The Rights Issue - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

Partially as a result of the lack of liquidity and reduced equity sales, firms are turning to rights issues.The Rights Issue - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times: "Rights issues are all the rage. The Royal Bank of Scotland just announced a nearly $24 billion rights offering to shore up its capital base. And last week, Blockbuster made a $1.35 billion

IPO cancellations

With market volatility high and liquidity low many firms are pulling their equity sales. From the NY Times' Deal Book.A Tale of Two Public Offerings - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds "At $24 billion, the volume of new issuances in the United States actually doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier. But if you exclude the gargantuan stock sale from Visa, the total

One of the more interesting insider trading cases in a while

It may not compare to this one (indeed it is hard to imagine one that would), it is definitely an easier story to tell in class and pretty good!Brother, Can You Spare a Tip? - Law - CFO.com: "According to the complaint....Stummer allegedly sneaked into the brother-in-law's bedroom office and, without permission, accessed his brother-in-law's computer. By correctly guessing the password, Stummer

Feds: Adelphia Fraud Victims Can Ask for Their Money Back - Law - CFO.com

A fast Adelphia updateFeds: Adelphia Fraud Victims Can Ask for Their Money Back - Law - CFO.com: "U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that victims of the securities fraud committed at Adelphia Communications can ask the U.S. Attorney General to recover parts of their financial losses that were directly caused by the fraud....The older and younger Rigases were originally

Bank Accounting Standards in Mexico: A Layman's Guide to Changes 10 Years after the 1995 Bank Crisis — HBS Working Knowledge

Bank Accounting Standards in Mexico: A Layman's Guide to Changes 10 Years after the 1995 Bank Crisis — HBS Working Knowledge: "Mexico was the first emerging market compelled to reformulate the financial reporting of its banks as a result of a financial crisis. In the last decade, Mexico has undergone a process of internationalization of its banking industry. Today, more than 80 percent of the

Executive Pay: The Bottom Line for Those at the Top - The New York Times

The NY Times has a very interesting look at CEO pay at 200 large firms.Executive Pay: The Bottom Line for Those at the Top - The New York Times: "Executive Pay: The Bottom Line for Those at the TopCompensation and accumulated wealth of 200 chief executives for large public companies that filed proxies for last year by March 28."Another site on CEO pay that we often use in class is that from the

You don't want to start any blasphemous rumors

Depeche Mode had it right! You really " don't want to start any blasphemous rumors..."S.E.C. Accuses Trader of Spreading Rumors - New York Times: "In what the Securities and Exchange Commission said was its first rumormongering case, a former securities trader settled accusations Thursday that he had spread false rumors to profit from a pending merger.The trader, Paul S. Berliner, then employed

Regulators Back Away From Changes to Commodity Hedging - New York Times

Regulators Back Away From Changes to Commodity Hedging - New York Times: "All the farm industry speakers expressed concern about whether banks, in the midst of a tight credit market, would continue to provide the farm industry with the credit it needs to meet the higher costs of maintaining their hedge positions.The commission was told about a “very solid” grain elevator in Kansas that lined up a

Delta, Northwest Post Losses As Fuel Costs Rise

One of the more popular things we have been doing in class this past year has been to allow each group to pick at least one of their own cases. Thus we will be looking at the Delta-Northwest merger. So in light of this, some required reading for my classes. Delta, Northwest Post Losses As Fuel Costs Rise: "Delta Chief Financial Officer Edward Bastian said that the airline has moved quickly to

Tech Beat Microsoft and Yahoo Russian Roulette - BusinessWeek

Game theory is always one of the more mathematical modeled issues, so when you get a chance to see an easy one, you grap it, here is just such an analysis:Tech Beat Microsoft and Yahoo Russian Roulette - BusinessWeek: "Yahoo and Microsoft have also done their best to increase the others cost and risk of delaying. This month, Microsoft set a three week deadline, set to expire April 26, for Yahoo

Male sex hormone may affect stock trades - Yahoo! News

Male sex hormone may affect stock trades - Yahoo! News: "The hormone that drives male aggression and sexual interest also seems able to boost short term success at finance. But what seems to start out well can turn bad, with elevated testosterone levels over several days possibly leading to irrational risk-taking, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge in England."and from USA

Mergers in the Air? Microsoft/Yahoo and Delta/Northwest - Knowledge@Wharton

Knowledge@Wharton has a nice recap of both major takeover deals in the news right now:Mergers in the Air? Microsoft/Yahoo and Delta/Northwest - Knowledge@Wharton: "The ongoing takeover battle between Microsoft and Yahoo has taken several surprising turns over the past few weeks. After rejecting Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion offer in late February, Yahoo has announced a two-week ad testing

Milton Friedman's Free to Choose 1990

Ok, so this may or may not be really finance, but the line between economics and finance is pretty arbitrary, so I am including this one. It is from PBS's 1990 series Free to Choose.

SSRN-Where Does it Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained by Shawn Allen Cole, John Thompson, Peter Tufano

You know the old saying "Don't judge anyone until you walk a mile in their shoes"? Well, this might be a good example. As it is tax time, there are many commercials for tax advance loans and the like. These are almost always such a bad deal financially I struggle with why anyone would use them. Cole, Thompson, and Tufano may have at least part of the answer: they need the money. SSRN-Where

A conversation with George Soros - Charlie Rose

So are you feeling pretty good about things? Upbeat about it being a short recession? You might want to watch this video from Charlie Rose.A conversation with George Soros - Charlie Rose: "A conversation with George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management." While I am not going to play Eeyore, some of his comments were disturbing enough to merit serious thought. I do not like his view that

Closet Indexing By Mutual Funds: Worse Than We Thought? - Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha has an important article on ETFs being held within mutual funds. Closet Indexing By Mutual Funds: Worse Than We Thought? - Seeking Alpha: "...it is extraordinary how many traditional long-only mutual funds hold ETFs, either to equitize their cash or to get the market return and then just layer on fees. You may not see the ETFs held during the reporting periods, but certainly inside

Use of brain-boosting drugs reported in survey - CNN.com

Well, clearly I have never done this!!! Use of brain-boosting drugs reported in survey - CNN.com: "One in five respondents to a new survey in the journal Nature say they've used drugs to boost their brain power."

SSRN-Sell Side School Ties by Andrea Frazzini, Christopher Malloy, Lauren Cohen

Score another one for REG FD. Frazzini, Malloy, and Cohen have a working paper out that looks at whether an analyst with school ties to company gets better information than one with no ties. Their finding? The ties seemed to matter in a pre-FD days, but not since. SSRN-Sell Side School Ties by Andrea Frazzini, Christopher Malloy, Lauren Cohen: "...find evidence that analysts outperform on

SSRN-Investor Inattention and the Underreaction to Stock Recommendations by Roger Loh

Talk about a fascinating article! Short version: event studies for stocks that are forgotten and out of the limelight show that the information content of a stock recommendation takes longer to "get in the price".SSRN-Investor Inattention and the Underreaction to Stock Recommendations by Roger Loh: "recommendation drift of firms with low prior turnover is more than double in magnitude compared

Video killed the radio star

Video Killed the radio star, and maybe the class room star too. With so many online videos to choose, from here are some cool finance videos that will liven the classroom. I would definitely recommend buying the actual video whenever possible. They are all very good!In the 20th year of the movie Wall Street, it only seems fitting to give a short clip from the movie. Here is "The Greed Speech."

At Last, Buffett’s Key to Success - New York Times

Want to start a discussion that will sure to cause trouble? Here we go:At Last, Buffett’s Key to Success - New York Times: "Patience and good decision-making help set women apart here.”As a result, women’s portfolios on average gain 1.4 percent more than men’s, according to a study cited by Ms. DiCosmo. Single women’s portfolios do 2.3 percent better than single men’s. The study, “Boys Will Be

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Bid Again - New York Times

Yet another Yahoo-Microsoft update.Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Bid Again - New York Times: "The company was responding to a letter from Microsoft that threatened to lower the price of its buyout offer and take it directly to Yahoo shareholders....Our board’s view of your proposal has not changed,” Yahoo said in letter to Mr. Ballmer....“We continue to believe that your proposal is not in the best

Trillion Dollar Bet

I am sure many of you have seen the old NOVA special on Long Term Capital Management called the Trillion Dollar Bet. I have shown it in class before, but it is a tad too long. This abbreviated version is on Google Video.

FRB: Testimony--Bernanke, Developments in the Financial Markets--April 3, 2008

Bernanke and others testified today in front of Congress about the troubles in recent months in the credit markets. a few highlights from the transcript.FRB: Testimony--Bernanke, Developments in the Financial Markets--April 3, 2008: "Well-functioning financial markets are essential for the efficacy of monetary policy and, indeed, for economic growth and stability. Consistent with its role as the

Could an economic lesson from Sweden work in the U.S.? - USATODAY.com

Want something to worry about? try this one on for size:Could an economic lesson from Sweden work in the U.S.? - USATODAY.com:"The Swedish and American crises share many traits....Happily, despite economic conditions that were far worse than in the USA today — and unlike a similar episode in Japan — Sweden quickly recovered. Yet, it did so in a manner that would be highly controversial in the

Great primer on Derivatives!

Of Knock-ins, Knock-outs & KIKOs:"There are a hundred ways in which derivative products can be structured. Ranju Sarkar spoke to experts to bring you a primer on derivatives.One look-in: " Interest rate swaps: In interest rate swaps, you are addressing only the interest rate part of the loan. If a company takes a view that the interest rates are going to be higher and if it has borrowed in

Microsoft Unlikely to Raise Yahoo Offer - WSJ.com

Update on this story (which did happen to be an essay question on the first MBA test ;))Microsoft Unlikely to Raise Yahoo Offer - WSJ.com: "Microsoft Corp. is preparing to lay a long siege.Two months after Microsoft made its $44.6 billion offer to acquire Yahoo Inc., the software maker has no plans to raise its bid, people close to the company say.Such pronouncements are standard in deal

UBS Writes Down Billion; Chairman to Leave - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

The story continues:UBS Writes Down Billion; Chairman to Leave - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times: "UBS, the largest Swiss bank, said on Tuesday that it would write down another $19 billion related to “U.S. real estate and related structured credit positions” ...The news came as Deutsche Bank, the biggest German lender, said Tuesday that it expected