On October 31, 2007 the NY Times wrote a story on former SEC Chair Levitt's public pension concerns yet decided to not include the single most important fact, that being that Levitt is on the board of directors of RiskMetrics, a firm which creates derivative products for hedge funds and is now attempting an IPO. … Continue reading Arthur Levitt Issues Pension Warning, SEC, RiskMetrics, ISS, Gates Foundation
Category: Federal Reserve and SEC
Tektronix $2.8 billion sale to D.C. based Danaher Corporation is a dramatic example of top executives marketing a company's sale to benefit themselves and thereby breaching its duty to shareholders and other stakeholders. According to the WSJ, Merrill Lynch's CEO has tried the same trick yet the board is now considering firing him over making … Continue reading Tektronix Corporation Sale Mirrors Merrill Lynch CEO Attempt to Sell
Current Treasury Secretary Paulson is now encouraging major banks, led by Citigroup, JP Morgan and Bank of America, to establish a financial superfund of perhaps as much as $100 billion to deal with toxic financil derivative products, often called SIV's. The biggest beneficiary would be the biggest issuer of SIV's, Citigroup and its Vice Chairman … Continue reading Should Treasury Secretary Paulson and SEC Bail Out Citigroup and Former Secretary Rubin’s SIV Investments?
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) was purchased by Risk Metrics in the last year and will now be part of Risk Metrics upcoming IPO, see SEC S1 filing. ISS is the leading proxy firm and its opinions on merger and acquisition activity often determine a merger votes outcome. Sadly, many great companies with solid long term … Continue reading Hedge Funds “Secret Sauce” (ISS) Going Public via Risk Metrics IPO
EU antitrust regulators vowed on Monday to scrutinise Canadian group Thomson Corp's takeover of British financial news and data provider Reuters over concerns the deal could stifle competition. With Rupert Murdoch now owning Dow Jones, parent to the WSJ and Barrons, one has to wonder what it will take for US regulators to more closely … Continue reading EU Regulators Examine Reuters Thomson Merger
Here in the United States the two most important proxy firms are Institutional Shareholder Services, which is owned by hedge funds, and Glass Lewis, previously owned by a Shanghai Bank. The recent purchase of Glass Lewis by the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund is a terrific development in the world of corporate governance because it will … Continue reading Ontario Pension Fund Purchases Proxy Firm Glass Lewis
I use various Google products, including Gmail. Yet I do so with the knowledge that Google's primary business is the sale of privacy, not technology. It is hilarious to see Congress debate privacy issues surrounding Google's proposed acquisition of doubleclick. And Microsoft's attempt to block the acquisition misses the key point, a tax loophole Google … Continue reading Inside Story on how Microsoft got Googled
It is easy to marvel at IKEA's products, in addition to the low cost. They are indeed beautifully designed. What struck me on my first ever visit to IKEA, however, was not only the designs beauty but the reality that the majority of their products come from China. There were rows and rows of products … Continue reading IKEA – A Brilliant Scheme
To: Ed Clark President and Chief Executive Officer Toronto Dominion Bank cc: Christopher Cox, Chairman SEC 450 Fifth Street N.W. New York, NY 20549 (202)-942-0100 chairmanoffice@sec.gov Simon Townsend, TD Senior Manager, Corporate Communications (416) 944-7161 td.capa@td.com Nicholas Petter, TD Manager, Corporate Communications (416) 308-1861 td.capa@td.com TD Economics Stephen Hewitt Senior Manager, External Communications (416) 983-1315 … Continue reading Toronto Dominion Bank CEO Ed Clark Called to Remove Joe Moglia as CEO of TD Ameritrade
Today Ted Sickinger of the Oregonian printed an excellent story, summarized at end of this post, noting that the public utility commission is "negotiating" to allow institutional investors in PGE to circumvent the law, as indicated by PUC analyst Bryan Conway. This is surprising and perhaps also a sign that the commission is still compromised … Continue reading PUC Staff Urged to Use Leverage to Enforce the Law