Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has made her first major move to try to make Yahoo cool again. The Wall Street Journal reports that (paywall) Yahoo’s board today approved a $1.1 billion deal to acquire blogging site Tumblr. The deal, first reported by AllThingsD, is meant to attract younger users who see Yahoo as largely irrelevant.
European shareholders want to help pry Spanish oil firm Repsol from the jaws of the Argentine government. Repsol is suing the Argentine government for seizing 51% of YPF, the Argentine oil company formerly owned by Repsol. The company is also suing Chevron and other multinationals firms, which have since penned deals with YPF to develop the country’s rich shale resources. European shareholder organizations spent this week lobbying US investors in Repsol as well as the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the World Bank.
Yesterday, in a foreign bribery lawsuit by Wal-Mart shareholders against the retailer, Delaware chancellor Leo Strine declined a request to keep out of evidence documents that were already publicly available. (He also ordered attorneys representing Wal-mart shareholders to return certain documents obtained from an anonymous whistleblower.)
The IPO for data visualization firm Tableau Software today lived up to the hype that has preceded it. Tableau opened trading at $47, compared to its IPO price of $31—and that’s even after the size of the offering was increased. Interestingly, Tableau chose the New York Stock Exchange over Nasdaq for its IPO. Nasdaq has been traditionally seen as the go to place for tech IPOs, but NYSE has managed to gain share from its rival over the last few years.
The numbers: Bad. The department store chain reported that net income fell by 113% for a loss of $348 million. The company also reported a 16.6% decline in same store sales.
The numbers: Not good. PC maker Dell reported earnings per share of $0.21, which missed estimates, and net income fell by 79% to $130 million. But it reported better-than-expected revenue at $14.1 billion.
Hedge fund Elliott Management is on a roll, reflecting the rise in activity among activist investors this year.
Update 2:45 pm ET: A Tracinda spokesman says there are no facts to support Lisa Kerkorian’s claims and “therefore, no merit whatsoever to the allegations she has made.”
Hedge fund Jana Partners revealed stakes today in online daily deals company Groupon and online game developer Zynga, sending shares of those companies up. Jana is sometimes an activist investor that pushes for the breakup, sale or other major change at companies. But in this case, the fund was probably just looking for good investments at a discount rather than trying to stir things up, sources said.
The numbers: They were good. The networking products maker beat expectations with earnings per share of $0.51 and revenues totaling $12.2 billion. Its shares were up by almost 6% in after hours trading.
Despite some grumblings, Morgan Stanley shareholders approved the pay package for CEO James Gorman and other executives during the bank’s annual meeting today. But the proposal got the support of about 86% of investors, compared to the almost 95% who backed a similar measure last year. That means Gorman is still under pressure to speed up the overhaul of Morgan Stanley.
As Jamie Dimon fights to keep his dual roles as CEO and board chairman of JP Morgan, his powerful friends are letting the public know they have his back. Today, AIG chief Robert Benmosche told Bloomberg Television that there is no “we” in CEO, and added it would be dysfunctional for the CEO and chairman to be overseeing separate areas. But the cheerleading from business leaders probably won’t have much influence over how shareholders vote on May 21.
If anyone can ruffle the sedate corporate culture of the Japanese, it’s Dan Loeb, manager of New-York-based hedge fund Third Point. The sometimes activist investor sent a letter to Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai today calling for changes at the iconic Japanese company. Loeb, with a 6.5% stake in Sony, is now one of the company’s largest shareholders. By going after a Japanese giant like Sony, Loeb is also bound to make waves in Japan’s corporate landscape.
Tata Steel’s $13.1 billion acquisition of European steelmaker Corus in 2007 was a sign of the Indian company’s global ambitions. Now it’s the division that is dragging Tata Steel down. Today, Tata Steel announced a $1.6 billion write-down, the largest ever by an Indian firm, largely due to its European operations. The news puts further pressure on Tata to pare down its European investment and focus instead on its home turf.
It used to be when an investment banker hit the age of 55 or so, he would take his millions and retire. But with deferred compensation and other cuts in pay in recent years, older bankers are staying on the job longer, according to a handful of senior bankers at major US and European banks who spoke to Quartz. That has caused crowding in the upper ranks, leaving less room for promotions among younger bankers. Several bankers say that has become a problem at their firms, where they want to groom the next generation of leaders but there is less room for them to move up.
Carl Icahn is at it again. In a letter to Dell’s board yesterday, the billionaire and Southeastern Asset Management, two of the flailing computer maker’s biggest shareholders, offered a counter bid to acquire the company. They’re challenging a management buyout led by founder Michael Dell with private equity firm Silver Lake, which the letter dubbed “the Great Giveaway.” The Icahn-Southeastern offer isn’t a home run. It could actually be worse than the proposal it’s meant to trump. But it might just apply enough pressure on the company’s founder and Silver Lake to raise their offer and finally close the deal.
Are the activists running out of ideas? Or maybe great minds think alike? Hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital revealed today that the company he had planned to discuss at the Ira Sohn conference was already targeted last week by another activist investor, Jana Partners. Both funds say Oil States International, which provides oil equipment and services, is undervalued and would be better off broken up.
It’s that time of year when billionaires and some lowly millionaires gather at the Ira Sohn Conference in New York to listen to hedge fund masters dole out nuggets of wisdom about investing and the global economy. Oh, and to raise money for pediatric cancer research.
*UPDATED at 7:05 pm. A person familiar with P&G said McDonald is only involved with seven other organizations besides P&G.
Americans will add bacon to anything, it seems.
The pressure is increasing on JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to give up his other role as chairman of the bank’s board. Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis said today that JP Morgan shareholders should vote for a proposal for an independent chairman. The recommendation puts more pressure on JP Morgan to reach a compromise to avoid an embarrassing shareholder vote.
The Warren Buffett extravaganza is now over. The Oracle of Omaha discussed a range of subjects at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, from his birth in November 1929 to what keeps him up at night. The media, shareholders and analysts were able to ask Buffett and Charles Munger, Berkshire’s vice chairman and Buffett’s right hand man, a variety of questions for several hours. Some of the tough questions that Quartz had wondered about came up during the gathering. This is what we learned:
As Warren Buffett groupies gather for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, it’s time once again to speculate about the Oracle of Omaha’s successor. In his annual letter to shareholders earlier this year, Buffett said they should “bow deeply” if they get to meet Ajit Jain, Berkshire’s insurance investment point man, at the gathering. Is that because he could be next in line to take over at Berkshire?
The world was all atwitter yesterday about Twitter hiring a Morgan Stanley banker as its head of corporate development. Did that mean an IPO was coming soon? Cynthia Gaylor does have IPO experience and helped take Facebook and LinkedIn public. But actually, her hiring says more about Twitter’s M&A ambitions than its IPO dreams.
