Influence Tartare
Article :
December/January 2009
At the capital's favorite steak emporium, deals are what's for dinner
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All Princely Sums Welcomed
Article :
November 2008
When do you know you’re in a seriously bad way? When it appears even a billionaire Middle Eastern investor and his $250 million wallet can no longer help you. Today, the huddle begins at Citigroup’s headquarters among its embattled CEO Vikram Pandit, chairman Sir Win Bischoff and independent director Richard Parsons, but on the heels of a stock drop of roughly 50% this week to a 15-year low, what are their options? A closer look at the possible fate of a bank that’s gone from a towering market cap of $274 billion to, just yesterday, $26 billion. Will they successfully make the 11th-hour save – or will they get Bear-Lehmaned?
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Yahoo’s CEO: The Yin And Yang
Article :
November 2008
In Chinese philosophy, the “yin and yang” are used to describe how seemingly opposing forces are bound together, intertwined, and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. We don’t really care about that. We just want to know whether the departure of Yahoo! Inc. CEO Jerry Yang means Microsoft has another shot at the Internet giant – or at least perhaps Google or AOL have some hope of a tie-up. A closer look at why Yahoo’s stock is up and running today and just who might end up filling Yang’s big shoes.
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There’s Nothing They Like Better Than A Good Probe
Article :
October 2008
As tiny Porsche nearly puts a hammer lock on the sprawling empire of Volkswagen by tapping into loads of sophisticated derivatives instruments, one securities regulator gets particularly antsy about whether market manipulation is at work. Here’s how the luxury carmaker made like a hedge fund – even at the expense of the hedge funds themselves – in an acquisitive stealth play that’s as impressive as it is risky.
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Wreck Dive in La Romana
Posting :
Travel
:
10/13/2008
There are so many underwater destinations that boast coral reefs, colorful fish and high visibility. You might have to spend some time on a plane and commit a few weeks of your life, but you'll get there. To find a truly unusual underwater experience, you'll have to look a little harder. Before steeling yourself for several long fights, though, check a little closer to home. The Dominican Republic is only a few hours away by plane, so you'll spend more time with a tank on your back and mask on your face.
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Lehman Aftershock Rages On
Article :
October 2008
An auction today may define the total size of payouts buyers of default protection are entitled to in the wake of Lehman’s bankruptcy filing. If Lehman's $128 billion of bonds were trading yesterday at an average of 13 cents on the dollar (which they were) does that mean credit swap sellers must pay 87 cents on the dollar?
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Lehman Makes Its Case
Article :
October 2008
As Bank of America shows its tender underbelly in the form of a profit and dividend cut and Citigroup and Wells Fargo cool their respective heels in the fight over Wachovia in a two-day truce, a new theatre of battle is opening up over Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. Should he be taken to the tool shed over allowing the bank to pay more than $23 million to three top executives on the cusp of the firm’s implosion?
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Costa Rica
Posting :
Travel
:
09/25/2008
Livin' la "Pura Vida"
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Where the Buffalo Roam
Article :
September 2008
Engage in a round of Western-style capitalism at these seven magnificent new residence resorts.
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And What about Congress?
Article :
September 2008
Did you think it was going to be this easy, Hank and Ben? Sure some Democrats have fought for socialism for years, but your version? They’re not quite buying it. However, some in Congress are finally starting to get it when it comes to a simple trading concept… Risk/Reward. If the taxpayers are taking the risk, shouldn’t they be rewarded if this “cacata carta” (for all you Latin geeks who read Catullus in high school) makes money? I think everyone would be up for that.
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‘Bad Bank’: One Step Closer To Reality?
Article :
September 2008
One truism of dealmaking is, if you make a bet and you’re wrong, you get punished. However, it seems that the powers that be have decided to put subprime wagers in a category all their own, as markets threatened to seize up for the foreseeable future in one of the scariest financial debacles witnessed since the Great Depression. Here, the full explainer on why the great and the good may wipe as much as hundreds of billions of losses off banks’ balance sheets, in exchange for, well, nothing, really. Just the tacit promise that banks and capital markets will make an attempt to get back to business. But is this a risk that everyone (taxpayers and banks alike) are willing to take?
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Going Posto
Article :
September 2008
Mario Batali's Del Posto is bustling, but tucked away in private rooms, the wheels of commerce turn quietly.
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Pallin’ With Palin
Article :
September 2008
Looks like Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin has done its intended job of upending just about everything (as the following Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggests). So, just how much closer is Palin’s hubby to making his world championship snow machine-racing a national pastime?
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Back In The Saddle
Article :
September 2008
British Energy sent Electricité de France packing when EDF first proffered £12 billion for the company in July – an amount deemed to be too low. But it turns out EDF won’t be so easily dissuaded. A sneak peek at how, investor by investor, it’s beginning to make headway.
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Montreal: Far Away Is Closer Than You Think
Posting :
Travel
:
08/11/2008
When the grind of the trading desk has you itching to get on the road, you don't need to plan an escape of several weeks. For a quick weekend out of town or a longer retreat from the pressures daily life, Montreal may be the answer. Put yourself in a completely different environment for a little bit without turning your life upside down, and you'll find your sanity return in no time.
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Waxing Roman
Article :
July 2008
As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asked Congress for seemingly unlimited powers to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing, anyone happen to notice all the references to the “last days of the Roman Empire” suddenly popping up in headlines and newspaper copy across the nation? Yeah, us too.
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Part II of III: Walk in the Shoes of the Next Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World
Posting :
Mark Whistler
:
07/07/2008
Will "For Real" Williams talks about his fight and boxing all around...
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Wolfe On Wall Street
Article :
June 2008
Excerpt today from The New York Times: Returning Monday afternoon to Manhattan from South Hampton on the Hampton Jitney, [Tom Wolfe, author of “The Bonfire of the Vanities”] said he was mesmerized by what had happened to Wall Street in the last year. “Nobody understands where the actual value is — and they don’t care anymore,” he exclaimed. More from the man who’s pronounced we “may be witnessing the end of capitalism…”
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Top 10 Deal Spots
Article :
June/July 2008
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Libor (Magically) Ticks Up
Article :
May 2008
Wow, whoever guessed that could happen after one little Wall Street Journal study? Funny how once everyone notices the emperor has no clothes, he somehow instantly gets himself a membership to Laura Ashley. Here, a closer look at the biggest Libor move in more than two weeks.
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San Francisco: Active Escapes
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http://www.dealmakerdaily.com/travel/sanfran_activeescapes.html
Credit Crisis: Closer To Closing In On A Near-End?
Article :
May 2008
Lo, a brighter crunch picture awaits! Whatever that is. We know it; we feel it…it’s coming. We are not carrying on. You clearly don’t have our keen grasp of the complex, interlocking financial mechanics at work here. When UBS sells $15 billion of mortgage assets to BlackRock and announces job cuts of 5,500 by mid-2009 (as detailed in the following piece) that’s merely the sweet remedying of a gangrenous one-off. This is the rise of the fall. Legends of the rise. It is almost upon us. The definitive (possible) near-ending of the end. You heard it here first.
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San Francisco: Active Escapes
Posting :
Travel
:
05/05/2008
The combination of deluxe food and golf makes San Francisco a weekend wonderland.
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Deutsche Bank: Uh, Wasn’t It Priced In?
Article :
April 2008
It seems that everyone knew this was coming – wasn’t it just yesterday that the bank grabbed headlines for purportedly looking to get shareholders on board for a capital-raising effort? And yet its stock falls today on its first quarterly loss in five years. (Who on earth was holding shares with it in mind that that wasn’t going to happen? Talk about not getting the memo.) Here, we offer up the damage report, which, believe it or not, has a Swiss silver lining.
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What About Bob?
Article :
April 2008
It is a weekday, and you know what that means: more less-than-auspicious bank news. Sorry. However, most of it is coming from across the pond: Deutsche Bank looks ready to ask its shareholders for a green-light to raise EUR17 billion in capital; Royal Bank of Scotland is likely to cut roughly 7,000 jobs; and the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, HBOS, is finalizing plans to launch an $8 billion rights issue. Whew. Now for Citigroup, where market observers are increasingly asking how the bank ended up in such a fix under the guiding hand of none other than Robert E. Rubin, its executive committee chairman. To his credit, Rubin is not entirely mealy-mouthed, responding, “I’ve thought a lot about that…” Behold, a closer look at the unfolding of recent events.
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Merrill And TPG, Sittin’ In A Tree…?
Article :
April 2008
There was a lot of talk yesterday at Merrill Lynch’s annual meeting. CEO John Thain talked about how the bank’s shareholders were using the benefit of "20/20 hindsight" to bash its directors over the credit cataclysm. He also talked about how difficult it was to measure what risks the bank was/is/will be exposed to. But he didn’t breathe a word of the really big news out today: a bit of under-the-radar chit-chat, apparently, between Merrill and a certain gigunda private-equity firm. But other people in the know were talking about it plenty. Here’s what they’re saying.
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You Do Not Snub Microsoft; Microsoft Snubs You
Article :
April 2008
Stamping its little foot (possibly) Microsoft makes like Air France earlier this week (when put off by Alitalia) revealing a glimpse of sour grapes. Issuing fiery oratory from Milan, Steve Ballmer held the line on the price being offered for Yahoo and said Microsoft is "prepared to move forward alone without Yahoo.” Is this just the usual dealmaking bombast – or could it be an indication that Microsoft is truly reconsidering?
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New Rules: Sell The Rumor, Buy The Fact
Article :
April 2008
If everything on Wall Street has gone arse-backward and pear-shaped, is it any wonder that the usual trading tenets also have reversed? A closer look at why investors are still reacting positively to the steady procession of bad news streaming from banks such as JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Wachovia and – very possibly on Friday – Citigroup.
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Yahoo (Officially) Dating Other People
Article :
April 2008
Will Yahoo make good on its threat to hook up on an ad deal with Google? Will Microsoft get jealous (of course it will be jealous, but will it show it with a new, angrier ultimatum)? And will any of it make any difference in the end game? Some market observers are saying that despite steps Yahoo and Google have taken in recent days to up the ante, there’s nothing much they can get up to (at least, under the terms they’re discussing) that could permanently thwart Yahoo’s bloodthirsty suitor. Unless, Yahoo uses the Google deal as leverage to cement a merger with somebody else (hello, are you listening, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL?) Plus, there’s that other bit of gunpowder Yahoo will be keeping dry until next Tuesday…
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Fired? Maybe It’s Time To Let That In-House Designer Go…
Article :
March 2008
And you really don’t need a gardener when you live in Manhattan, do you? For the one shrub? Really, it’s not that serious. Obviously, you can’t fire the butler – who answers their own front door anymore? And, while it will hurt, the damask valences and Swarovski planters will have to wait. An insider’s look at how New York’s various champagne dealers and personal wotsis have been utterly orphaned by Wall Street’s outbreak of pink slips. Both a cautionary tale and (we must admit) good read.
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JPMorgan To Sweeten Bear’s Honeypot?
Article :
March 2008
While the rest of the world obliviously celebrated Easter, JPMorgan execs were sweating the detail of a certain Bear Stearns bid, which, first set at $2 a share, may now be quintupled to $10. Surely, this would result in Bear shareholders feeling a bit rosier about things, if not the top brass at JPMorgan. But after several days of frenetic, secret, late-night dealings, the Fed is balking at upping the ante. Why? Because, it’s already agreed to back $30 billion of Bear’s most toxic assets with taxpayer money – isn’t that plenty? The big concern: Wither the public backlash? Bear stockholders’ answer: Let them eat Easter eggs. Who will win this war?
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Bone To Pick
Article :
March 2008
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon may have prevailed in the first round of the great Bear hunt, but he’s going to have to fight a lot harder to keep everyone else on Wall Street from picking the meat off these bones. From contending with U.K.-born billionaire investor Joseph Lewis (the largest – and, we are guessing, the most nonplussed – of the Bear Stearns shareholders) to retaining the felled bank’s most talented staff, he’s truly got his work cut out for him. Good thing he thought to bring that multibillion-dollar war chest…
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Microsoft Still Gooey On Yahoo
Article :
March 2008
High-ranking executives from Yahoo finally deigned to meet with Microsoft’s top brass to discuss the proposed merger that’s now become M&A’s latest elephant in the room. (This, only after Yahoo had meetings with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit and News Corp.) As a demonstration of how this was so totally not meant to be a buyout negotiation, no bankers attended the meetings (though they did have wire taps, just in case…kidding). So what exactly took place? Here’s what we do know.
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Google: One Step Closer To ‘Digital Colossus’?
Article :
March 2008
World domination is clearly nigh for the Internet titan, as it receives a key approval for an acquisition that will bolster its clout in the $37 billion online advertising market.
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Deal-A-Meal: Top Chefs, Miami
Article :
March 2008
We sussed out three deal-friendly choices in the city of fun and sun.
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Microhoo Shuffle
Article :
February 2008
Maybe Microsoft thinks it’s getting closer to putting Yahoo in a hammer lock, but here’s why time – and history – are not on its side.
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Sky Captains And World Of Tomorrow
Article :
February 2008
The Old Testament prophesied that the world’s takeover would begin with the skies. Okay, that is total malarkey. But it’s not going to stop us from getting excited about the Delta-Northwest merger-of-behemoths that, according to press snitches, just moved one step closer to fruition. Hopefully, this brings us one step closer to selling our now-gathering-dust idea for interstellar double-wide airplanes with swank bars, dance floors and sound-proof sleeping cars. Hey, it could happen.
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‘Aging Is Not For Sissies’
Article :
February 2008
Blackstone’s billionaire co-founder Pete Peterson may have raked in $1.8 billion from the private-equity firm’s initial public offering last year, but do not envy him. The 81-year-old points out that his shoulder aches from a recent fall and his blood pressure is up, which keeps him awake at night. And now, in this condition, he endeavors to not only start a new foundation with his riches, but also convince Washington that keeping its hands off controversial tax breaks – specifically the one that applies to his firm – is the right thing to do.
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Deal-a-Meal
Article :
February/March 2008
Three deal-friendly choices in the city of fun and sun.
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All Fun And Games Until The FBI Shows Up
Article :
January 2008
As we’ve mentioned, we’re not big fans of Federal Bureau of Investigation probes. Too often, they involve criminal inquiries into companies that we like (in this case, we can’t even say if we like them, however, as the FBI won’t tell us who it’s targeting). But we do know the investigation concerns allegations of mortgage fraud, which could very well spill over into banks. More on how this action will jibe with the other probes into the mortgage business by the SEC, Justice Department and the New York Attorney General.
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The Big Chill
Article :
January 2008
Even for those who are awash in the necessary capital required to undertake weighty acquisitions right now, equity-valuation goalposts are moving around so much and so violently that no one really knows what anything is worth anymore. A closer look at what that will mean for specific, multibillion-dollar deals hanging in the balance.
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Lone Star’s Long Shot?
Article :
January 2008
Lone Star Funds, the Dallas-based buyout firm, is taking a closer look at distressed German banks. But when these victims of the subprime meltdown are still hemorrhaging losses by the billion, is it really wise to pick this time to go bargain-hunting?
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What You Still Aren’t Doing Right
Article :
January 2008
…Dressing for success, apparently. There is no dearth of magazines and style swag out there telling you to do this or don’t do that. So what is your excuse for those bizarre zoot suits and unsightly tube socks? (What are you, 49 – or 85?) Some tips from the experts as well as former corporate fashion victims on how to easily project the image you’re after while pulling yourself from that hell and damnation that is sartorial purgatory.
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Bank Welfare?
Article :
January 2008
We were just watching the rerun of an old TV show in which beggars take over a town. In it, one man tries to escape from a rooftop where he is hiding with friends by running through the crowd of hobos to a waiting bus. The hobos demand his pocket change and, after a while, he relents. Then he remembers he needed that change – to pay his bus fare. Moments later, we see him casting about in the sea of hobos, asking for his change to be returned to him. His friends, looking on through a pair of binoculars sigh, saying, “It is too late – he has become one of them.” Kind of reminds us of what’s happening now on Wall Street as banks beg off the cash-flush foreign investors. Today, we add two more global institutions to the list
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‘Fake’ Alpha May Be Closer Than It Appears
Article :
January 2008
As bonuses get finalized, the rants have begun to surface over how to best assess a banker’s performance – and whether he/she has truly generated alpha based on that rare ability to uncover diamonds in the rough that produce outsized value, or just bush-league beta returns bogged down by tail risks. One analysis from the Financial Crookery blog.
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Little Bank, Big Trouble
Article :
January 2008
What happens when a regional bank more accustomed to making money off plain-vanilla loans and deposits decides to dabble in oh, say, the subprime market? A whole lotta’ pain. Learn a lesson from the travails of Cleveland’s National City Corp., the 15th-largest U.S. bank by stock-market value – for now, anyway.
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French Connection
Article :
December 2007
Air France-KLM has been granted eight weeks of exclusive access to Alitalia to bag a deal – but the obstacles are great, as nationalistic clamorings for a strictly Italian hook-up (read: no intrusions from France – or any other country) intensify. Will the airlines have their druthers before time runs out?
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Slow Boat To Fame, Fortune
Article :
December 2007
Well, to fortune anyway…(We hear there’s a fast boat to fame, if you’re not opposed to humiliating yourself. But who has the luxury of that anymore?) For family-owned newspaper owner Freedom Communications, it appears credit-market tribulations have thrown a wrench in the funding of its planned deal involving minority partners Blackstone and Providence Equity, in addition to would-be financer GE Capital. A closer look at what took the bloom off this rose.
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Super Bowl Showdown 2007
Article :
December 2007
Think you’ve got what it takes to beat your Wall Street brethren? This week’s results get you that much closer to finding out. You may be just a few steps away from winning up to $10,000 in Super Bowl prizes, or two, impossible-to-get tickets to the game.
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M&A advisory work could shrink 40%
Article :
December 2007
Senior investment bankers say they maintain optimism for next year, but don’t expect mergers and acquisitions advisory work to reach this year’s level.
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