Top Story
Live from Davos: Bonus Buzz
Political issues are front and center here at the World Economic Forum, but many of the conference’s high-powered attendees are also buzzing about the growing controversy over Wall Street bonuses.
That controversy rose to a new level Thursday when President Barack Obama branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out major financial institutions.
Go to Article from The New York Times »
Go to Related Item from Davos Diary »
Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut said “every possible legal means” should be used to claw back the money. But compensation experts told Eric Dash and Vikas Bajaj of The New York Times is that most, if not all, of the money that the banks have paid out is probably gone for good.
Go to Article from The New York Times »
Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, touched on another hot-button issue while here at the conference. In an interview with CNBC, he sought to counter the popular impression that banks are refusing to lend. He said his bank had loaned out $150 billion in the last 90 days.
Latest Dealbook Headlines
Mergers & Acquisitions
Figuring Out Roche’s Tender Offer
Roche’s announcement that it intends to cut the price it is offering for Genentech and launch a hostile tender offer for Genentech’s shares is a surprise. It also sets up an interesting endgame as to how Roche will acquire all of Genentech.
Roche said in its press release Friday that it will commence a tender offer in a few weeks, and that the tender offer will be conditioned on “(i) a non-waivable condition that holders of at least a majority of the outstanding publicly-held Genentech shares tender their shares in the offer and (ii) that Roche has obtained sufficient financing to purchase all outstanding publicly-held shares and all shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding options and to pay related fees and expenses.” MORE »
Investment Banking
Two-Tiered Bank Bailout Said to Be Under Discussion
As the the Obama administration seeks to hammer out a comprehensive plan to repair the financial system, policy officials are discussing a new plan that would see the government buy a portion of banks’ bad assets and offer guarantees against future losses on some of the remainder, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The approach, which seeks to help banks while trying to protect taxpayers from losses, merges two competing ideas, The Journal said. The idea was floated at meeting that included Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila C. Bair, The Journal said, citing people briefed on the meeting. MORE »
I.P.O./Offerings
NYSE Euronext Chief Sees Hope for I.P.O. Rebound
Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive of NYSE Euronext, offered a whiff of optimism amid the Davos gloom on Friday as he talked about the market for initial public offerings.
That market has been in a near-comatose state for the last few months, as volatile stock prices, combined with risk-averse institutional investors, led many companies to decide it was better to stay private in this environment. The lack of new stock listings has cut into profits at exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext, which merged to form the company that Mr. Niederauer now leads. MORE »
Hedge Funds
For Some Hedge Funds, 2008 Was a Bumper Year
A handful of hedge funds resisted the global crisis ravaging their rivals, reaping bumper returns in 2008 in a sign that some niche players always beat the market no matter how dire the outlook.
There is no single recipe to explain why CQS’s Asset-Backed Securities rose 72.81 percent or Hugh Hendry’s Eclectica Asset Management flagship fund gained 31.2 percent, other than that they doggedly clung to a strategy they thought would bring in the money. MORE »
Venture Capital
Tesla Said to Lack Cash for San Jose Plant
Tesla Motor’s failure to secure $100 million in venture financing has put the kibosh on its plans to build an auto assembly plant in San Jose, Calif., in a blow to Mayor Chuck Reed’s plans to make the city an epicenter of clean technology, The San Jose Mercury News reported.
Furthermore, Tesla now realizes that the $450 million it hopes to get in government loans will likely got to retrofitting existing buildings rather than constructing new ones, Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad told the newspaper.
When Mayor Reed announced the deal last year, he predicted that Tesla’s 1,025 potential jobs would be crucial in meeting his goal of creating 25,000 clean-tech jobs within 2015. Ms. Konrad said the auto maker would be seeking facilities elsewhere in the Bay Area.
Private Equity
Private Equity Is Still Alive, Kravis Says
Don’t start preparing for private equity’s funeral, just yet.
That, apparently was the message from buyout veteran Henry R. Kravis, who was speaking on a panel on the global financial system in Davos, Switzerland
“Private equity is not dead,” Mr. Kravis, co-founder and chief of private equity powerhouse Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, said at the World Economic Forum. MORE »
Legal
Economy Pinches the Billable Hour at Law Firms
Lawyers are having trouble defending the most basic yardstick of the legal business — the billable hour.
Clients have complained for years that the practice of billing for each hour worked can encourage law firms to prolong a client’s problem rather than solve it. But the rough economic climate is making clients more demanding, leading many law firms to rethink their business model, The New York Times’s Jonathan D. Glater writes. MORE »
Davos Diary 2009
Reporters and columnists for The Times and The International Herald Tribune blog from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More»
Obama should tread carefully around bonuses
January 30, 2009
Don't mention the postwar, please
January 29, 2009
BofA board lets shareholders down
January 28, 2009
DealBook on Twitter
We've been on Twitter for more than a year. Now you can follow our latest posts and up-to-the-minute tweets on our feed here. More»
Pfizer's Daring Drug Deal
The $68 billion takeover of Wyeth is a rarity these days, and it almost faltered at the 11th hour. More»
Thain's Reversal of Fortune
At a meeting that lasted less than 15 minutes, one of Wall Street's most charmed careers was derailed. More»
Citi's Transformation
Full coverage of Citigroup's efforts to stay afloat, including considering a plan that would drastically shrink the financial titan. More»
The Bernard Madoff Scandal
DealBook's full coverage of the Madoff scandal, perhaps the largest securities fraud case in history, with potential losses reaching $50 billion. More»
The Deal Professor
A blog-within-a-blog that looks at mergers, private equity and corporate governance through a legal lens, written by Steven M. Davidoff, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law and a former lawyer at Shearman & Sterling. More»
Whom the S.E.C. Should Hire Next
An expert on investigating hedge funds suggests the regulator should turn to journalists to bolster its fraud-detection corps. More»
Tracking the Bailout
The New York Times tracks how the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program is being doled out to banks, insurance companies and more. More»
Introducing the DealBook Widget
Get continuously updated headlines from DealBook, built into your blog, social network or search engine home page. More»
The Rescue Squad
DealBook's special section looks at the people reshaping Wall Street and what the new landscape might look like. More»
DealBook for BlackBerry
Get one-click access to DealBook to read the latest deal news throughout the day. Visit mobile.nytimes.com/bbinstall directly from your BlackBerry or by sending the text message "db install" to 698698.
More information on DealBook for BlackBerry.
Got a Tip for DealBook?
Submission guidelines and contact informationLive From Tulane
Coverage from the Corporate Law Institute, where the mergers and acquisitions crowd have gathered to talk shop. More»
Special Section: Leveraged Planet
DealBook's third special section looks at the growing ties between Wall Street and the global markets from Europe and Asia in an increasingly unsettled environment for finance. More»
Go to the Special Section»Special Section:
After the Party
What's next now that the buyout boom has gone bust, why Wall Street is playing both sides with its political donations and how young deal-makers are linked by their colleges. More»
Masters of the New Universe
In DealBook's special section of The New York Times, a guide to the deal ecosystem, a report on what lies behind the buyout boom, a profile of the hedge fund that may be the next Goldman Sachs, and more. More»
Markets
Dealbook News By Industry
DEALBOOK JOB SEARCH
nytimes.com and monster.com
Find the best jobs in the New York City metro area and beyond.
Job Categories
DealBook: The Tuesday Column
Andrew Ross Sorkin's commentary on deals and the deal makers behind them.
About DealBook
DealBook is a financial news service produced by The New York Times. It is published daily, Monday-Friday, except on U.S. Market holidays and during the last week of the year. A daily digest of DealBook is also available via email, delivered before the market opens. DealBook editorial staff: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Peter Edmonston, Liza Klaussmann, Michael J. de la Merced, and Keith Leighty. Illustrations by Chris Gash.
Top Movers chart above: Copyright © 2006 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. Intraday data provided by ComStock, an Interactive Data Company and subject to the Terms of Use. Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET. Historical and current end-of-day data is provided by FT Interactive Data. Earnings data provided by WallStreetHorizon.com.