Two Tales, Both Stinky* ConAgra Offers to Acquire Ralcorp for About $4.9 Billion –headline, Bloomberg.com (5/4/2011) It’s hardly unusual for the target of a corporate acquisition to jump in price: such deals often occur at premiums, and can occasionally trigger bidding wars, further goosing the target’s stock price. So, what’s the big deal about Ralcorp...Read More
Mozilo Settles With SEC for $68 Million The best way to rob a bank . . . is to own one. There’s a reason why bank robbers — at least the “blue collar” kind — get charged with criminal (prison) rather civil penalties (read, fines): if it were otherwise, they’d just write a check if/when...Read More
Plugging That OTHER Hole(the Regulatory One) Remember the SEC’s press conference last week announcing that it had isolated the cause of the “flash crash” May 6, and unveiling a sweeping set of financial reforms designed to prevent a recurrence? Me, neither. That thought comes to mind as I see that the Dow Jones is already...Read More
SEC vs. Goldman Sachs Confused about why the SEC sued Goldman Sachs for fraud, and what it means? Here’s about as succinct a summary as I’ve seen, from the inimitable Michael Lewis: Just as there was a time when people could smoke on airplanes, or drive drunk without guilt, there was a time when a...Read More
Borrow at 0%, Lend at 3%, Make Billions Is it customary, when someone is charged with fraud and awaiting trial, to leave them in possession of the victim’s credit cards, and, indeed, to continue to allow them to spend and gamble the victim’s money? In the corporate arena, apparently the answer is “yes.” U.S. vs....Read More
Betting On Its Own Lawsuit?? Best line (to date) about the SEC’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs is this nugget from “The Weekend Update” segment on Saturday Night Live: Goldman Sachs was accused Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission of fraudulently selling mortgage-backed securities to its customers. If convicted, the firm stands to make...Read More
