People
FeedNomura's Joseph Mezrich sees market rally continuing as profits recover
Anthony Massucci
Nov 6th 2009 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Retirement, Company News, Columns, Economy, People, Investing, Earnings
Bears who warn the U.S. stock market has gone too far too fast -- the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 18 percent year to date -- may not get much vindication anytime soon. Investors should see stocks continue to rally as long as corporate profits keep recovering, says market expert Joseph Mezrich (pictured), Nomura Securities International's head of quantitative research.And the signs look good. The estimated earnings growth rate for the Standard & Poor's 500 during the fourth quarter is 216 percent, according to Thomson Reuters. Even stripping out the volatile financial sector, the other eight out of nine sectors are expected to show a blended growth rate of 7 percent. But that's still double the 3.5 percent economic growth of the U.S. economy in the third quarter. And Mezrich says it's the fact that profit growth is outpacing the U.S. economy that stocks have rallied ahead of an economic recovery.
The goofy Galleon gang: Wacky hedgies play cops and robbers...with real cash!
Bruce Watson
Nov 6th 2009 at 2:30PM
Filed under: Economy, People, Investing, Media
As the full extent of the Galleon Group's insider trading comes to light, its story is starting to resemble something out of the movies. Although Raj Rajaratnam's house has already been compared to the homes in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas, the sad truth is that the real-life criminal ring lacks both the class of Tony Soprano's gang and the gravitas of Joe Pesci's. As details emerge, the whole mess seems to fall closer to the cartoonish excess of Animal House.The central member of the gang -- the Otter, if you will -- may well be Zvi "The Octopussy" Goffer. Robert Khuzami, director of the Securites and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, noted Thursday that Goffer got his James Bond–originated nickname "because of his reputation for having arms in so many sources of inside information." Goffer used his web of spies to cut trades both at Galleon and at his previous employer, the Schottenfeld Group.
FCC's Steve Waldman: Point man for fixing the news business
Jeff Bercovici
Nov 6th 2009 at 1:00PM
Imagine being asked to solve a problem so difficult that the smartest people you know have been trying to figure it out for months, even years, without getting anywhere. Now imagine doing it with one metaphorical hand tied behind your back.That gives you an idea of the challenge Steven Waldman faces in his new job as the Federal Communications Commission's designated deep thinker on the future of media. As a special adviser to Chairman Julius Genachowski, Waldman will be asked to assess the health of the news business and come up with recommendations for improving it -- without exceeding the agency's relatively narrow charter.
Jobless rate at 10.2 percent, and it's likely to stay high for months to come
David Schepp
Nov 6th 2009 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Company News, Economy, People
It finally happened. After months of anticipation and trepidation, the nation's unemployment rate inched into double digits, reaching 10.2 percent in October, after employers cut 190,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday. The increase topped analyst expectations of 175,000 lost positions and a rise in the jobless rate to 9.9 percent. But now that the 10-percent mark has been breached, what does it mean for investors, and more important, those looking for work?
Daily Blogwatch: The best-performing S&P 500 stock since Obama was elected
James Altucher
Nov 6th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Columns, Economy, People, Investing, Earnings, Media
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Good thing the FTC is protecting us from those monopolistic robber barons in the pretzel industry.
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Hedge fund manager James Matthews really hates me.
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Sheldon Dorf, founder of sci-fi, fantasy convention Comic-Con, dies
Bruce Watson
Nov 5th 2009 at 8:00PM
Filed under: Technology, People
Sheldon Dorf, the founder of Comic-Con, an annual comic book, science fiction and fantasy festival held in San Diego, died of complications related to diabetes Wednesday. Dorf, who was 76, was also a freelance writer and a letterist, but was best known for founding the convention -- the largest such event in the Western Hemisphere, bested only by France's Angoulême International Comics Festival.Spanning four days and attracting tens of thousands of attendees, Comic-Con was the second festival that Dorf created. When he was living in Michigan, he mounted the "Detroit Triple Fan Fair," a local gathering for comic book fans. The DTFF continued after Dorf left for California, but it never reached the level of pop-culture relevance attained by Comic-Con.
Skype soap opera ends as founders set to regain stake ahead of $2B sale
Sam Gustin
Nov 5th 2009 at 7:59PM
Filed under: Company News, People
Memo to would-be Silicon Valley moguls: do not double-cross a pair of highly litigious billionaires.After weeks of back and forth legal jousting, the tech heavyweights fighting over Skype are set to announce a deal in which the founders of the popular Web-calling service would regain a stake in the company they sold to eBay (EBAY) in 2005 for $2.6 billion, according to Bloomberg. Nice trick.
The pact ends an at-times vicious soap opera replete with accusations of back-stabbing, dishonesty and outright theft against Mike Volpi, the pair's one-time Golden Boy, who they believe double-crossed them. The legal circus held up eBay's proposed $2 billion sale of Skype to a consortium of private investors led by Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, the investment firm of Marc Andreessen, the billionaire co-founder of Netscape.
Secret global trade talks spur civil libertarians' outrage at Obama
Sam Gustin
Nov 5th 2009 at 7:15PM
Filed under: Technology, Economy, People
Civil liberties and consumer groups are furious at President Barack Obama for supporting secret international trade negotiations that could wind up rewriting U.S. copyright law. At issue is the International Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which various nations have been hammering out this week at secret talks in Seoul, South Korea. Earlier this week, negotiation materials leaked out of the hush-hush hearings, shocking and alarming civil libertarians and privacy watchdogs.The groups, which include some of the most influential voices on internet policy, voiced "deep concerns about the lack of transparency and openness" in a letter sent to Obama on Thursday, the day the parley is set to wrap up.
Blockbuster employee stabs himself to avoid getting fired
Bruce Watson
Nov 5th 2009 at 6:30PM
Filed under: Economy, People, Blockbuster
On Monday, Aaron Siebers limped into his job at a Blockbuster (BBI) video store in Edgewater, Colo. Bleeding from a deep stab wound in his lower leg and superficial cuts on his face and body, he claimed that he had been assaulted by three "skinheads or hispanic males" who were "dressed in black." Local law enforcement agencies sprang into action. Five area police and sheriffs' departments sent units to the scene and scoured the neighborhood in search of evidence. Deploying K-9 units and setting up a perimeter to catch potential suspects, they soon discovered that the local Target, near the scene of the assault, had a battery of surveillance cameras.
Relief comes to the unemployed and to homebuyers
David Schepp
Nov 5th 2009 at 5:00PM
Unemployed workers facing the loss of their benefits have a little less to worry about. On Thursday, a bill passed by lawmakers in the House of Representatives allowed for an extension of those benefits. The legislation also expands an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and gives business owners affected by the economic downturn a tax credit.
The measure passed the House by an overwhelming margin -- 403-12 -- and now goes to President Barack Obama to sign, which he has said he would do as early as Friday. The Senate passed the bill 98-0 on Wednesday. It extends a lifeline to jobless Americans who would otherwise see unemployment benefits disappear starting next month.
Oprah Winfrey will end her syndicated show, report says
Jeff Bercovici
Nov 5th 2009 at 3:45PM
Filed under: Company News, People, Media
Oprah Winfrey has been the queen of all media for most of the 23 years she's been on the air. But it looks like she's about to pull a Howard Stern -- packing up her free, over-the-airwaves broadcast and taking it to a more exclusive venue. According to Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke, Winfrey is days away from announcing her decision to end her syndicated talk show with plans to resurrect the show on cable after the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN. The Oprah Winfrey Show would cease to exist in its current form in mid-2011, when her syndication deal with CBS Corp.'s (CBS) CBS Television Distribution expires.
Galleon insider trading case widens, 14 people charged
AP
Nov 5th 2009 at 11:45AM
Filed under: People
Federal prosecutors say criminal charges have been filed against 14 people, including attorneys and Wall Street professionals, in a widening $25 million insider trading case that has already snared one of the richest men in America.According to court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Zvi Goffer operated an insider trading network in 2007 and 2008 that included a lawyer who fed tips gleaned from his firm's work on acquisition deals.
Beatles vs. the Web: EMI sues music pirates, unveils Fab Four on USB drive
Sam Gustin
Nov 5th 2009 at 10:00AM
Filed under: Company News, Technology, People, Media
And so it goes on: the interminable wait for a deal that would make the Beatles music available on the Web. Instead, Apple Corps. Ltd., which manages the Beatles' legacy, and EMI, the band's record label, have announced the release of a limited-edition USB flash drive preloaded with Beatles songs for $280, just in time for the holidays.Call it Beatles on a stick.
Separately, EMI has filed a lawsuit against BlueBeat.com, a heretofore obscure website, claiming it has been illegally selling songs by the Fab Four. The label has accused BlueBeat of "shocking," "willful," and "overtly defiant" conduct, and accuses it of participating in one of the largest piracy operations on the internet. BlueBeat has denied the charge by saying it is protected by its "psycho-acoustic simulation" -- whatever that is.
Bank analyst Richard Bove, sued but unbowed, strikes again
Tim Catts
Nov 4th 2009 at 6:10PM
Veteran Wall Street analyst Richard Bove caused quite a stir among bankers last summer with a research note that called out 24 mostly small and midsize financial institutions. Bove said they were endangered by rising levels of delinquent mortgages and other toxic assets. The decision to publish that research has cost Bove plenty. One of the banks he identified as troubled sued him last July. To protect his firm, he quit and joined another company, and he has since been shouldering a monthly legal bill of some $50,000, he says. But he's not backing down. Indeed, in a new report sent to clients Wednesday, he sought to show that most of the banks he criticized more than a year ago haven't fared well since.
How Google's CEO Eric Schmidt keeps the company on the righteous path
Peter Cohan
Nov 4th 2009 at 5:15PM
Filed under: Technology, People, Google , Microsoft
Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at MIT this afternoon. He had some interesting things to say about the company's place in the world -- and how Google can continue to follow its golden rule, "Don't be evil."
Schmidt came to MIT to honor the memory of one of my MIT professors, Dr. Michael Hammer, who, as I wrote earlier, tragically passed away about 14 months ago. Hammer was most famous for co-authoring Reengineering the Corporation, along with my former boss, James A. Champy. But Hammer received tenure as a computer science professor at MIT before he became a management guru.
Why 10% jobless rate means misery for many, buying opportunity for some
Walmart slams lid on customers' creepy online reviews of its caskets
Just how dangerous are stimulus-driven deficits in the long run?
