Lehman’s Archstone saga twists till the end
By Antony Currie
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The Lehman Brothers Archstone saga is twisting till the end. The U.S. apartment empire that helped buckle the investment bank in 2008 is being sold for $6.5 billion to rivals Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities. Accounting changes and poor disclosure muddle the valuation. It’s a perfectly confounding denouement.
Barclays’ investment bank is too good to lose
By Dominic Elliott
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Is Barclays’ investment bank too good to lose? Antony Jenkins is wrestling with this question ahead of the UK lender’s strategic D-day next February. Politicians, as well as some regulators and shareholders, wouldn’t mind seeing the hard-charging investment bankers associated with the Bob Diamond debacle cast adrift. But while Jenkins will need to perform open-heart surgery on the unit, it still has value as part of the group.
HP’s accounts bombshell: a guide for the perplexed
By Quentin Webb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Hewlett-Packard claims it was duped into hugely overpaying for Autonomy, prompting an $8.8 billion writedown. It blames at least $5 billion directly on dodgy book-keeping. Autonomy founder Mike Lynch says his company played by the rules. But complicated procedures for categorising sales and recognising revenue are critical to the strength of HP’s three central allegations.
Sales mix
The idea that HP would have been “duped” by mere aggressive accounting or by differences between US and European accounting standards is so ridiculous that, if true, reflects more negatively on HP than on Autonomy. HP seems to be collapsing from the very center, incapable of understanding how bad these charges make them look. I’ve bought only HP PC’s for over a decade, but no more. It’s time to find companies that intend to exist in the future.
New risk factor for China stocks: divorce
By Wei Gu
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Broken marriages are an unwelcome new risk factor for China investors. Shares in Longfor Properties dropped 4 percent on Nov. 20 on news that its founding couple had divorced and split their controlling stake, sparking fears of a covenant breach. Family feuds are growing more common, and investors are taking a share of the strife.
A Hewlett-Packard primer on how not to do a deal
By Richard Beales and Robert Cyran
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
If it weren’t so tragic for a once-revered technology pioneer, the story of Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Autonomy would be a comedy of errors. If nothing else, it’s a case study of what to avoid when tempted to contemplate a big takeover.
Fiorina and Apothker are folding and refolding their golden parachutes, so they really could care less about what happens to HP.
Quattrone has several golden parachutes and piles of dust-laden money. The opinions of the authors about Quattrone are the most cogent. Yet, nothing of substance will occur until the next corporate debacle unfolds with more golden parachute departures. This jaded business is an on-going United States saga.
Meanwhile, 50% of all college graduates have no jobs, and they are buried in debt from the student loan racket, and almost 50% of the United States citizens will still have no adequate health-care. The care that Obama is offering will cost the average citizen more than he or she can afford, and medicare without an expensive insurance supplement is useless.
Try to find a physician who will accept medicare without a supplemental package. Next to impossible.
Pay more attention to the average citizens in the United States. The corrupt Corporate Oligarchy will take care of themselves, as they have always done.
In other words:get real.
German press crunch time could imperil democracy
By Olaf Storbeck
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
This autumn is proving to be particularly grim for the German press. DAPD, the country’s second-largest news agency went into administration in early October. The Frankfurter Rundschau, the oldest national paper in Germany, followed suit last week. On Thursday, Gruner + Jahr (G+J), Europe’s largest printing and publishing house, will probably pull the plug on Financial Times Deutschland (FTD).
Disney chief’s unlikely fairy godfather: Murdoch
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Rupert Murdoch makes an unlikely fairy godfather. The News Corp boss is more often portrayed as a cartoonish evil villain, especially inside rivals like Disney. But by paying a punchy price for a big piece of the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, Murdoch is implying an even richer valuation for ESPN than is already attached to the coveted Disney sports brand. That in turn makes the whole Magic Kingdom look worth more.
Enforcers keep on casting for biggest SAC fish
By Reynolds Holding and Richard Beales
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
U.S. prosecutors haven’t given up on landing the biggest fish at SAC Capital. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday hit Mathew Martoma, an ex-trader at Steve Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund firm, with criminal and civil insider trading complaints. The enforcers say the underling helped SAC make $276 million. But if they want Martoma to lend a hand reeling in Cohen, they’ll need to deal.
HP’s Autonomess should devour Marc Andreessen, too
By Rob Cox
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The blame game is in full swing at Hewlett-Packard over the wayward technology conglomerate’s $8.8 billion write-down of Autonomy. The company pins the fiasco on the British software company for inflating its books. Chief Executive Meg Whitman also faults herself, her predecessor and a departed chief of strategy. Fingers are being pointed at Autonomy’s auditors while investment bankers on both sides of the 2011 deal are no doubt furiously huddling with legal counsel. Yet there’s at least one more name to add to the recrimination list: HP director Marc Andreessen.
Let’s face it, Andreesen is basically an engineer and that is his expertise. NOT MAKING BUSINESS DECISIONS! He seems to be adept at self dealing too.
Ellison may be a notorious character and has garnered a lot of animosity towards himself, but he is a savvy business leader and when he passed people should have listened.
Weibo has reason to “open sesame” to Alibaba
By Wei Gu
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
Weibo has reason to “open sesame” to Alibaba. A possible purchase of a 15-20 percent stake in China’s Twitter by the country’s largest e-commerce group, Alibaba, as reported by China Business News, makes strategic sense. It could pave the way for owner Sina to spin Weibo off, and create revenue synergies for both.
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