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☆ What’s BlackRock Without Larry Fink? Shareholders Fret About Future.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Laurence D. Fink built BlackRock into the world’s largest asset manager with a steely grip, a thick skin and a cleareyed vision of what the company could become. Today, it’s a caretaker of $10.5 trillion of investor money and a provider of sophisticated trading technology, and Mr. Fink has been an informal financial adviser to many governments, including the United States. They were on investors’ minds this week at BlackRock’s annual shareholder meeting, as they listened to Mr. Fink talk about the company’s performance and voted on ballot issues. Mr. Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive and chairman, exerts an unusual level of control for someone leading a firm of its size, with nearly 20,000 employees. From writing LinkedIn posts defending BlackRock’s policies to personally finding key deals, he has put his stamp all over the company, which he co-founded in 1988.

Persons: Laurence D, Fink, it’s, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, . Fink Organizations: BlackRock Locations: United States

☆ Gov. Jim Justice Faces Heavy Business Debts as He Seeks Senate Seat
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Campbell Robertson | Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jim Justice, the businessman-turned-politician governor of West Virginia, has been pursued in court for years by banks, governments, business partners and former employees for millions of dollars in unmet obligations. And for a long time, Mr. Justice and his family’s companies have managed to stave off one threat after another with wily legal tactics notably at odds with the aw-shucks persona that has endeared him to so many West Virginians. But now, as he wraps up his second term as governor and campaigns for a seat in the U.S. Senate, things are looking dicier. Much like Donald J. Trump, with whom he is often compared — with whom he often compares himself — Mr. Justice has faced a barrage of costly judgments and legal setbacks. And this time, there may be too many, some suspect, for Mr. Justice, 73, and his family to fend them all off.

Persons: Jim Justice, Joe Manchin III, Donald J, — Mr, Justice Organizations: West Virginians, Republican Senate, Democratic, U.S . Senate, Trump Locations: West Virginia, West, U.S

Brown’s agreement will let students make their case and then have the Brown Corporation, the university’s governing body, vote on the matter in October. But Dr. Paxson’s initial offer did not include bringing a divestment proposal to a vote. That came after two university negotiators and six students involved with the Brown Divest Coalition, one of the groups behind the movement, reached a deal on Tuesday, the university and several students said. The agreement immediately gave the university control of its facilities in time to allow students to finish classes and hold in-person graduation ceremonies and an alumni reunion this month. One donor, an investor who has made sizable contributions to the university and describes himself as a supporter of Israel, said members of the administration had assured him that Brown wouldn’t ultimately divest from Israel.

Persons: William A, Marc Rowan, Christina H, Paxson, Brown, Brown wouldn’t Organizations: Wall Street titans, Democratic Party, Republican, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown Corporation, Coalition Locations: Israel, Gaza

☆ Famously Obstinate, Bill Ackman Is Now Real-Life Famous. What Next?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In June 2017 — as he was reeling from the end of his marriage of more than two decades and some of the most disastrous investments of his career — Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge-fund financier, joined Twitter. He offered his early Twitter followers little of the drama that was part of his investing style and would later become a hallmark of his round-the-clock social media posts. Just a few months later, Mr. Ackman went on his first date with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, Neri Oxman. He was instantly smitten, and asked her on that date if she was open to having children, he told the crowd last year at an awards dinner. They married the following year.

Persons: —, Bill Ackman, Ackman, Neri Oxman, Oxman Organizations: Twitter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

☆ A Pre-I.P.O. Gift to Company Executives: ‘11th-Hour Options Discounting’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Public companies must abide by strict rules when granting stock options to their top executives, including pricing them where the company’s shares are trading on the day they are granted and disclosing them swiftly. Private companies planning to go public face some of the same requirements, but have more leeway in pricing their stock options — since there is no publicly traded price — and more time to disclose them. That discrepancy has prompted dozens of private companies to give their top managers low-priced options in the weeks leading up to their initial public offering — when they can often accurately predict where their shares are likely to trade, but before public company regulations about options pricing kick in, according to a new research paper by Sven Riethmueller, a professor at Yale Law School. “They just slide in these equity grants at the last minute,” said Mr. Riethmueller, referring to the options. He called the practice “11th-hour options discounting.”

Persons: Sven Riethmueller, ” Organizations: Yale Law School, “

☆ The wildest moments of WeWork’s rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

And many early WeWork employees, who worked at lower salaries because they were given stock options, ended up with nothing. WeWork’s wild rise and fall is the latest high-profile incident to shatter that myth. Here is a look at four of the wildest moments from WeWork’s rise, according to the company’s statements and a best-seller about the company. (Part of WeWork’s push to appeal to millennials included free-flowing beer and open bars set up within its coworking outposts.) That pre-IPO paperworkThe beginning of the end can perhaps be traced back to WeWork’s first attempt to go public back in 2019.

Persons: New York CNN — WeWork, Adam Neumann’s, Neumann, Son, Adam Neumann, Kelly Sullivan, Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell, millennials, Darryl McDaniels, Mike Segar, ”, Rebekah, WeWork, Caitlin Ochs, WeWork’s, Neuman, Mark Lennihan, “, Tolga Akmen Organizations: New, New York CNN, WeWork, San Francisco, of Fine Arts, Gulfstream G650, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Getty, Nasdaq, City of Locations: New York, San, San Francisco , California, Israel, Manhattan , New York, WeGrow, WeLive, New York City, U.S, City, City of London, AFP

☆ Warring Billionaires, a Rogue Trader, a Divorce: One Hedge Fund’s Tale of Woe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two Sigma, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, has long prided itself on two things: the sophisticated, in-house algorithms that power its trading, and its commitment to secrecy. But recent internal troubles have forced Two Sigma to air its dirty laundry. In October, it had more bad news: An employee had altered some trading models without the firm’s knowledge, affecting its returns and drawing regulatory scrutiny. It’s the kind of mess that any investment firm wants to avoid for fear of losing clients and talent, especially one that has avoided the spotlight for much of its 22 years of existence. In a 2015 profile of Two Sigma, Forbes magazine said the two founders were “obsessive about avoiding publicity and keeping the firm’s secrets under wraps.”

Persons: David M, Siegel, John A, unbeknown Organizations: Sigma, New, Mr, Internal Revenue Service, Forbes Locations: New York

☆ A Prestigious Law Firm Rescinded Job Offers for Columbia and Harvard Students, but It May Reverse Itself
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Davis Polk, one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, recently rescinded employment offers made to three students who the firm believed led organizations at Harvard and Columbia that issued statements blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead. On Tuesday, the firm said it was reconsidering that decision for two of the three students, who fought their dismissals and said that they did not authorize the letters, which did not have any individual signatories. The New York law firm said two of the students held leadership roles in the Students for Justice in Palestine group at Columbia and one was affiliated with the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, which jointly wrote a letter that held the “Israeli regime” responsible for the deadly violence. The Columbia students’ letter expressed “full solidarity with Palestinian resistance.”The firm did not identify the students or which two of the offers it was reconsidering. “The views expressed in certain of the statements signed by law school student organizations in recent days are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system,” Davis Polk said in a statement.

Persons: Davis Polk, Israel, ” Davis Polk, Neil Barr Organizations: Harvard, New, Students for Justice, Columbia, Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups Locations: Columbia, New York, Palestine

☆ Corporate America’s Chief Critic, Carl Icahn, Gets His Comeuppance
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He said Mr. Anderson did not call him before publishing the report, denying him the opportunity to present his side of things. Short sellers borrow stock held by big investors and sell it in the open market, betting that its price will fall. If they bet right, they can buy the borrowed shares back at the lower price, return them and pocket the difference. Mr. Icahn said he buys and holds stocks for years and makes changes from the inside. (As of July 31, he said, his investors would have an annualized return of 12.8 percent compared to 6.9 percent for the S&P 500).

Persons: Carl, ”, Mark Stevens, Icahn, Mr, Anderson, Nikola, ” Mr, “ I’m Organizations: Hindenburg Research, Adani

☆ Shares of Carl Icahn’s Firm Tank After Dividend Is Cut
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of Icahn Enterprises, the firm led by the billionaire financier Carl C. Icahn, fell as much as 30 percent on Friday after the saber-rattling investor, under pressure from a short seller, said his firm would halve its quarterly dividend and refocus on the style of activist investing that brought him his fame and fortune. The announcement comes three months after Hindenburg Research, the short seller, released a report questioning the financials of Icahn Enterprises, and whether it had the wherewithal to continue paying a dividend to shareholders. Hindenburg, led by Nathan Anderson, accused Mr. Icahn’s firm of running “Ponzi-like economic structures.” Short sellers profit when stock prices fall. The plunging stock price of Icahn Enterprises is the latest setback for the 87-year-old investor who, for more than four decades, has taken on publicly traded companies and pressured their chief executives to make changes. Including the drop on Friday, shares of Mr. Icahn’s firm are down roughly 50 percent since Hindenburg released its report on May 2.

Persons: Carl C, Nathan Anderson, Mr, Icahn’s, Hindenburg Organizations: Icahn Enterprises, Hindenburg Research, Mr

☆ Larry Fink’s Bet on Saudi Oil Money Is Also His Latest E.S.G. Woe
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Larry Fink, the chief executive of the giant asset manager BlackRock, has been broadcasting a message to corporate America: Environmental, social and governance goals should be core to how companies do business. So when BlackRock announced in July that it would appoint Amin Nasser, the head of the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, to its board, investors and politicians immediately called out Mr. Fink on what they said was his hypocrisy. It’s the latest example of the increasingly difficult situation Mr. Fink finds himself in: His championing of E.S.G. has drawn accusations of “woke” capitalism from the right while his embrace of energy companies has upset those on the left. The political blowback has made it more challenging for Mr. Fink to do his day job of finding new sources of money that BlackRock — which oversees $9 trillion in assets — needs to drive growth and keep shareholders happy.

Persons: Larry Fink, Amin Nasser, Fink, ”, Giuseppe Bivona, Fink’s, “ Organizations: BlackRock, Aramco, Bluebell Locations: America, London

But Mr. Ramaswamy, now 37, made a fortune anyway. The core company Mr. Ramaswamy built has since had a hand in bringing five drugs to market, including treatments for uterine fibroids, prostate cancer and the rare genetic condition he mentioned on the stump in Iowa. Mr. Ramaswamy’s resilience was in part a result of the savvy way he structured his web of biotechnology companies. He’s a sort of a Music Man,” said Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat and former health secretary during the Obama administration who advised two of Mr. Ramaswamy’s companies. For his part, Mr. Ramaswamy said that criticism that he overpromised was missing the point.

Persons: Ramaswamy, ”, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama, overpromised Organizations: Democrat Locations: Iowa

☆ WeWork Faces More Turmoil After Its Chief Executive Departs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Maureen Farrell | Peter Eavis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A real estate executive, he became the chief executive of the troubled office space company in 2020 after a failed initial public offering pushed it to the brink of collapse. He instilled discipline and order on a business that had grown fast and chaotically under its co-founder Adam Neumann. Instead of building a company that would “elevate the world’s consciousness” as Mr. Neumann had wanted, Mr. Mathrani focused on the staid details of running a real estate company. He steered WeWork through the pandemic, got its landlords to accept less rent, took the company public and oversaw a financial restructuring, completed last month, that cut the company’s debt. But just weeks after the restructuring, the company said on May 16 that Mr. Mathrani would step down, and that no permanent successor was lined up.

Persons: Sandeep Mathrani, Adam Neumann, Neumann, Mathrani, — Organizations: Wall Street Locations: WeWork

☆ The war for hedge-fund talent has traders getting paid like star athletes
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Money is pouring into the hedge fund business, adding to a war for talent. Maybe a bunch of NBA or NFL players end up on a trading floor for charity. The war for talent is partly a reflection of hedge-fund performance. My colleague Alex Morrell wrote recently:After years of relative quiet, macro strategies at hedge funds surged back to life in 2022 amid rising interest rates, inflation, and geopolitical convulsions. Writing for Insider recently, hedge-fund recruiter John Pierson said that "the competition for investment talent is escalating, and finding top portfolio managers is no longer a contact sport — it's an all-out war."

Persons: Bloomberg's Nishant Kumar, Maureen Farrell, Rob Copeland, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Lamar Jackson's, Alex Morrell, Brevan Howard, Rokos, John Pierson Organizations: Millennium, Citadel, Morning, NBA, New York Times, Times, Golden State Warriors, ESPN, NFL, Baltimore Ravens, Premier League

☆ Carl Icahn’s Firm Faces Federal Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Maureen Farrell | Matthew Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The investment firm controlled by the billionaire activist investor Carl C. Icahn has fielded questions from federal prosecutors about its management and operations, according to a securities filing made on Wednesday. On May 3, federal prosecutors in Manhattan requested documents from Mr. Icahn and his firm just one day after his publicly traded company, Icahn Enterprises, became a target of Hindenburg Research, the short-seller firm that has made its name in recent years by taking on the Indian tycoon Gautam Adani and the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. News of the inquiry was the latest setback for Mr. Icahn, who is best known for targeting publicly traded companies and their chief executives and pressuring management to make changes. Short sellers profit when stock prices fall, and shares of Icahn Enterprises have fallen nearly 40 percent since Hindenburg Research released a report last week, accusing the company of running “Ponzi-like economic structures.” On Wednesday, the stock fell about 15 percent on news of the federal inquiry.

☆ Another Bank Failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( German Lopez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

So when First Republic’s investment strategy began backfiring, depositors started to pull out their money in large numbers — a classic bank run. “The failure of Silicon Valley Bank made Americans more concerned about the safety of their deposits,” my colleague Maureen Farrell, who covers finance, said. “And First Republic looked a lot like Silicon Valley Bank.” The threat of further contagion is what led regulators and the financial system to move to try to stabilize the situation. The Fed also placed some of the blame on Congress, which in 2018 reduced the central bank’s oversight of so-called midsize banks like First Republic and Silicon Valley Bank. Some analysts argue that the worst is over: Silicon Valley Bank, Signature and First Republic were all outliers, and their similarities made them unusually vulnerable to the current moment.

Lawmakers and regulators have spent years erecting laws and rules meant to limit the power and size of the largest U.S. banks. But those efforts were cast aside in a frantic late-night effort by government officials to contain a banking crisis by seizing and selling First Republic Bank to the country’s biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase. The F.D.I.C.’s decision appears, for now, to have quelled nearly two months of simmering turmoil in the banking sector that followed the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March. “This part of the crisis is over,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, told analysts on Monday in a conference call to discuss the acquisition. For Mr. Dimon, it was a reprise of his role in the 2008 financial crisis when JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual at the behest of federal regulators.

Even so, the U.S. financial system has plenty of problems. The lender, founded in 1985, was the 14th-largest bank in the United States at the start of this year. Its shares lost nearly all of their value after a relentless series of steep declines that began as Silicon Valley Bank was teetering. reached out to other financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial Services and Bank of America, seeking bids for the First Republic. As part of the bidding process, banks were also asked what parts of the bank they wouldn’t accept.

☆ Regulators Prepare to Seize and Sell First Republic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal regulators were racing on Saturday to seize and sell the troubled First Republic Bank before financial markets open on Monday, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, in a bid to put an end to a banking crisis that began last month with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. has been talking with banks that include JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services about a potential deal, two of the people said. Any buyer would most likely assume the deposits of First Republic, eliminating the need for a government guarantee of deposits in excess of $250,000 — the limit for deposit insurance. would need to decide if it would seize First Republic anyway and take ownership itself. In that case, federal officials could invoke a systemic risk exception to protect those bigger deposits, something they did after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.

☆ First Republic Lurches as It Struggles to Find a Savior
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Rob Copeland | Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First Republic Bank is sliding dangerously into a financial maelstrom, one from which an exit appears increasingly difficult. Hardly a household name until a few weeks ago, First Republic is now a top concern for investors and bankers on Wall Street and officials in Washington. The likeliest outcome for the bank, people close to the situation said, would need to involve the federal government, alone or in some combination with a private investor. First Republic, based in San Francisco, has been widely seen as the most in-danger bank since Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed last month. Like Silicon Valley Bank, it catered to the well-off — a group of customers able to pull their money en masse — and amassed a hoard of loans and assets whose value has suffered in an era of rising interest rates.

☆ First Republic Bank Enters New Free Fall as Concerns Mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Maureen Farrell | Jeanna Smialek | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First Republic Bank’s stock closed down 50 percent Tuesday, a day after a troubling earnings report and a conference call with analysts in which the company’s executives refused questions. The speed of the decline set off a series of volatility-induced trading halts by the New York Stock Exchange. On Monday, after the close of regular stock trading, First Republic released results that showed just how perilous the bank’s future had become since mid-March following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. First Republic is considered the most vulnerable regional bank after the banking crisis in March. What happens to it could also affect investors’ confidence in other regional banks and the financial system more broadly.

☆ First Republic Bank Lost $102 Billion in Customer Deposits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Maureen Farrell | Rob Copeland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over that same period, it borrowed $92 billion, mostly from the Federal Reserve and government-backed lending groups, essentially replacing its deposits with loans. That’s a perilous course for any bank, which generally do business by taking in relatively inexpensive customer deposits while lending money to home buyers and businesses at much higher interest rates. First Republic is still making some money; it reported a quarterly profit of $269 million, down one-third from a year earlier. From March 31 to April 21, the bank said that it lost only 1.7 percent of its deposits and that most of those withdrawals were related to tax payments by its clients. The slide began roughly six weeks ago, when the midsize lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were taken over by federal regulators after customers pulled billions of dollars in deposits.

☆ Pentagon Divides Big Cloud-Computing Deal Among 4 Firms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Defense Department said Wednesday that it had awarded lucrative cloud-computing contracts to four companies: Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle. The contracts run through 2028 and could be valued as high as $9 billion, the Pentagon said in a news release. That contract, for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as JEDI, became part of a legal battle over claims that President Donald J. Trump interfered in a process that favored Microsoft over its rival bidder, Amazon. “This is the biggest cloud Beltway deal in history and was a key deal to win for all the software vendors in this multiyear soap opera,” Dan Ives, a tech analyst with Wedbush Securities, said in an email. “It’s good to finally end this chapter and get a cloud deal finally done for the Pentagon after years of a roller coaster.”

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