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Why Do Weather Reporters Need to Stand IN a Hurricane to Report on It?
Do we really need Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, and Brian Williams in Louisiana when they could cover the hurricane and the RNC at the same time? Plus, all your daily finance, real estate, law, and media news.
Posted 09/02/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Developer Mark Mariani Shows Off His Own Personal Walden
The New Yorker treats us to a surreal tour of the land of hedge funds.
Posted 08/18/08 in Daily Intel : Cultural Capital
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Jonathan Adler Helps New Yorkers With Their Decorating, and So Much More
Bare walls? Tacky linoleum? Gay husband? The interior-design maven shares his expertise.
Posted 08/07/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Hedgies of the Apocalypse
As the markets decline, hedge funds like Philip Falcone's and John Paulson's still manage to rake in the dough.
Posted 07/22/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Horizon Strategy’s John Devaney Says He Is ‘Bleeding, Personally’ After Loss of Hedge Fund
Clearly, he doesn't know Daily Intel's golden rule. That and more, in our daily roundup of need-to-know news from the fields of finance, media, law, and real estate.
Posted 07/10/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Harbinger Capital Founder Philip Falcone Will Always Be ‘A Little Iron Ranger’ to the Folks Back in Duluth
The hedge-fund "big shot" gets taken down to size by his hometown newspaper.
Posted 07/09/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Samuel Israel’s Lost Weekend
The missing hedge-funder decided that jail would be better than camping.
Posted 07/03/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Ralph Cioffi Hangs On to His Dream House
The indicted Bear Stearns hedge-funder may lose almost everything, but he won't lose that tony Hamptons address.
Posted 06/23/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Samuel Israel’s Escape Plan Appears To Fall Apart
As long as he stays in the area driving his big honking RV around, the hedge-fund swindler is bound to be scooped up by the fuzz. Or will he?
Posted 06/20/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Where in the World Is Samuel Israel III?
Unlike Carmen Sandiego, the former hedge-fund manager hasn’t supplied fun little clues or entertainment in the form of Rockapella (the FBI is pissed about this).
Posted 06/16/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Hedge-Fund Maybe-Suicide Detective Has A Lenny Briscoe Moment
Cracks a joke at the crime scene.
Posted 06/10/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Daily Intel: STCU (Special Taste Crimes Unit)
We're in a recession, and the ultrarich are spending money like it's, well, going out of style. Spending one's own money, you might say, is not a crime. But as far as we're concerned, bragging about it to the 'Times' should be.
Posted 04/14/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Vagilante Scott Galloway Crashes Onto ‘Times’ Board
Holy moly! We thought it would never happen. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has loosened his viselike grip on the Times and agreed to give Scott Galloway a seat on the board. In case you missed it, Galloway (shown in a picture we can not get enough of) is a former ZBT frat boy who reportedly refers to himself a "vagilante," and the founder of Firebrand partners, a hedge fund that, along with Harbinger Partners, recently amassed a 12 percent stake in the Times. The two groups were leveraging said stake to get four seats on the Times board; however, Sulzberger gave them only two. Still, the Times itself points out, this is the first time the family given seats to people nominated by outsiders since 1967, so it's nothing to sneeze at. Galloway will occupy one of the two seats; the other will be occupied by James Kohlberg, the chairman of Kohlberg & Company, who was also nominated by Firebrand/Harbinger. Harbinger's Philip Falcone, who recently bought Bob Guccione's mansion, was not invited. The hedge funds have said that their aim is to get the Times to sell off some of its smaller assets (shares in the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Globe and smaller newspapers, and buildings like maybe even their headquarters) and focus more on digital media. Presumably, they also think they should drop the bridge column, but we're just guessing. Times Co. To Give Seats to Hedge Funds [NYT] Earlier: Intel's coverage of Scott Galloway
Posted 03/17/08 in Daily Intel : Ink-Stained Wretches
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Pinch, Feeling the Pinch, Agrees to Meet With Harbinger Nominees
Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger and the board of the New York Times have agreed to meet with four nominees being put forth by Scott Galloway, of Firebrand Partners, and his partner, Atlanta-based investment firm Harbinger Capital, Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed to the AP today. Up until now, the board has declined a meeting with the activist shareholders — who earlier this month announced they'd like the Times to cut several small businesses from their portfolio and build up their online operations — and have essentially ignored the nominees they proposed adding to the board, swashbuckling former ZBT brother and Red Envelope founder Galloway included. This is likely because Sulzberger was thinking something along the lines of, "What the eff does an ex–frat boy b-school professor with a moderate-to-undistinguished investing record know about the newspaper business? Fuck 'em!" But over the past month, the firm has amassed a somewhat terrifying 19 percent stake in the Gray Lady, and now, apparently, Pinch & Co. don't feel they have a choice. The Times' annual meeting is set for April 22. N.Y. Times to Meet With Board Nominees [AP]
Posted 02/27/08 in Daily Intel : Ink-Stained Wretches
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Two Manhattan Hedge Funds Face Off in Cold War Over Software
Cue "Goldfinger"! Manhattan-based hedge fund Elliott Management Corp and rival hedge fund Cedar Hill are embroiled in a drama with Bondian overtones. Elliott, which is helmed by longtime Giuliani moneyman Paul Singer, claims it “unearthed” a “secret conspiracy” within Cedar Hill, in which a rogue Elliott employee acted as "double agent," their court filing says, and schemed with Cedar Hill to steal the microfilm! Or, you know, the proprietary trading software Elliott developed to help analyze loans, bonds, and related instruments for trading in collateralized debt obligations. “Cedar Hill’s illicit conduct is nothing short of an overt act of corporate espionage,” Elliott alleged. Secret conspiracies! Double agents! Espionage! Collateralized … debt …obligations? It's just like a spy movie! Only more boring. Elliott Management Sues Rival [Forbes]
Posted 02/27/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Scott Galloway Raises Stake, Prepares to Plunge It Into Heart of ‘NYT’
FINANCE • Ah, so that's where all the G5s on the Teterborough tarmac were headed! The private-equity world descends upon Munich for the annual spectacularly named Super Return conference. [DealBook/NYT] • Vagilante Scott Galloway and Harbinger Capital Partners raise their stake in the Times to just over 19 percent. [NYP] • Hey, everyone! Hedge funds are a risk to the entire financial system! No duh. [Business Week]
Posted 02/26/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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There's No Crying in Hedge Funds (or, There Shouldn't Be)
Poor Mark Fishman. His Stamford-based hedge fund, Sailfish Capital Partners, exploded spectacularly last month, culminating in an ugly shouting match between Fishman and his founding partner, Sal Naro, and the loss of billions of dollars. ("It's basically mayhem,” one insider told FinAlt at the time.) Bummer, yes. But did the former SAC golden child have to cry about it, in public? Quoth the Gray Lady:
On Monday Mr. Fishman, 47, sat in the paneled Princeton Club of New York, explaining what it was like to battle the markets—and lose. “It feels like someone has died,” Mr. Fishman told The New York Times, his eyes welling up. “We’ve disappointed people, and there is no one more disappointed than me.”
It's not that we don't feel sad for Fishman, who has clearly been humbled by his losses. “It’s that sad dawning when you realize the market is so much bigger than you are,” he told the Times. Also, we appreciate the fact that after working at SAC for seven years he remains human enough to cry actual tears. But, dude: Crying in front of a reporter is okay when you have a limb blown off or, yes, lose a loved one, and it does wonders when you are running for president. But you don't cry when you are rich and other rich people take some money away from you. Buck up! You still have your big old house in Westport, don't you? Tough Times for Big-Name Funds [Dealbook/NYT]Posted 02/12/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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A Harbinger of Things to Come? Hedge Funds Increase Share in ‘NYT’
Avast! According to documents filed with the SEC, Firebrand Partners and Harbinger Capital Partners, the hedge funds seeking to put their nominees on the board of the New York Times, have increased their stake in the paper to 9.8 percent. (It was previously reported they owned 4.9 percent). We're no good at math, but we'd say that there's a 90 percent chance that soon enough, Firebrand's vagilante founder Scott Galloway will be sitting on the board, breathing his fiery Johnny Walker breath all over Arthur Schlesinger and Times chief executive Janet Robinson. Hedge Funds Lift Stake in New York Times [WSJ] Earlier: Vagilante Shareholder Scott Galloway Takes on the ‘Times’
Posted 02/11/08 in Daily Intel : It Just Happened
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Have You Heard? There's a New Economic Freak-out Happening!
FINANCE • William A. Ackman of Pershing Hedge Funds got everyone freaking out about bond insurers by issuing a report yesterday afternoon predicting that MBIA and the Ambac Financial Group might just lose $24 billion on mortgage investments. “Here comes Ackman at the 11th hour upsetting the apple cart,” Douglas M. Peta, chief market strategist at J.& W. Seligman & Company, told the Times. “I don’t think anybody has really thought it all through, but we all understand the implications of real trouble in the bond insurers could be far reaching.” [NYT] Related! MBIA announced a $3.5 billion write-down this morning. [CNN] • Wharton is still the number-one place in the universe to pick up an MBA. [FT] • Following in the steps of other CEOs with giant mortgage-related losses, Merrill won't give its top brass any bonuses. But they will give them stock options "to promote the continuity of the management team as they continue to navigate through challenging market conditions in 2008." That's one way to hang on to staff. [Reuters]
Posted 01/31/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Timothy Sykes: ‘The SEC Are Rapists’
So, we don't really know anybody at the Securities and Exchange Commission. But, statistically, we'd bet that they're mostly not sexual criminals. They're busy. But former hedge-fund manager and Internet hero Timothy Sykes begs to differ. "The SEC fucked me," he told Dealbreaker.com. "The SEC are rapists. And everyone who's been raped by them is too scared to come forward." Wow. In addition to the grammatical conundrum that this statement raises (is it, "The SEC is a rapist"?), there's the whole point that the SEC is basically out to protect the little people. You know, the ones who are the most rape-prone? But we're arguing a small point here. It's Friday, and you need someone in the financial world to ridicule who isn't your own money manager. Tim Sykes—Find Him Under ‘RichAssJew’ On MySpace — Says We Should Consider Ourselves Lucky He Closed His Fund, Otherwise We Never Would Have Heard About Him*, And What A Pity That Would’ve Been [DealBreaker] Related: Has Every Wall Streeter Gone Insane? A Graphical Guide
Posted 01/25/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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