From Silicon Alley Insider, Oct. 16, 2008:Google will report Q3 earnings this afternoon after the close. We
will provide live analysis here beginning at 4 p.m. …
Daily Archives: October 17, 2008
Dow Jumps 400: Final Hour Kind to the Bulls, for a Change
The Dow traded in a nearly 800-point range. Traders emotions swung from cautious greed to abject fear and back to greed again. Yep, Thursday was just another typical day on Wall Street.After the failure of an early morning rally effort – which flew
Sales and subpoenas for Lehman
An auction of Lehman’s Neuberger Berman unit and other investment management bits and pieces moved closer yesterday with bid procedures getting clearance from a New York judge.
Private equity groups Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman agreed last month to purchase Lehman’s prized asset management unit for $2.15 billion, and they will be the lead bidders at an auction for the unit in December.
In a status update prior to the judge’s ruling, Lehman’s lead attorney, Harvey Miller, said prosecutors had opened three grand jury investigations into the investment bank’s demise. The New York Post reported that disgraced CEO Dick Fuld is among 12 Lehman executives being subpoenaed. Fuld, questioned by a U.S. congressional panel earlier this month, denied deceiving shareholders.
Politicians and the public are calling for heads to roll on Wall Street. Looking into Lehman are federal prosecutors as well as at least one state attorney general. And the FBI is in the early stages of examining mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group, which were bailed out by the government after getting caught in the credit crunch.
Did anyone actually understand the rocket science behind the engineering of the credit default swaps and other complex financial tools that blew up behind the scenes? If not, then it might be a hard sell to convince anyone that investors were intentionally misled.
In the brave new financial world that emerges from the chaos of the ‘08 crash, will Wall Street executives be expected to understand everything their firms are doing? Sounds reasonable, if unlikely.
Deals of the day:
* The credit crisis has forced Dutch builder Royal BAM Groep to put on hold its plan to sell its 21.5 percent stake in Dutch dredger Van Oord, BAM said.
* Japanese trading house Itochu Corp and six Asian steelmakers have agreed to jointly buy a minority stake in Namisa, an iron ore mine owned by Brazilian steelmaker CSN, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.
* San Miguel may bring in foreign partners in a bid for a 40 percent stake the Philippines is selling in oil refiner Petron Corp, the president of Southeast Asia’s largest food and beverage firm said.
* India’s Tata Sons has been in talks to buy a stake in AIA, a major Asian unit of American International Group, according to sources close to the matter, as the U.S. insurance giant seeks to sell assets after nearly collapsing last month.
Microsoft Loves Yahoo; Loves Yahoo Not?
Steve Ballmer is either playing the spoiler to those AOL-Yahoo
McCain vs. Obama: They Can Debate All Night, But Neither Can Save the Economy
Next to character issues, the economy and its affect on Joe the Plumber was the No. 1 topic during last night’s presidential debate.It’s no wonder why: “I think everybody understands at this point that we are experiencing the worst financial crisis s
Google Q3 Preview: Another Pie in the Face?
From Silicon Alley Insider, Oct. 16, 2008:Google reports Q3 results this evening after the close.
The good news: Google has a better chance of surprising on the
upside this quarter than last quarter, because expectations are so low.
In fact, Wall Stree
Yahoo Flies as MSFT’s Ballmer Teases: ‘Deal May Still Make Sense’
From Silicon Alley Insider, Oct. 16, 2008: Is Steve Ballmer just trying to torture the already-tortured Yahoo sharholders? During a keynote at the Gartner ITxpo, the Microsoft CEO said a deal between the two companies would “still make sense ec
Longtime Bear Todd Harrison Turns Bullish — for a Trade
Having been preaching defensive and the benefits of cash for the past year, you’d think Todd Harrison would be doing victory laps right now as the market meltdown continues.Instead, the CEO of Minyanville. …
Google Answers the iPhone
From All Things Digital, Oct. 15, 2008: In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option. But