE Finds a Chicago Ally
Investment banker chic: Natty dressing takes big bucks…
On May - 29 - 2007
Morgan Stanley’s John Mack: “When we miss business, I want it to ruin your day, because it ruins my day.”; More predictions that the LBO frenzy may be coming to an end….
On May - 29 - 2007
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Tags: John Mack, Morgan Stanley, Private equity
Beefed up banking restructuring staffs twiddling their thumbs as anticipated defaults haven’t materialized (so far)…
On May - 29 - 2007
But when (if) the bottom does fall out of the market and the default rate starts to climb, they’re gonna be ready. In the meantime, they’re trying to keep busy doing other things.:
Dozens of restructuring professionals hired
ahead of a much-expected wave of corporate defaults are all focused on the same
thing: finding deals.Goldman Sachs Corp. Inc. <GS.N>,
Morgan Stanley <MS.N>, FTI Consulting are among the many banks, advisory
firms and restructuring boutiques that have expanded their teams over the past
year on hopes that rising debt levels and increasing interest rates would land a
wave of corporate defaults.Interest payment failures remain at
historic lows, however, at just barely above 1 percent in both Europe and the
United States, rating agencies say, far below the historic average of about 4
percent.
Tags: Bankruptcy, Distressed, investment banking
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/29/07
On May - 29 - 2007
- RBS consortium bids $95.6 bln for ABN AMRO
- In The Black: Gov’t Witnesses Less Than Stellar In Conrad Trial
- NYSE, Nasdaq Plan to Open China Offices to Woo Firms
- Credit Suisse in S Korea disclosure probe
- More headlines below
Watch out Clara: Who’s next on Nasdaq’s buy list now that the Viking OMX exchange has been conquered?; Will Dubai launch competing OMX bid?
On May - 28 - 2007
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Hello Norma Jean: Steve Cohen buys Warhol’s Turquoise Marilyn
On May - 26 - 2007
Eclipsing the $28 million auction record for Andy Warhol’s image of Marilyn Monroe known as "Lemon Marilyn", SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen bought "Turquoise Marilyn" according to his spokesman, Jonathan Gasthalter. He’s said to have paid around $80 million for it in a private transaction.
Hedge-Fund Manager Cohen Buys Warhol Marilyn Picture – Bloomberg
Tags: Art, Hedge funds, SAC Capital
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/25/07
On May - 25 - 2007
- Nasdaq Agrees to Buy Sweden’s OMX for $3.7 Billion
- RBS-led consortium delays ABN statement to Tuesday
- Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Re Raises $194.8 Million
- Report Rips Cox – SEC Boss Let Telnet Block Fraud Suits
- Packer’s Ellerston Hedge Fund Plans A$600 Million IPO
- More headlines below
- Merrill awards senior posts outside US
- JPMorgan in alternative energy push
- Goldman Takes ‘Private’ Equity To a New Level
- Tudor Investment to Take Stake In Helios Capital Management
Tags: Goldman Sachs, JPM Chase, Merrill Lynch
Unbowed, these days hedge funds will invest in just about anything….
On May - 24 - 2007
With fat returns harder and harder to come by in such mundane investments like stocks and bonds, some hedge funds are turning to far more creative / less traditional asset classes including wine, art, shipping, football players, and in one case, old violins:
A hedge fund investing in old violins has
been pledged $11m (£5.5m) in the latest sign of investor willingness to put
money into offbeat assets that were previously the exclusive domain of
collectors and enthusiasts.Florian Leonhard, a London-based violin dealer and restorer, is aiming to start
investing the Fine Violins Fund once it has raised $50m, with a target of
returning 8 per cent to 12 per cent a year.The fund is perhaps the strangest in a series of new asset classes being created
by investors trying to avoid stocks and bonds.
Tags: Hedge funds
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/24/07
On May - 24 - 2007
- Bancrofts’ pow-wow on bid by Murdoch
- Cerberus joins race for Canada’s BCE
- Barclays Says Dollar’s Fall Dented First-Quarter Gain
- ICE steps up CBOT takeover bid
- More headlines below
- Old Lindemann Co-op at 944 5th, Blue Sky Included, Sells For $16.51 M.
- $50 M. for a Plaza Condo? Welcome to the New Benchmark in Manhattan Luxury
- Record Hamptons Home at $103 Million Signals Market Resilience
Revolving door: Merrill chief of its hedge-fund development and management group quits; Citadel energy trading head in Europe is gone
On May - 23 - 2007
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Tags: Citadel, Merrill Lynch, Revolving Door
Wall Street Folly Headline Roundup – 5/23/07
On May - 23 - 2007
- Bancrofts to discuss News Corp $5bn bid
- SEC set to approve guidance on Sarbox
- Here’s What a Hedge-Fund Code Should Be Saying: Matthew Lynn
- Deutsche Bank Says No to Mergers
- Morgan Stanley Unit To Buy Crescent Real Estate
- More headlines below
It’s only Memorial Day and the end of year bonus chatter is already starting
On May - 22 - 2007
Proving that it’s never too early to start thinking about end of the year bonuses, some consultants have pulled out their crystal balls and are already busy forecasting how much of the green stuff you’ll be taking home at the end of the year:
Investment bankers and many traders may see
bonuses rise 15 percent from elevated 2006 levels, as profitability grows from
international operations, proprietary trading and derivatives, according to a
study released on Tuesday by Johnson Associates Inc., a prominent compensation
consultant in New York.Incentive pay on Wall Street for workers in
the private equity sphere may rise 20 percent or more, the study said, as low
borrowing costs fuel record buyout activity.
Tags: Bonuses, Compensation
Odd lots: Finance company bonds ravaged; Credit default swaps on a tear; Nearly half of all corporate bonds relegated to the junk heap
On May - 22 - 2007
- LBOs Attack Finance Company Bondholders; SLM, CIT Debt Unravels
- Credit-Default Swaps Spur Fastest Derivatives Growth in 9 Years
- Junk tag on nearly half corporate bond firms
Tags: bonds, Derivatives, high yield bonds, LBO / MBO
Wall Streeters’ wet dream of a sale: Ferrari auction nets $46 million for 33 rare cars
On May - 22 - 2007
Ferrari hosted an exotic garage sale at its
factory outside of Maranello, Italy, this week, an event punctuated by a
record-shattering bid for a vintage car.Sotheby’s and automotive specialist RM
Auctions Inc. hosted the Leggenda e Passione, an auction of 33 rare Ferraris,
including a 1962 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa that sold for $9.275 million – the
biggest sale ever at public auction. When adjusted for inflation, the deal ranks
among the top five public sales, according to auction watchers.
Tags: Autos, Expensive Toys
Uncategorized
List of famous Harvard rejects includes Warren Buffett
On May - 22 - 2007
Other dissed applicants, according to 02138 (the independent magazine for Harvard alums), include Ted Turner, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and John Kerry.
Look Who Harvard Blew Off - Page Six New York Post
Tags: Harvard
