Barclays rejig should be just the warm-up 4 Oct 2012 The UK lender’s investment bank arm is mashing fixed income and equities together and shaking up management. Boss Rich Ricci may be asserting his authority, but in reality the moves are just catching up with the rest of the pack. The really tough decisions have yet to be made.
Executive rewards mustn’t distort M&A decisions 4 Oct 2012 Big retention packages for Xstrata’s CEO angered investors. Now there’s confusion over whether a tie-up with EADS would trigger a bonanza for BAE’s CEO. With the shareholder spring still echoing, companies must show windfalls at the top don’t distort decision-making.
HP’s services turnaround running low on ink 3 Oct 2012 The $29 bln tech company’s PC and imaging businesses are in decline. Investors had counted on IT services to print better numbers, à la IBM, while HP tries to fix the rest of itself. That’s not happening, for now at least. Boss Meg Whitman’s task just got even tougher.
Scardino exit reignites FT sale speculation 3 Oct 2012 Pearson’s departing CEO famously said she would sell the Financial Times “over my dead body”. The chairman is also fond of the pink paper, and her successor has been at the group for 15 years. Still, post Scardino, Pearson will be less attached to the barely profitable paper.
Bankers should be made to eat their own stew 2 Oct 2012 The EU’s Liikanen review says managers should receive part of their compensation in the form of their own banks’ bail-in bonds. Since such debt would plummet if the bank needed a rescue, it would make bosses more alive to the risks their institutions are running.
Super-voting stock hardly super in terms of value 2 Oct 2012 Facebook and Zynga are among the growing number of companies with multiple classes of shares. Yet their returns are worse than for simpler ownership structures over most time periods, new research finds. Investors should consider they’re often giving up more than just control.
Hot tech IPO a Frankenstein monster of governance 1 Oct 2012 What happens when a company takes Research In Motion’s two-headed CEO structure, bolts on Facebook’s feudal-class voting rights and injects News Corp’s nepotism worries? In the case of Workday, it creates an eye-popping $3.9 bln valuation for a software firm without any profit.
Xstrata reaches tidy compromise on messy deal 1 Oct 2012 The miner is right to back Glencore’s latest offer. It is getting a better premium from the commodity trader, plus board domination. Retentions for top staff make sense with Glencore’s Ivan Glasenberg running the show. The tie-up faces challenges, but shareholders should say yes.
EADS/BAE merger risks hitting political wall 1 Oct 2012 Lagardere, the media group owning 7.5 pct of EADS, adds to the uncertainty of the aerospace and defence merger by deeming it “unsatisfactory”. But the real obstacles are political. France and Germany must convince the UK, the three in turn have to win over the U.S. No small feat.
Center of gravitas shifts at the New York Times 1 Oct 2012 One of the 20th century’s most influential publishers, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, died over the weekend. He built the New York Times into a media empire that his son has had to dismantle. His gravitas will be missed as Arthur Jr. struggles to keep the paper a family affair.
BofA keeps stacking up the Ken Lewis bookends 28 Sep 2012 The bank is paying $2.4 bln to settle a lawsuit that it misled shareholders in the 2008 takeover of Merrill Lynch. It’s by no means the biggest cost of the ex-CEO’s disastrous takeover binge. But it’s still painful. And successor Brian Moynihan still has more tabs to pick up.
Morgan Stanley keeps a rainmaker by letting him go 28 Sep 2012 Simon Robey is to leave the bank’s London office after 25 years to set up solo. It’s probably more a statement of ambition than a criticism of the integrated model, as the veteran dealmaker will keep ties to his old firm. That sets this exit apart from other boutique escapes.
Is HP facing a Xerox or Kodak-like future? 27 Sep 2012 All three iconic companies used to be leaders in their respective industries and technologies. Today, Xerox is muddling along and Kodak is bust. The smart money is split on whether HP can return to glory. But tech history suggests the bears will print the winning ticket.
Warner Music echoes some off-key EMI chords 27 Sep 2012 With the Beatles’ parent officially swallowed up by Universal, Warner is left as a tiny number three. Like the old EMI, it is reliant on older acts, heavily indebted and led by an industry outsider. Owner Len Blavatnik has deep pockets, but the formula still doesn’t sound right.
Batista’s dubious shine lures gold-hungry Qatar 25 Sep 2012 The Brazilian billionaire keeps trying to sell chunks of his diminishing empire, this time mesmerizing the Gulf state with his AUX mining unit. Qatar is hungry for commodities but the emirate should drive a hard bargain - or risk learning the hard way that not all bling is gold.
Who will run Murdoch’s grand newspaper spinoff? 25 Sep 2012 With a key UK regulatory judgment on BSkyB out of the way, News Corp can focus on cleaving its newspaper empire. Critically for investors, that means picking a CEO. Wall Street Journal boss Robert Thomson appears in pole position. His appointment would spark a chain reaction.
Bumi reputational damage will spread far and wide 24 Sep 2012 The mining-focused acquisition vehicle has tumbled in value amid alleged financial irregularities in its Indonesian assets. A lack of information makes the shares hard to touch right now. And whatever the final financial fallout, the affair rubs off badly on the London market.
Hugo Dixon: Banks should learn to say "Just Go" 24 Sep 2012 A stream of scandals, weak activity, tightening regulation and poor shareholder returns mean that this year is a golden opportunity to make radical cuts in banker compensation. Those who complain should be told to pack their bags.
Big scores inspire participation in sports M&A 20 Sep 2012 Billionaire Philip Anschutz is shopping an empire that includes the Stanley Cup champs, the NBA’s Lakers and David Beckham’s U.S. soccer club. After the eye-popping $2.2 bln Dodgers sale price and Manchester United’s IPO, it’s no wonder if owners get off the sidelines.
Obama may find an exceptional friend in Facebook 19 Sep 2012 The social network’s No. 2, Sheryl Sandberg, should be on the short list for a top economic job in a second Obama term. But she’d give up some $130 mln in unvested equity to leave. Current boss Mark Zuckerberg’s largess could bridge the gap. But it may cost Facebook shareholders.