iBankCoin
Home / Drama (page 9)

Drama

$HLF Pops 7% as Dan Loeb Buys Stake In the Company

“A huge hedge fund war is breaking out between two of the richest and most famous hedge fund managers in the world.

The battlefield? Herbalife, the distributor of its own nutritional products.

Hedge funder Bill Ackman is famously short Herbalife, likening it to an illegal pyramid scheme, which he hopes/expects the government will go after.

Today it’s been revealed that hedge funder Dan Loeb has now gone LONG Herbalife, taking a massive 8.2% stake.

The stock has spiked on the news.

Ackman first announced his short with a dizzying multi-hour presentaiton that he delivered near the end of December.

The premise of the short was that the stock was a pyramid scheme, and that the government could be induced to inveestigate the company, causing it to go to zero…”

Full article and presentation 

Comments »

$BA Looking for a Huge Rock: Another Dreamliner Grounded in Second Incident

“A Japan Airlines Boeing 787 that was to fly to Tokyo was grounded in Boston Tuesday following a fuel spill, one day after another plane of the same type suffered a fire, government officials said.

“Japan Airlines flight 7 was leaking fuel as it was about to take off,” said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for Massport, the local airport authority. Around 40 gallons of fuel spilled, according to Brelis.

Since the incident around midday, the spill has been stopped and the tarmac cleaned up, Brelis added.

The plane is currently being analysed and the reasons for the problem are not yet known, said a spokesperson for JAL….”

Full article

Comments »

The World’s Top 28 Banks Will Be Given 3 More Years to Address Transparency Regarding Risks on the Books

Source 

“LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s top banks have three years to build up a single picture of all their risks to help make the wider financial system safer, global regulators said on Wednesday.

“The financial crisis that began in 2007 revealed that many banks, including globally systemically important banks (G-SIBs), were unable to aggregate risk exposures and identify concentrations fully, quickly and accurately,” the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said in a statement.

G-SIBs refers to the world’s top 28 banks like Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley which are required to undergo closer scrutiny and hold extra capital from 2016.

Such banks operate globally with many branches and subsidiaries, making it harder and costlier to have a single snapshot of risks.

The Basel Committee, which groups regulators and central bankers from 27 financial centers, set out principles these banks must implement in full by January 2016 to strengthen their aggregation of data on risks.

“These principles are a significant step towards improving banks’ risk management capabilities and they will also contribute to G-SIBs’ resolvability, hence reducing the potential recourse to taxpayers,” Basel Committee chairman Stefan Ingves said.”

Comments »

$GOOG & $FB May Face New Restrictions in Euroland on Mining and Selling Customer Data

“BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Internet companies such as Facebook and Google may have to get more permission to use information if European Union lawmakers give users more control over their personal data.

EU lawmakers want to limit companies’ ability to use and sell data, such as internet browsing habits, to advertising companies, especially when people are unaware their data is being used in such a way.

“Users must be informed about what happens with their data,” said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Member of the European Parliament who is driving the reform. “And they must be able to consciously agree to data processing – or reject it.”

Facebook and Google, who were among the first to profit from users’ data, have been lobbying against the curbs. Other data-reliant sectors such as health services, rail and smart-meter makers have also voiced concerns.

Albrecht, a Green politician, plans to announce on Wednesday a plan to make sure users of search engines and social networks can control how much of their data is sold to advertisers.

A report he produced, which was seen by Reuters, builds on a proposal announced by the European Commission last January for tougher data protection….”

Comments »

CHARLIE SHEEN: L.A. MAYOR ‘LIAR,’ WE DRANK, PARTIED FOR HOURS (Video)

“TMZ: Charlie Sheen is calling out L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa … claiming he was flat-out LYING when he said he spent ONLY 3 minutes with the actor in Cabo — Charlie says the Mayor hung with him for hours, chatting it up and drinking with a bunch of hot chicks.

Mayor Villaraigosa told NBC 4 L.A. … his encounter with Charlie was no big deal, saying, “I had a three-minute conversation and took a picture with him, that simple…. I take a picture virtually every single day, 50 times.”

But Charlie says the Mayor is shoveling BS. Charlie tells TMZ … the picture was actually shot in Charlie’s hotel suite at Hotel El Ganzo, where Charlie had just opened his bar, Sheenz earlier in the evening…”

Full article and video

Comments »

United Finds Dreamliner Wiring Problem

“United Airlines found improperly installed wiring on one of its Boeing Co. BA -2.67%787s, as operators of the new jet inspected their fleets after Monday’s electrical fire on a Japan Airlines Co. 9201.TO +1.07% Dreamliner in Boston, according to a person with knowledge of the U.S. carrier’s actions.

United examined electrical components associated with the auxiliary power system, or APU, inside a small compartment underneath the cabin of the Dreamliner, an area known as the aft electrical-equipment bay, the person familiar with the inspections said.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered an onboard fire soon after passengers and crew had left the plane at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Monday. Another Dreamliner hassle is the last thing airlines that are big buyers of the aircraft want to see. Jack Nicas has the latest on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

The person said United found an improperly installed bundle of wires that connect to the APU battery, equipment that JAL and fire officials said ignited the blaze on the Dreamliner parked at Boston’s Logan International Airport after passengers had deplaned.

The scrutiny of the Dreamliner after a succession of teething troubles intensified Tuesday when the 787 used for JAL’s planned return flight from Boston to Tokyo was forced to return to the airport gate because of a fuel leak.

Boeing has said it is working with JAL after Monday’s incident, but didn’t respond to a request for comment about the issue discovered at United….”

Full article

Comments »

$GS’s MSI Worked Around Regulations Curbing Proprietary Bets at Banks

 

“Sitting onstage in Washington’s Ronald Reagan Building in July, Lloyd C. Blankfein said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had stopped using its own money to make bets on the bank’s behalf.

“We shut off that activity,” the chief executive officer told more than 400 people at a lunch organized by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., slicing the air with his hand. The bank no longer had proprietary traders who “just put on risks that they wanted” and didn’t interact with clients, he said.

That may come as a surprise to people working in a secretive Goldman Sachs group called Multi-Strategy Investing, or MSI. It wagers about $1 billion of the New York-based firm’s own funds on the stocks and bonds of companies, including a mortgage servicer and a cement producer, according to interviews with more than 20 people who worked for and with the group, some as recently as last year. The unit, headed by two 1999 Princeton University classmates, has no clients, the people said.

The team’s survival shows how Goldman Sachs has worked around regulations curbing proprietary bets at banks. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker singled out the company in 2009, saying it shouldn’t get taxpayer support if it focuses on trading. A section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act known as the Volcker rule, drafted to prevent banks from taking on excessive risk, limits short-term investments made with firms’ capital.

The law doesn’t bar longer-term wagers. That leaves room for other risky investments, according to Matthew Richardson, an economics professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Bets that last months can go awry and belong outside federally backed banks, he said.

“From a systemic-risk perspective, it’s really the longer- term holdings which are of issue,” said Richardson, who heads NYU’s Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions.

‘The Don’ …”

Full article

Comments »

$AIG Considers Joining Class Action Suit Against Uncle Sam for Cheating Shareholders

 

“Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Grouphas been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline “Thank you America.”

Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: thanks, but you cheated our shareholders.

The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for “public use, without just compensation…..”

Full article

Comments »

Bill Ackman Was Just Warming Up in Exposing $HLF, “Wants the World to Understand the Facts About this Company”

Bill Ackman’s quest to expose Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) started with a tip from a friend. The call came from a reporter turned stock researcher, who had penned a book about the hedge fund manager’s last big short and was now telling him that Herbalife smelled like a pyramid scheme.

The discussion 18 months ago grew into a research project that pulled in much of Ackman’s team, two law firms and forensic accountants. On Dec. 20, Ackman, 46, went public with a three- hour presentation, accusing Herbalife of using inflated pricing, misleading sales information and a complicated incentive structure to hide a pyramid scheme.

The shares plunged 32 percent in the next three days. Amid heated denials from the company, which is preparing to lay out its case at an investor conference in New York on Jan. 10, the shares had by Jan. 4 rebounded 42 percent from their post-Ackman closing low of $26.06. Ackman, an activist investor who has lobbied for shakeups at companies from Target Corp. (TGT) to Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP), is just getting started with Herbalife.

“We’re prepared to spend whatever it costs and do whatever is required to make sure that the world understands the facts about this company,” he said in a telephone interview. “We can’t imagine how the SEC or the Federal Trade Commission or any other relevant regulator will ignore what we have said.” Ackman said he would make all his information available to U.S. regulators.”

Full article

Comments »

Wall Street Banks Lose $133 Billion in Assets as Wealth Managers Move On

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brokerages saw top advisers depart in droves last year and shift $132.5 billion in client assets with them, a Reuters tally shows, creating headaches for some Wall Street banks at a time when wealth management is becoming an increasingly important part of business.

Unprecedented signing bonuses, cultural changes linked to acquisitions, a push to cross-sell company products, and a growing charm of joining regional outfits contributed to many of these exits which are likely to continue this year, recruiters and brokers said.

All told, at least 880 veteran brokers and their teams changed firms in 2012, according to the data, which tracks the moves of top individual advisers and teams that manage $100 million or more inclient assets. That included the departure of at least 16 $1 billion-plus advisers or teams, a numberwealth management recruiters say they usually see over several years, not in 12 months.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management – the brokerage majority owned by Morgan Stanley and partially owned by Citigroup – felt the brunt of defections in 2012, with the departure of at least 243 veteran advisers who managed more than $39.2 billion. Bank of America Corp’s Merrill lost at least 184 advisers who managed more than $28.5 billion.

The two largest U.S. brokerages by headcount each lost at least six teams that managed $1 billion or more in client assets apiece – easily the size of an entire office branch….”

Full article

Comments »

BofA to Pay Fannie Mae $3.6 Billion to Settle Repurchase Claims

Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender by assets, agreed to pay Fannie Mae$3.6 billion to resolve home-loan repurchase claims.

The lender will also pay $6.75 billion to repurchase residential mortgages sold to Fannie Mae,Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said today in a statement. The deal will “substantially resolve outstanding claims for compensatory fees” between the two companies, according to the statement.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other buyers of mortgages have demanded compensation for loans created by Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America acquired in 2008, claiming the loans were based on flawed data about the properties and borrowers. Losses from Countrywide, the largest U.S. mortgage lender as recently as 2007 before billions of dollars in soured loans prompted its sale to Bank of America, have continued to plague the lender, leading to more than $40 billion in costs.

“These agreements are a significant step in resolving our remaining legacy mortgage issues, further streamlining and simplifying the company and reducing expenses over time,” Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan, 53, said in the statement….”

Full article

Comments »

HAHA: Teen Brags On Facebook About Drunk Driving, Gets Arrested

“Police made an example out of a teenager from Oregon who boasted about driving drunk on Facebook. “Drivin drunk… classic ;) but whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P,” wrote the clueless 18-year-old. According to local news channel KGW, two people tipped the officers via Facebook about the post. After inspecting the most-likely-profusely-sweating/hungover teen’s car, the damage on his vehicle matched that of two other vehicles hit earlier that New Year’s morning.

And, with their powers of deduction…bam! Handcuffs. The suspect was charged with two counts of “failing to perform the duties of a driver,” but not drunk driving, because a Facebook post is apparently not sufficient evidence of intoxication, according to KGW’s report from Deputy Chief Brad Johnston.

In a press release, the police wrote, “Astoria Police have an active social media presence. It was a private Facebook message to one of our officers that got this case moving, though. When you post…on Facebook, you have to figure that it is not going to stay private long.”

Full article

Comments »

Judge Denies $RMBS from Enforcing Patents in $MU Case

Rambus Inc. (RMBS), the designer of high- speed memory chips, was barred by a judge from using 12 of its patents to demand royalties from Micron Technology Inc. because it improperly destroyed documents tied to intellectual-property litigation.

U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Wilmington, Delaware, said yesterday the patents are unenforceable as a sanction against Rambus officials who engaged in a document-destruction campaign designed to “gain a litigation advantage” in a patent-infringement lawsuit over technology for high-speed memory chips. Robinson made her ruling after an appeals court sent the case back for her consideration.

“Rambus’s destruction of evidence was of the worst type: intentional, widespread, advantage-seeking and concealed,” Robinson concluded in a 46-page ruling. The judge said the “only appropriate sanction” was to find the patents unenforceable.

The ruling comes after a California judge found in September that Rambus should be sanctioned for destroying documents in a patent case involving SK Hynix Inc. (000660), a South Korean company that is the world’s second-largest maker of computer memory chips….”

Full article

Comments »

10 MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS OF 2012

“Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2012 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

 

Dishonorable Mentions for 2012 include:

See why here

Comments »

Publisher of the L.A. and Chicago Tribune to Emerge From Bankruptcy

“(Reuters) – U.S. media giant The Tribune Co, owner of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, said late on Sunday it will emerge from bankruptcy on December 31, ending four years ofChapter 11 reorganization.

Chicago-based Tribune said it will emerge from the Chapter 11 process with a portfolio of profitable assets that will include eight major daily newspapers and 23 TV stations. The company will also have a new board of directors.

“Tribune will emerge as a dynamic multi-media company with a great mix of profitable assets, powerful brands in major markets, sufficient liquidity for operations and investments and significantly less debt,” Eddy Hartenstein, Tribune’s chief executive officer, said in an email to employees. “In short, Tribune is far stronger than it was when we began the Chapter 11 process.”

Full article

Comments »

$AAPL Agrees to Drop Patent Claims Against New Samsung Phone

 

“SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc has agreed to withdraw patent claims against a new Samsungphone with a high-end display after Samsung said it was not offering to sell the product in the crucial U.S. market.

Apple disclosed the agreement in a filing on Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California.

Last month Apple asked to add the Galaxy S III Mini and other Samsung products, including several tablet models, to its wide-ranging patent litigation against Samsung.

In response, Samsung said the Galaxy S III Mini was not available for sale in the United States and should not be included in the case.

Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung earlier this year, but has failed to secure a permanent sales ban against several, mostly older Samsung models. The patents Apple is asserting against the Galaxy S III Mini are separate from those that went to trial…”

Full article

Comments »

$HPQ Confirms Federal Probe Into Autonomy, Founder Mike Lynch Goes on the Defensive

“LONDON (Reuters) – Mike Lynch, the founder of the software firm sold to Hewlett-Packard last year in a deal tainted by accusations of accounting fraud, said he would defend the company’s accounts toU.S. Federal investigators.

HP confirmed in a filing late on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigatingAutonomy’s books.

The PC and printer maker bought the British company for $11 billion last year to lead its push into the more profitable software sector.

Autonomy did not deliver the growth expected, resulting in Lynch’s departure earlier this year.

But worse was to come last month when HP wrote off some $5 billion of the company’s value and accused its former management of accounting improprieties that inflated its value.

The Silicon Valley company said it had passed information from a whistleblower to the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

“On November 21, 2012, representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice advised HP that they had opened an investigation relating to Autonomy,” it said in the filing.

“HP is cooperating with the three investigating agencies.”

Lynch launched a robust defense of his track record almost immediately after HP made the accusations…”

Full article

Comments »