And a current and former Fed chair discuss legacies over IM.

GaldalFed: oof
GaldalFed: brutal
Maestro69: what?
GaldalFed: re: Krugman…
Maestro69: hold
GaldalFed: the post…about your FT thing
GaldalFed: k
Maestro69: no idea what you’re talking about
Maestro69: was the guttersnipe trying to blame me for that contracted period of economic dislocation? he needs new material
GaldalFed: it was in response to your FT op-ed saying we should repeal Dodd-Frank
GaldalFed: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/the-exceptional-mr-greenspan/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
GaldalFed: “Alan Greenspan continues his efforts to cement his reputation as the worst ex-Fed chairman in history”
GaldalFed: ouch
GaldalFed: not that we care what he thinks
Maestro69: is that a joke? you think I actually might? the only time that bearded fruit even registers on my radar is when I’m trying not to blow my load too fast and picture his face. he was of particular help the weekend I spent last summer at Buffett’s bunny ranch.
GaldalFed: ha
GaldalFed: you the man
GaldalFed: it’s kind of funny tho…
GaldelFed: how things have changed
Maestro69: sec
GaldelFed: k
Maestro69: back
Maestro69: what’s kind of funny
GaldelFed: oh just you know how when you were in office you had 3 staffers clipping all your glowing press or as you like to call them “blow j’s without clean up”
Maestro69: yes I remember that
GaldelFed: and now people are saying stuff about you like krugman
GaldalFed: and they’re saying I’m going to be remembered for saving the economy
GaldalFed: and that you’re an out of touch old man and it’s only a matter of time before you’re complete irrelevant?
Maestro69: lol Benji
Maestro69: first off, do you even know what the point of the FT op-ed was? it’s a little game I’ve been playing for the last couple years called:
Maestro69: FUCKING
Maestro69: WITH
Maestro69: PEOPLE
Maestro69: think about it, professor
Maestro69: what’s the true test of a baller? burning down the house and then not only not saying you’re sorry, but loitering in the rubble, inserting your two cents about how the rebuilding effort is a joke, pissing in their faces etc.
GandelFed: okay…
Maestro69: as for so-called “relevance”? you know how relevance is defined? In cheddar. Coin. Bills. And I don’t have enough g-strings to stuff mine.
Maestro69: I always have and always will own every bitch’s ass in corporate america
Maestro69: the paulson consulting isn’t the only gig I’ve got going, to say nothing of the 300 large I pocket every September for giving a 5 minute speech and sipping pina coladas headlining UBS conference’s in the Maldives
Maestro69: you know what’s in store for you when you finish your measly second term, which you only got because i said “give the kid a break”?
Maestro69: jack shit
Maestro69: no cushy gigs on the other side
Maestro69: you’ll be back to playing D&D with your fellow academics
GaldalFed: that’s not true
Maestro69: oh but it is, Gilligan
GaldalFed: you’re a jerk
Maestro69: preacha tellin’ the truth and it hurts!
Maestro69: as for the lack of love from the mainstream media?
Maestro69: I’m okay with your boy from Princeton maligning me in his little blog
Maestro69: Considering to this day I could submit an excerpt of my forthcoming memoir “If I Did It” or a play by play of me choking out the EIC of the FT before nutting in his eye and they’d print it, no questions asked.
Maestro69: remember that, bitch, when you’re scrounging around for loose change, or for a writeup of your autobiography.
GandelFed: I hate you.
Maestro69 has signed off

The Exceptional Mr. Greenspan [NYT]
Dodd-Frank Fails To Meet Test Of Our Times [FT]

Earlier: Fed Chairmen: They’re Just Like Us!
Scenes From A Bailout
Bernanke’s Big Moment

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Apple taught the tech world that going vertical — where a company owns many of the critical technology ingredients that it uses in its products — can result in big payoffs. Products like the iPhone and iPad are made with Apple software, chips, and hardware.

Because Apple succeeded so well with that vertical business model, other companies are following suit. Add to the fact that big tech companies are sitting on a lot of cash and you’ll find that the result is a merger and acquisition boom, said Frank Quattrone (pictured, left), head of merger advice firm Qatalyst Partners.

This is the phenomenon we wrote about on the triumph of vertical models over the horizontal model. In horizontal businesses, each company carves out a certain role. With the PC, Microsoft made the operating system. Intel made the chips. And IBM shipped the computer.

Now, Apple designs chips that it uses in mobile phones that run its own operating system. Microsoft makes its Xbox 360 hardware and supervises the design of its chips. Intel has broadened beyond chips with its purchase of software firms Wind River Systems and McAfee. And Oracle is designing hardware and chips thanks to its purchase of Sun Microsystems. Acquisitions across industries within the tech sector are now far more likely than ever before.

“In every category, you used to have one or two buyers,” he said. “Now that companies are buying across industries, there are many more potential buyers.”

That means the potential for merger mania is gathering steam. Quattrone talked about this trend in a conversation with venture capitalist Bill Gurley (pictured, right) of Benchmark Capital at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today.

Quattrone is known for his past jobs at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston where he played a big role as a financier of Silicon Valley. He helped Cisco, Netscape and Amazon.com go public. But then he got caught in a scandal that took him out of the investment-banking business. He was prosecuted for interfering with a federal investigation into how shares were allocated for IPOs. That led to a long legal struggle. The case was eventually dropped. Quattrone’s name was cleared, but his reputation was tarnished.

Quattrone said that, after his ordeal , that he did serious soul-searching. He thought about doing a private equity fund, shifting the green technology, or philanthropy. But he decided he had the most fun giving advice to tech companies considering merger and acquisition deals. That’s whats gives him a window into today’s M&A environment.

Tags: Mergers and Acquisitions, vertical integration

Companies: Apple, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Qatalyst Group, Sun Microsysetms

People: Bill Gurley, Frank Quattrone

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Bernanke Meets Buffett In Role Conceived To Protect Markets (Bloomberg)
Under the Dodd-Frank law, Bernanke’s Fed gains powers never before housed in one regulator. The central bank remains the supervisor of 5,000 U.S. bank holding companies and 830 state banks. “When the dust settled, Congress realized that Bernanke and the Fed knew what they were doing,” says Mark Gertler, a New York University economics professor who did research with Bernanke, a former Princeton University professor, on the causes of the Great Depression. “The power of any Fed chairman is ultimately based on the perception by Congress that he will use it prudently. He has this reputation.”

SEC Charges Wharton Buddies (WSJ)
Mr. Self regularly called Mr. Goldfield from his cellphone while going to and from work at Merck, the SEC said. In one conversation, Mr. Self said that “the weather was in the 50s” or words to that effect, conveying that Mr. Self’s company’s bid for MedImmune was going to be in the $50s, the complaint said. At the time, MedImmune shares were trading in the $30s.

Goldman Sachs Invests To Get Its Image Right In China (Telegraph)
In what is thought to be a rare move for the bank, Goldman used Brunswick to carry out a reputational study in China shortly after hiring the company to be its retained public relations firm in the country last October. The short-term project, the findings of which are not publicly known and are unlikely to be released, was ordered ahead of the bank’s civil fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the fallout which followed. Ironically, news of Goldman’s interest in its public perception comes as the latest piece of anti-Goldman literature has become a bestseller in China. Goldman Sachs Conspiracy, by financial journalist Li Delin, is said to have sold more than 100,000 copies since it was released on June 1, making it something of a hit. The content is inflammatory to say the least, with the book branding Goldman as having the “cruel nature of a Manchurian tiger,” and “the IQ of an Israeli Shar Pei dog.”

RBS Cutting 3,500 Jobs (UTU)
Rob MacGregor said: “The news that the Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut another 3,500 staff from across the UK is a horror story. It will be a specially bitter pill for staff to swallow as RBS has decided to move some of the jobs abroad to the Far East, India and America.”

Romer: US May Need Stimulus II (NYP)
Departing White House economist Christina Romer said the US must find the political will for more action, beating back the bugbear of high deficits in favor of a second stimulus bill that would boost the economy and create jobs. “We have tools that would bring unemployment down without worsening our long-run fiscal outlook, if we can only find the will and the wisdom to use them,” Romer said in a speech at the National Press Club. “The United States still faces a substantial shortfall of aggregate demand. GDP by most estimates is still about 6 percent below trend,” she said.

Lehman Says Two Units Need Help To Avoid Failing (Reuters)
Aurora Bank FSB, formerly known as Lehman Brothers Bank, has struggled to meet capital requirements as regulators have limited its ability to offer new certificates of deposit. The other banking unit, Woodlands Commercial Bank, faces similar restrictions from the regulator due to capital requirements, complicating efforts to sell the units.

3G Capital To Buy Burger King (WSJ)
The New York-based private investment firm is expected to acquire Burger King Holdings Inc. for $24 a share, people familiar with the matter said. The total deal, including both equity and debt, is around $4 billion. Banks are expected to finance about $2.8 billion of that sum.

SEC Probes Role Of Canceled Trades In Flash Crash (WSJ)
The SEC is seeking to learn whether orders known as “sub-penny pricing” are used to manipulate the market, a person says, which would be illegal. At issue is whether the practice could artificially torpedo stocks’ prices or help make it appear that there is more trading volume in a stock than there really is, allowing sellers to profit when demand for the stock appears elevated. The agency has identified about half a dozen investment firms to question regarding “sub-penny” orders, this person says, and the inquiry is expected to take months to complete. The firms identified aren’t necessarily suspected of wrongdoing, and it is unclear whether there will be a formal investigation.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

One of the hardest parts of being a hedge fund manager is coming up with new ideas. Not investment ideas but those related to explaining to clients, via letter, why last month/quarter/year went ass-bleedingly bad. There’s the challenge of generating new ways to describe the massacre (Sac-ripping, clown-facing, donkey punching, etc), the silver-lining (“Now hear the great news: we’ve turned every dollar you invested in the beginning of the year into 15 cents”), and, of course, the rationale.

The last couple years have made all of these tasks but the third in particular an extremely difficult enterprise. Stuff like “We lost it all but you can take solace in knowing it’s not us, it’s the market. The global financial markets are wrong, and we happy few at are correct, in a way that has yet to reveal itself but rest assured, is coming” is good stuff but at this point stale. Those taking pride in their missives re: what it feels like to be worked over with the spreader and truss bar for 85 straight trading sessions  know new material is necessary but what? Think, damn it, think, they say as they sit at their desks, knee high in redemption requests.

If you currently find yourself looking for some fresh ideas/excuses for upcoming love notes re: July losses, consider this one, courtesy of Patrick Evershed, which is really not half bad.

Patrick Evershed, a former New Star Asset Management Holdings Inc. fund manager, can proceed with a lawsuit over claims he was bullied by company founder John Duffield, a London court said. Evershed, 69, can pursue whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claims against the fund, a London appeals court ruled today. New Star had sought to dismiss the whistleblowing claim, which allows him to seek unlimited damages. Most U.K. unfair dismissal claims are capped at about 65,000 pounds ($101,000). Duffield “has been most vile to most of the fund managers for several years and bullying us,” Evershed said in a letter. “In particular he bullied me into reopening my fund. This destroyed the performance of the fund and my reputation.”

Former New Star Fund Manager Evershed Can Sue Over `Bullying,’ Court Says [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Bring it, little man.

“You know George [Soros] is someone we all have aspired to match his brilliance but I have to tell you, you have to remember something there, the richest people on the planet become socialist. Socialism is a great thing for George. I want to bring George down. I want George’s reputation. George is now embracing socialism. What is socialism? Socialism is when you build a moat around the castle. I’m spending all of my time trying to decide where I’m going to live because of taxes are so high in the country and less of my time trying to figure out how to surpass Soros and his reputation.” [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

While he’s not teaching GED courses to fellow inmates, doing laundry for the child molesters in his cell unit and dreaming about vodka-pissing statues, Dennis Kozlowski is busy trying to repair his reputation. He’s given interviews to Morley Safer and other journalists and has been a model prisoner since he was convicted of fraud in 2005.

Koz is also, apparently, reading books about himself and now he’s suing billionaire Steve Forbes for what he claims are false and defamatory comments in in Forbes’ 2009 book “Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels Between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today … and the Lessons You Can Learn.”

Koz is particularly miffed about about a line in the book that claims he “plundered” Tyco shareholders to “siphon off cash for himself.” He also takes issue with a the contention that he bilked investors out of $400 million when the court only ordered him to pay $100 million in restitution. WTF Forbes? Just because a jury convicted Koz of fraud doesn’t mean he really did it.

I think the jury got it wrong. I believe I earned those bonuses. I think I’m here simply because of the times. People lost money in the stock market in 2001 and 2002. Somebody had to be blamed for that. I became the poster boy for that. I still firmly believe I am not guilty of any crime that they’ve charged me with and that the jury convicted me of.

Forbes obviously thinks that’s total bullshit. “This is an absurd lawsuit,” Steve Forbes said in a statement. “Mr. Kozlowski’s reputation speaks for itself.”

The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory damages, plus punitive damages equal to triple the compensatory award. John Prevas, a faculty member at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and co-author of the book, is also a defendant. Koz will go before a parole board for the first time in April 2012. He was sentenced to between 8 and 25 years in jail.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

It would be an honor…

Good afternoon,

I am a current student at SU, studying Broadcast Journalism, Finance and Accounting.

While much of the reporting has covered the protests, not enough has focused on the support for Dimon. I am one of the handfuls who is in favor of bringing in Dimon as a speaker, because Dimon is a MUCH bigger name than speakers at other schools are. The quality of speakers at some other schools is not very high. The proof: Cantor is a sought after graduation speaker.

It boggles me why students want to make big deals about big people, i.e. Giuliani here years ago and Obama at Notre Dame. The job of the graduation speaker is to motivate and give advice on what is to come ahead. I had much rather spend my energies protesting if we got a nobody, which Dimon is not. Dimon is entertaining and charismatic. He is leading the Wall Street clean up from the bottom up!

An institution like Syracuse should be blessed to have Wall Street’s top leader speak. It is sad, that in today’s global climate, some students have pipe dreams of never joining the real world. Dimon will prove to be much more valuable than someone who would speak about, say, saving gorillas in Africa, which is what some students want.

Today, a group of students held a protest that has been publicized by various media, including CNBC, ABC News, and Bloomberg. I attended the protest, and it was extremely pathetic. There were a total of approximately 60 protesters, of which about 30 were undergraduates. The rest were random people who didn’t like big banks anyway. It was an epic failure. As an SU student, I know what our reputation is when it comes to partying. Sadly, this did not live up to worldwide expectations.

I’ve attached the pictures I took. Videos will come soon.

If you decide to quote or use my pictures, please credit me as, “Naresh Vissa,” junior finance, accounting and broadcast journalism major and Analyst at Syracuse University’s private investment fund, The Orange Value Fund.

Earlier: Syracuse University Students Under The Impression Jamie Dimon Is Not Good Enough For THEM (Update)

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker