Jimmy Cayne Closes on Sweet Plaza PadFormer Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne is apparently feeling pretty mellow about the fact that Bear Stearns stock is at an all-time low; the 74-year-old bridge-master and alleged pothead and his wife, Patricia, just closed on not one but two adjacent apartments at the Plaza for $28.24 million. Altogether, they’ll have 6,000 square feet, plus room service, maid service, and unparalleled views of Central Park. Yeah. And if you think that sounds sick, you should check it out after a few hits of the Purple Haze. Neighbors include foundering real-estate developer Harry Macklowe, Tommy Hilfiger, and a noted egg lover Joanna Cutler. Which reminds us: Cayne might want to be careful when he’s all stoned up and taking out the garbage. We hear that the trash room on that floor can be kind of a bad trip.
Posh Plaza Purchase [PageSix.com]
Earlier: Joanna Cutler Reunited With Egg After Horrifying Ordeal
company town
Imus Sucker Punches BrokawMEDIA
• Don Imus on Tom Brokaw: “He is not the most courageous person I’ve ever met in my life. He’s not the guy I’d want to be in a foxhole with.” You see, Brokaw didn’t defend Imus when he was down-and-out because of the whole “nappy-headed-hos” incident. Resentment, now that takes courage! [NYP]
• Shocker: CNBC is actually scared shitless of Fox Business News. They’re now asking guests to choose sides, threatening to drop them if they dare to appear on Murdoch’s new down-home network. [Silicon Alley Insider]
• Veteran literary agent Lynn Nesbit wants a new publishing madman: “Even [former Simon & Schuster CEO] Dick Synder is a lot more colorful than [newly departed Simon & Schuster CEO] Jack Romanos, who is now gone. I mean, they had passion, they cared about literature. Even Dick, who’s not an intellectual. He cared. He was a madman … . Who is a madman now in publishing? … It was just different then.” Hi, Lynn, allow us to introduce you to our favorite publishing madwoman, Judith Regan. [Media Mob/NYO]
white men with money
Cayne & Co. Will Not Bogart the BonusesChristmas is a time for giving, and lest we forget, it is also a time for sacrifice. This year, James Cayne and the other top executives at Bear Stearns are making the ultimate sacrifice: They’ve decided to forgo their year-end bonuses. Because they have enough money? Because they decided to donate it to the children of Darfur? Because J.C. hit it big at bridge? Eh, no. Ostensibly this decision has come about because they’re gearing up to announce some pretty shameful fourth-quarter results tomorrow, and after losing $1.6 billion in investor money this year, pocketing what little is left would look kind of bad. So instead they’re divvying up the small pool left over from what they didn’t blow on subprime mortgages and giving it to players in the firm in hopes that they don’t jump over to, say, Goldman Sachs.
Bear Stearns Chiefs to Skip Bonuses [WSJ]
Update: It’s a trend! After announcing a $9.4 billion writedown, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack is foregoing his bonus, too. Somewhere, Zoe Cruz is snickering.
company town
Hedi and LVMH: Together at Last!FASHION
• Hedi Slimane is back in talks with LVMH to launch his own fashion house. Everyone, commence jumping up and down. [WWD]
• IMG is behind Bravo’s new model show but won’t be giving the winner a contract. [Fashionista]
• Not even Cavalli can rev up H&M’s sales. [NYP]
company town
Al Gore: Cashing In on His Big YearFINANCE
• Al Gore, venture capitalist? The Nobel laureate and Apple board member is taking a hands-on role at Kleiner Perkins, the leading Silicon Valley venture firm. His goal: Save the world. And annoy GE’s Jeff Immelt as much as possible. [Fortune]
• Harvard picked Robert S. Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs vice-chairman, as the new steward for the $35 billion endowment. Something tells us his kids won’t have any trouble getting in. [Reuters via NYT]
• A few management consultants with nothing better to do gave the Times its newest buzzword: CEO version 3.0. With the departures of Stan O’Neal, Chuck Prince, and Richard Parsons, it’s now time for leaders “who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet.” Because, as James Cayne showed, the old CEOs were way too bebop. [NYT]
company town
The Bancroft Family High Jinks: Ongoing!MEDIA
• The Bancrofts are so dysfunctional that they missed the deadline for choosing their representative to the new Dow Jones board. Murdoch then vetoed two family nominations before agreeing to Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year-old opera singer and journalism neophyte. Family member Crawford Hill concluded: “This entire, sad and pathetic final episode is a fiasco. No wonder we lost Dow Jones!!” [WSJ]
• With the Times hiring former sex writer Susan Dominus as the newest “Metro” columnist, will the section be heading toward the look of “Sunday Styles”? [NYO]
• Nora Ephron: Blogging makes us better writers. Hey Nora, can you call our boss? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
white men with money
Jimmy Cayne Just Wishes Everyone Would Chill Out Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne has sent out a company-wide e-mail, defending his conduct personally and professionally against yesterday’s Wall Street Journal profile that portrayed him as a stoner and kind of a dick (But in an awesome way.) DealBook got ahold of the e-mail: “I remain, as I have been for many years, intensely focused on our business,” Cayne wrote. “Don’t be distracted by the noise. I am certainly not.” Soon after the memo was sent, Bear Stearns employees heard strains of Pink Floyd’s “Hey You” emanating from the corner office.
white men with money
Jimmy Cayne Suddenly the Coolest Guy in SchoolIt turns out that we weren’t the only one who found Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne strangely charming in the Wall Street Journal’s supposed “takedown piece” on him this morning. “He’s a pothead who likes to enjoy a fat spleef as a way of relaxing from tournament level bridge. You don’t get much cooler than that,” said Salon. “It’s unbelievable. The phones are ringing off the hook, and everyone wants to play golf with me now,” Cayne told CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino. Yeah, dude. We’d like to play golf with you, too. Especially if by “play golf” you mean, get ahold of some chemdawg and do bong hits while watching Planet Earth.
Jimmy Cayne Is Suddenly a Very Popular Guy [Dealbreaker]
Earlier: The ‘Journal’ Knows What Jimmy Cayne Did Last Summer (and It May Have Involved the Wacky Tabacky!)
white men with money
The ‘Journal’ Knows What Jimmy Cayne Did Last Summer (and It May Have Involved the Wacky Tabacky!)
Since sub-prime losses forced Merrill’s Lynch’s Stan O’Neal to step down earlier this week, Street watchers have been sharpening their knives and turning a leery eye toward those other CEOs whose tenure has become questionable. Generally, we’re all for it. Bring the pain! But this morning’s rehashing of Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne’s dubious behavior during last summer in the Wall Street Journal left us confused. Sure, Cayne spent much of worst crisis in the firm’s 84-year-history on the links, and he’s a dick for firing his second-in-command for not being in the office during said crisis, even though the dude was with Cayne at the time, at a bridge tournament in Nashville. But he seems generally well liked, and dare we say awesome? To wit:
Investment-firm chief Alexandra Lebenthal brought her 11-year-old son to visit Bear a few years back. She says she introduced him to Mr. Cayne, who pulled her aside and said, “That kid’s got a rotten handshake. He’s going nowhere in life.”
And!
Attendees say Mr. Cayne has sometimes smoked marijuana at the end of the day during bridge tournaments. He also has used pot in more private settings, according to people who say they witnessed him doing so or participated with him.
At a time when the culture of finance is such that young associates are too uptight to grow facial hair for cancer, a 73-year-old pothead seems like something the Street can’t afford to lose. To paraphrase Geri Halliwell, our head says Jimmy Cayne must go, but our heart wants him to stay!
Bear CEO’s Handling of Crisis Raises Issues [WSJ]
company town
Did Aaron Charney Only Get 100K From Sullivan?LAW
• Will Aaron Charney ever have to work again? More than likely — he may not have gotten more than $100,000 in his sexual-harassment settlement with Sullivan & Cromwell. [PrawfsBlawg via Above the Law]
• Should law schools be more like business schools? One law prof thinks so, and he looks a little like Justin Timberlake, so he must be right. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Do Cravath’s two rounds of bonuses signal Big Law strength and more money for associates, or is the firm just hedging so they aren’t locked in to paying the same amount next year? [NYT]
in other news
Things Get Hairy on Wall Street
With the sub-prime debacle, the barons of Wall Street have learned a lesson about risk. But there’s a chancy new fad on the horizon they might not be able to resist. Aaron Perlut, the co-founder of the American Mustache Institute, issued a warning in the morning’s Wall Street Journal:
“You’re definitely out on a limb when you grow a mustache, especially a flamboyant one, and if you do, you always run the risk that people will think you’re going too far.”
That’s right, folks! Tomorrow begins Movember, a monthlong Australian contest which encourages businessmen grow mustaches, or “mos,” in order to raise funds for prostate cancer. This is the first year that the contest has come to the U.S., but it seems that New York’s finance guys might be a little too uptight to, ahem, “sport a mo.” The Journal points out that none of the chief executive officers at the top-ten Fortune 500 companies have mustaches — although we imagined what some of them would look like if they did, above — “and for young professionals seeking to follow in their footsteps, growing one may seem like a step in the wrong direction.” Take the experience of Christopher Doyle, a 26-year-old audit assistant at Deloitte & Touche, who was given a “gentle reminder” to shave after only two days of work. Well, that’s Wall Street for you. Clean-cut at the office, drag and nipple clamps at home.
Growing Facial Hair for Charity [WSJ]
Movember [Official site]
company town
‘Times’ Laughs in Morgan Stanley’s Face (Well, Back)MEDIA
• Marcus Brauchli remains top editor at the Journal, but there’s a growing sense of inevitability that Robert Thomson, Sunday Times of London editor and Murdoch “old boy,” will challenge him for the position. (Related question: Does Murdoch have any “boys” who are not “old”?) [NYO]
• The Times’ third-quarter earnings almost doubled analysts’ expectations, giving the paper a chance to gloat about the big hit Morgan Stanley took a week ago by selling its stake in the company. [NYT, DealBook/NYT]
• Rick Reilly, previously the highest-paid writer in the history of Time Inc., will get $2 million a year for five years at ESPN. Who knew wussifying sports would pay so well? [NYP]
company town
Stephen Colbert Backlash: The Fall’s Hottest TrendMEDIA
• The American version of the Guardian hits our shores! [Guardian via Gawker]
• Stephen Colbert is leading Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel in national polls; the media backlash has already begun. [WP, HuffPo, Gawker]
• ASME announced the finalists for the 2007 best magazine cover. They must have missed the backlash memo: Colbert is featured three times, more than any other star. [ASME]
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Falling Glass a Metaphor for Bank of America’s Finances?FINANCE
• The debris falling off the new Bank of America tower at 42nd Street may have been metaphoric. The firm just reported steep losses, and their wannabe investment-banking unit, set to anchor the new tower, performed the worst. [MarketBeat/WSJ, Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Congrats, James Cayne — nobody wants anything to do with Bear Stearns. Contrary to reports, both Warren Buffett and China’s Citic Bank denied any interest in the bank. [DealBook/NYT]
• Today’s the real anniversary of the 1987 stock-market crash, but at least one veteran thinks parallels to the present are overblown. “The market is just like generals — everyone prepares for the last war.” [MarketBeat/WSJ]
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Bear Stearns, Really Into BridgeFINANCE
• Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, ranked 611 in the world at contract bridge, fired Warren Spector, ranked in the top 225, for his role in the subprime crisis. Spector, a co-president at Bear, who took home $37 million, spent a whole two weeks at a bridge tournament in Nashville, while Cayne made do with a mere two days. Meanwhile, the firm announced 310 job cuts. [Bloomberg, DealBook/NYT]
• Merrill Lynch canned three top executives before even disclosing its own subprime losses, which could exceed $4 billion. Dow Kim, the former co-head of institutional securities, Osman Semerci, global head of fixed income, and deputy Dale Lattanzio were all shown the door. [WSJ]
• Zoe Cruz, co-president of Morgan Stanley, is the highest paid woman in America. At least there’s good news for somebody! [CNN, WSJ]
company town
Bear Stearns Execs Cashed Out Before Stock DroppedFINANCE
• James Cayne and three other top Bear Stearns execs cashed out $57 million in stock before the bank took a nose dive, pawning off $16 million in losses on regular investors. [TheStreet.com via DealBreaker]
• With Ellyn McColgan’s departure, Fidelity president Rodger Lawson has gone from new guy in town to likely successor. [Boston Globe via DealBook/NYT]
• Blackstone raised $21.7 billion for its latest private-equity fund. Apparently drumming up the last $6 billion was pretty tough. Cue the violins! [Deal Journal/WSJ]