Notable excerpts and links to articles and reports we’ve found worthwhile reading. Though we try to avoid them, some links may be intercepted by ads or may require free log-ins. Please don’t blame us for this.
Investor Relations
CEO parachute deals come to light in new filings
The severance arrangements outlined will be “where some of the really big, potentially scary numbers could appear,” said Michael Melbinger, a corporate lawyer who advises boards on compensation and governance issues.
New market aims to emphasize quality
OTCQX is being launched by Pink Sheets LLP, an over-the-counter listing company, to create an elite tier of domestic small cap and foreign stocks outside the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. For many small and foreign companies, listing on the big exchanges has become cost prohibitive, especially since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which added reporting and compliance requirements.
Mutual Funds Get Busy Signal From Analysts Chasing Hedge Funds
Hundreds of institutional investors like Matrix are getting short shrift because securities firms now order analysts to ignore everyone but the customers who pay the biggest fees. Wall Street collects $33 million a year in stock-trading commissions from the average hedge fund, compared with $16 million from a mutual fund or equivalent investment manager, according to data compiled by Greenwich Associates.
JPMorgan Tops Goldman as Largest Hedge-Fund Manager
JPMorgan Chase & Co. overtook Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to become the largest U.S. hedge-fund manager, according to a new survey, as its flagship fund gained almost 25 percent while Goldman’s fell for the first time in seven years.
Rhymes with Duck
At the end of the call, which was detailing the company’s surprisingly positive earnings, a really strong vulgarity was uttered. What exactly was said is sort of in the air, as the official transcript has been scrubbed clean.
Regulation
Time pressures mount for options prosecutors
The five-year deadline for punishing securities fraud is shaping up to be a key point of contention as US prosecutors begin pressing criminal charges against corporate executives involved in backdating stock options.
Trader bust stresses concern
The U.S. government’s accusations that Morgan Stanley, UBS AG and Bear Stearns Cos. employees were central figures in an insider-trading ring illustrate why regulators and lawmakers are suspicious of Wall Street’s relationship with hedge funds.
Governance
SIFMA supports proportional voting of shares
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association of New York and Washington is encouraging its members to vote customer proxies in line with votes …
Governance Literature Review (for those with serious time to burn)
ISS reviews recent studies, including: The Effect of the Options Backdating Scandal on the Stock-Price Performance of 110 Accused Companies; Executive Compensation in Japan: Estimating Levels and Determinants from Tax Records; Lucky CEOs; Hedge Fund Activism; Fair Pay for Chief Executive Officers; Monitoring the Monitor: Evaluating CalPERS’ Shareholder Activism; The Cost to Firms of Cooking the Books;
Tech
Five Reasons Why Sell-Side Analysts Aren’t Demanding XBRL
Is lack of awareness the main hurdle that XBRL faces in gaining acceptance among security analysts? Or are there other reasons why analyst interest may not be overwhelming? Here are some possible reasons of why sell-side analysts at the big institutions are not banging on the table and demanding XBRL financial statement filings now.
Social Networking’s Next Phase
The new social networking players, which include Cisco and a multitude of start-ups like Ning, the latest venture of the Netscape co-creator Marc Andreessen, say that social networks will soon be as ubiquitous as regular Web sites. They are aiming to create tools to let ordinary people, large companies and even presidential candidates create social Web sites tailored for their own customers, friends, fans and employees.
FeedBlendr – Feed Remix Service
The basic idea behind the service is really simple – it’s a pipe that takes one or more RSS feeds (or OMPL file) and outputs a single feed.
5 Ways to Mix, Rip, and Mash Your Data
Call them pipes, teqlos, dapps, modules, mashups or whatever else but fact is that recently we have seen a good number of new services that allow developers and users to build mini-apps and mashups that mix and re-mix data.
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