$$$ Deals: Paced by the Pit, Paper, and Pepsi
In our M&A Roundup for the week ended March 23, M&A volume doubles as the three biggest deals bring new owners for the New York Merc, Weyerhauser assets, and a Russian juice brand. [CFO.com]
$$$ Welcome to t…
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(March 25, 2008 03:45 PM, by Bryan Caplan) Here’s Richard Posner being unusually blunt and insightful even for him:From the standpoint of most teachers, right up to and……
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That used Bear Stearns tee-shirt that some guy in Ohio won four years ago and used to work out in sold on e-Bay for $151.76. Still up for grabs: a Bear Stearns cafeteria card, football, windbreaker and pen, plus Jimmy Cayne’s roach clip and favorite grav-bong.
Sold! Bear Stearns T-shirt gone for $151.76 …
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The market’s reaction to Bear Stearn’s demise has been impressive. The stock market story has been well-covered, but the credit market story is really the one to watch.Right now we have two major themes in the credit markets. The first is a real economy recession, with a very weak housing market at its epicenter. The second is a battered financial sector, where strained capital and fear of spiraling contagion has caused a dearth of liquidity….
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When Bear Stearns looked like it would go for $2 a share, there was a lot of sympathy for investors who stood to lose tremendous amounts. Employees—who own about a third of Bear—faced not only losing their jobs but their savings as well. So when they gnashed their teeth and hollered that their firm was being stolen by a conspiracy led by the Fed and carried out by JP Morgan Chase, it was just plain polite not to point out that their firm was on the verge of bankruptcy, that its failures had arguably put the larger financial system at risk and that what little they were getting was the result of a government-led bailout.
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Merrill Lynch has big plans to layoff ten to fifteen percent of its investment banking staff over the next week or so, according to DealMaker. The cuts are said to affect employees low and high, and may be related to a big writedown MER’s got in the hopper. Any connection between the 300 pink slips and the pink tops s…
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Merrill Lynch has big plans to layoff ten to fifteen percent of its investment banking staff over the next week or so, according to DealMaker. The cuts are said to affect employees low and high, and may be related to a big writedown MER’s got in the hopper. Any connection between the 300 pink slips and the pink tops s…
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(March 25, 2008 12:55 PM, by Bryan Caplan) One of Robin Hanson’s greatest unpublishable papers has finally been published. "Showing That You Care: The Evolution of Health Altruism"……
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(March 25, 2008 12:55 PM, by Bryan Caplan) One of Robin Hanson’s greatest unpublishable papers has finally been published. "Showing That You Care: The Evolution of Health Altruism"……
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More auction rate securities lawsuits are hitting the courts. A lawsuit was filed today in federal court in Manhattan alleging that Morgan Stanley “deceptively marketed” auction-rate securities as cash alternatives, Market Watch is reporting.
“Instead of disclosing the true nature of ARS and the substantial liquidity risks associated with them, Morgan Stanley continued to push as many ARS as possible onto its customers in order to unload the inventory off its already troubled balance sheet,” the lawsuit said.
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(March 25, 2008 12:20 PM, by Bryan Caplan) Yesterday I did a 10-minute interview in my office with self-experimentalist and diet guru Seth Roberts. Today he blogged it:My……
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It might seem like we’re cynical, unfeeling assholes over here but I would just like to point out that we see the silver lining in every situation. For instance, tensions are running high at JPMorgan and Bear Stearns, and Jamie Dimon had to work on a holiday that he doesn’t actually celebrate, and thousands of people are going to be fired but there’s still money to be made. Enter: the little pool we’ve had going on here since the whole BSC thing went down, regarding when the ‘r’ word would be dropped. I said before this week was up, Carney said May 16th. I won ten bucks today when “Huffington Post” blogger Jill Brooke wrote that Jamie Dimon “was able to financially rape Bear Stearns employees with a bargain basement bid sanctioned by the Treasury Department that wiped out years of deferred compensation.” The fact Blarney’s annual take home is now in my pocket is pretty nice but it’s not the most exciting part. We didn’t even have money riding on this but were extremely pleased to see Brooke upping the ante and reporting that Dimon’s attempts to bar other banks from hiring away BSC employees who still have their jobs before the deal is completed is an act of “enslavement.” She seems to get a little confused, though, and later refers to the slaves as “refugees” but that’s a minor detail (which she should go back and edit). Anyway, take back the night rally tomorrow at 383 Madison. I’ve donated half of my winnings to paint and poster boards, the least you can do is come up with some good slogans. …
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A new survey of investment consultants reveals a significant split between the views of large and small players….
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I won’t say I predicted it, but I did, in fact, predict it.
Yesterday, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) announced that it will increase its bid for Bear Stearns (BSC) from $2 a share to $10 a share.
Last Wednesday, I wrote.
I would say that the most likely outcome is that JP Morgan will sweeten the offer. To add some context, it’s really not that much for JPM. The company’s market value has already increased by $20 billion this week. The offer for Bear will cost JPM $236 million. What’s the big deal if it doubles or even triples the offer? Plus, it could win JPM some goodwill.
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President o’ France Nicolas Sarkozy want the banks to have a frank discussion about their favorite sexual positions. Kidding, of course, but only about the sex; they really do want to get a candid dialogue going in the next couple weeks regarding how many billions of dollars in bad debts the various financial institutions ‘round the world have hanging on their books. Citi should probably start. In related news, nude photos of Sarkozy’s wife are being auctioned at Christie’s April 10th.
By Priya Nigam Companies across the globe are struggling with high raw material prices. With steel prices skyrocketing, it has become imperative for companies manufacturing steel products to capitalize on global demand opportunities. One company that is proving its mettle is Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Limited (WGSRL). …
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By Vipin Agnihotri It’s official; Indians are the world’s top remitters. According to latest World Bank report, India received a whopping $27 billion in remittances, beating the likes of China and Mexico. Point to be noted here is that the inward remittances to India has more than doubled from about $12.89 billion in 2000 to $27 billion in 2007. …
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Personal income advanced with more employment.…
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Those of you seeking solace in the news that Jamie Dimon had to forgo his alleged Easter Sunday ritual of egg-dying and chocolate noshing are SOL: though the JPMorgan CEO played a rather convincing martyr when he told a fellow diner at San Pietro that he would be “working” over the holiday, there were two Jews he wasn’t able to fool. Jesus and myself. Jamie Dimon is Greek Orthodox. So while it might’ve seemed like a huge sacrifice to the untrained eye that the new of king Wall Street had to miss the big day in order to renegotiate the Bear deal and oversee the carpets being ripped up from Jimmy Cayne’s office, it wasn’t, ‘cause his Easter’s not ‘til A…
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The Real Story Wrap, March 25
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