JPMorgan No. 1 Investment Bank Amid a Flurry of New Deals

From Bloomberg: Investment banking, after five long, hard years of negative or anemic growth, job cuts, pay cuts and public lashings, is on the verge of a comeback. Really, it is -- if the data can be believed.

All the economic statistics show that the markets are ripe for a rebound in mergers and acquisitions and equity issuance in 2013, dealmakers say….

Yet Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s top investment banker is guarded in his forecast, and he isn’t alone, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its April issue.

“I hesitate to be the one that says 2013 will be the year, because invariably it may not,” says Christian Meissner, BofA’s head of global corporate and investment banking. “But I think that we’re pretty close to it changing.”

Find out more at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-02-28/jpmorgan-no-dot-1-investment-bank-amid-a-flurry-of-new-deals

Top hedge fund manager blows $29 million tax case

Reuters reports that a prominent London hedge fund manager has failed in his attempt to shelter 19 million pounds ($29 million) of profits from taxes through the use of an avoidance scheme, the UK tax authority said on Friday, as it steps up a government-backed crackdown on such schemes.

Patrick Degorce, chief investment officer at hedge fund Theleme Partners, availed himself of a scheme marketed by film finance group Goldcrest Pictures Limited, which involved buying and selling movie rights via a British Virgin Islands entity. The transactions created losses which Degorce sought to offset against 18.8 million pounds of profits from his hedge fund, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.

But a Tax Tribunal has now ruled that Degorce could not reduce his taxable income in this way….

More?  Go to http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/uk-hedgefund-tax-idUKBRE9200SL20130301

Einhorn drops Apple lawsuit

From the AP: A disgruntled Apple shareholder pressing the iPhone and iPad maker to create a new class of preferred stock has dropped a lawsuit that prompted the company to change its agenda at its annual meeting this week.

Lawyers for hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital notified US District Judge Richard Sullivan in a letter sent Thursday that they no longer planned to pursue the lawsuit. Sullivan then closed the case. Einhorn had already achieved his goal last week when Sullivan issued a preliminary ruling blocking an Apple Inc. proposal that would have required shareholder approval before preferred stock could be issued. Apple withdrew the proposal from the agenda at its annual meeting held Wednesday.

Apple's slumping stock fell to a new 52-week low $431.89 in trading on Friday……

More?  Check out http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/david_einhorn_drops_apple_lawsuit_CDJpRwsmd3vGqg5H7reWRJ

You’ve Gotta Be Kidding: Former UBS Trader Seeks to Appeal Muti-Billion Fraud Conviction

According to the NY Times' Dealbook: Kweku M. Adoboli, a former UBS trader currently serving a seven-year jail sentence for a fraud that prompted a multibillion-dollar loss at the Swiss bank, has requested an appeal.

Mr. Adoboli, who was sentenced in November, filed an “application against his conviction and sentence,” a clerk at Britain’s Court of Appeal said. Tim Harris, Mr. Adoboli’s lawyer, was not immediately available for comment.

Last year, a jury was unanimous in its decision to find him guilty of one count of fraud. The jury was nine to one on a second fraud charge and acquitted Mr. Adoboli on two charges of false accounting. Mr. Adoboli’s jail term is unlikely to be significantly reduced should the second fraud charge be reversed, his lawyer said last year.  Mr. Adoboli had pleaded not guilty on all charges. He argued that his actions were aimed at generating profit for UBS and that colleagues were aware….

Read all about it at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/former-ubs-trader-requests-to-appeal-fraud-conviction/

Andrew Mason’s Best Exit Memo Ever

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we've shared over the last few months, and I've never seen you working together more effectively as a global company - it's time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness - don't waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew" ]

From: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/one-thing-could-save-groupon-175358151.html

Jeffrey Ubben's Class Act

         

According to the institutionalinvestorsalpha: As far as Jeffrey Ubben is concerned, less is more.

His San Francisco hedge fund firm, ValueAct Capital, manages more than $10 billion of assets but it owns shares in only 15 individual stocks. Ubben, who came from a private equity background before founding ValueAct in 2000, is proving his mettle. Four of ValueAct’s largest holdings are in the black, and three of them are trouncing the S&P 500. The three largest positions alone account for about $4 billion….

Find out more at http://www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com/Article/3161781/Jeffrey-Ubbens-Class-Act.html

Pershing Square's Bill Ackman has a two aspirin kind of day

From Reuters: Noted stock picker William Ackman had a decidedly gloomy day on Thursday: Two of his most high-profile bets were moving fast, but in the wrong direction for the hedge fund manager and investors in his $12 billion Pershing Square Capital Management.

The day started with news that the shares of retailer J.C Penney, in which Pershing Square is the largest investor, tumbled as much as 22 percent in the wake of disappointing earnings news. The shares closed down about 17 percent at $17.57.  The second blow came hours later when Herbalife Ltd  - in which Ackman made a $1 billion bet its shares would fall to zero - invited two representatives of arch enemy Carl Icahn onto its board. The company's shares ended the day 7.6 percent higher at $40.29 after the announcement….

More?  Turn to http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-hedgefunds-pershingsquare-idUSBRE91R1JG20130228