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  • Can Merrill make it out alive?

    Posted Jul 29 2008, 02:02 PM by Todd Harrison
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    One of the would-be good guys on Wall Street has now taken a hit to his reputation and maybe dropped the last bomb that could sink the Street. Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain was initially greeted as a savior. He was supposed to have all the tools and magic (and maybe even some snake oil) to save the world’s largest brokerage firm.

    The job is on-going but going to be more difficult in spite of or because of news released last night: Merrill Lynch will attempt to raise $8.5 billion in new capital.

    In order to pull this off the company went back to Temasek (Singapore), which will buy $3.4 billion of the new offering, expected to be as much as 200 million common share. Management is going to purchase 750,000 shares, too (I feel better already). Moreover, the company also sold mortgage backed assets with a notional value of $30.6 billion for $6.7 billion and will finance 75% of the purchase (Heck, I should have picked up some of that paper).   Read More...

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  • Maybe the dumbest deal ever

    Posted Mar 25 2008, 03:58 PM by Charley Blaine
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    Al Copeland died on Sunday. You might not know the name. In Louisiana and certainly around New Orleans, he was about as well known as anybody both for the chicken you can get at Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, the chain he started, and for his lavish, complicated and exuberant lifestyle.

    He liked getting married. But all four of his marriages ended in divorce -- often acrimoniously. He liked Christmas. His house along Lake Pontchartrain in Kenner, La., was so lit up with lights at the holidays that airline pilots would use it to line up their approaches to the airport.

    He liked fast cars and fast boats. He carried on a fun feud over the decor of one of his restaurants with no less than Anne Rice, the author of "Interview with the Vampire."   Read More...

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  • The financial industry: Yeah, it's that bad

    Posted Jan 18 2008, 04:12 PM by Matt Koppenheffer
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    Earnings have been pouring out of the financial sector all week and the picture hasn't been pretty. "Write-down" has commanded a starring role in this quarter's earnings reports dashing ahead of "earnings per share" as what investors seem to care about the most.

    Citigroup, whose stock just can't seem to find a bottom, seems to have been the worst of the bunch. In an interesting twist, much of the pessimism over the company's quarter came because Citigroup only wrote down some $18 billion and didn't propose as many job cuts as the market was hoping.

    CAPS still rates Citigroup just two stars out of five, but there has been some bullish sentiment after the company's earnings release. Michaelkoh1 rated Citi's stock an outperformer and noted that "2007 will be tough, and there will likely be more pain for equity investors as the financials muddle through this year, but this is a strong diversified franchise and will outperform the market over the next 2 to 4 years."   Read More...

    Discuss ( 9 comments) 26,945 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this