Hedge funds, which even at their peak of popularity, were regarded with considerable suspicion, have taken a shellacking in the last few months as subprime tainted funds have folded or reported poor results, and “quant” strategies have failed spectacularly, due to extraordinary, allegedly unprecedented market turmoil. Of course, the problem with that defense is that […]
Read more...I’m a bit late to this item from today’s Wall Street Journal because I generally skip its softball CEO interviews. However, they do give corporate leaders the opportunity to make unwitting self revelations. Here, Estee Laude rCEO William Lauder demonstrates that he could use a primer on the basics of public ownership: On the external […]
Read more...Our colleague Susan Webber of Aurora Advisors has a new article, “Fit vs. Fitness,” in the current issue of The Conference Board Review. The editors were initially skeptical that anything new could be said on the subject of the glass ceiling, but this article persuaded them otherwise. We hope you’ll agree. She draws on personal […]
Read more...This Penn State study, reported at PhysOrg.com, ascertained that narcissistic CEOs gravitate towards bold moves, like big acquisitions or marked changes in strategy, which leads to more variable (although no worse on average) performance. The interesting thing about this finding is the disconnect between Wall Street pressures and boardroom hiring practices. At least according to […]
Read more...Although I haven’t followed the debate over New York-London market competitiveness that closely, it was clear when the study on the US’s standing was commissioned, the sponsors already knew what answers they wanted to report, and emasculating Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox or SOX) was an idee fixe. It didn’t seem to occur to people like Hank Paulson […]
Read more...If you are a public company, the odds say that buying another corporation is a bad idea. Academic studies have consistently found that most deals fail, and the reason most commonly cited it that the buyers overpay. Yet as with second marriages, the continued popularity of corporate M&A is a triumph of hope over experience. […]
Read more...In Saturday’s New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson reported that House Committee on Oversight and Reform had issued a subpoena to Towers Perrin, an executive compensation consulting firm, because it had failed to comply with an information request regarding potential conflicts of interest in its pay consulting business. Now because this was a news story, rather […]
Read more...Before readers get too excited, let me be clear: this post is to discuss what circumstances might lead Bear Stearns to cease to be an independent organization. It is not an attempt to forecast the likelihood of that taking place. Despite their considerable prowess, investment banks are fragile organizations. It took only one major scandal […]
Read more...By happenstance, I came across a document, “Fixed Income Overview” from a May 29, 2007 Bear Stearns Investor Day presentation by Jeff Mayer, Co-Head of Global Fixed Income, and Tom Marano, Global Head of Mortgages and Asset Backed Securities on the Bear Stearns website. It’s a fascinating bit of reading and some parts are particularly […]
Read more...While it’s no news to anyone in M&A land that CEOs have considerable incentives to do deals, it’s nice to see that the wider world is taking notice. The dirty secret is that, at least the way the comp consultants cut the numbers, CEOs of bigger companies get paid more. So when a CEO winds […]
Read more...Mark Thoma quotes a Washington Post op-ed piece by Daniel Gross that gets worried about the current and prospective level of foreign ownership of US businesses: …In countries that are resource-rich or export powerhouses, governments and government-controlled entities have amassed huge pools of capital. A report issued last month by Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Jen […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reported on what appears to be a partial rebuttal by Wal-Mart of charges made by Julie Roehm, its deposed marketing executive. A quick recap: Roehm was ousted last December. She sued for breach of contract and unfair dismissal. Wal-Mart counterclaimed, asserting that she had had an affair with a subordinate, taken […]
Read more...An article in the New York Review of Books, “The Specter Haunting Your Office,” discusses three books, one by Louis Uchitelle, The Disposable American, meaning the disposable employee; one by Greg LeRoy, on the way corporations play states and muncipalities to extract economic concessions; and one by John Bogle, on “managers’ capitalism” and how it […]
Read more...Confession: I have a weakness for certain types of trash, and one category I enjoy is tacky corporate litigation. What constitutes “tacky” is very much in the eye of the beholder, but I particularly enjoy seeing the aggressor hoist on his own petard. And it’s even more fun when the party that overplayed its hand […]
Read more...This post from Conglomerate (a blog I generally like) is an articulate rendition of an appallingly conventional line of thinking: This Sunday’s Washington Post featured a story on the increase in socially responsible investing over the last decade…. According to the Washington Post, over the past decade the number of socially responsible investment funds has […]
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