Billionaire Singer Is a Welcome Addition to Italian Drama (Bloomberg)
Activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp isn’t letting a messy Italian election get in the way of a golden opportunity. According to Bloomberg News, it is building a stake in Telecom Italia Spa — a fiendishly complicated tangle of vested interests that includes billionaires, politicians and unions. The move would put Paul Singer‘s outfit on the opposite side of the table to fellow tycoon Vincent Bollore, the network operator’s smart and connected chairman. Not the easiest bargaining partner. Still, it might offer hope to Telecom Italia’s poor shareholders, provided Elliott can navigate the politics.
Whitney Tilson is Betting Big on Buffett and Tech (The Motley Fool)
Hedge fund managers have long been a target of Buffett‘s ire, as he urged investors to put their money into low-cost index funds, saying that the massive fees levied by professional money managers would eat into returns. In a move steeped in irony, famous former hedge manager Whitney Tilson is betting half his children’s college funds on Buffett. A big bet on Buffet and Berkshire: Tilson revealed in an email to investors that he would be investing the money he set aside for his kids’ college educations and dividing it among just five stocks, according to ValueWalk — 50% would be invested in Berkshire Hathaway, 25% in The Howard Hughes Corporation, with the remaining 25% divided roughly evenly among Amazon.com, Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
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Millionaire Hedge Fund Boss Buys Sunny Isles Beach Penthouse for $17M (BizJournals.com)
A company led by Fred Knoll, head of New York-based hedge fund Knoll Capital Management, paid $17 million for a double-sized condo at the Mansions at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach. LPLA Partners, an affiliate of the Trump Group, sold units 4501 and 4502 with a combined 9,218 square feet to 4501 Investments LLC, managed by Knoll. The price equates to $1,844 per square foot. It has four bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. Trump Group, run by Jules Trump and Eddie Trump — no relation to the President Donald Trump — built the 47-story condo along the beach at 17749 Collins Ave. in 2015. After this deal, only five of the 76 units have yet to close.
Elliott Builds Telecom Italia Stake to Take on Vivendi (Bloomberg)
Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. is building a stake in Telecom Italia SpA as it weighs vying for board control with the carrier’s largest investor, French media conglomerate Vivendi SA, according to people familiar with the matter. Elliott is considering nominating directors to the board and pushing for other changes at Telecom Italia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. The activist hedge fund is concerned about Telecom Italia’s share slump and business performance since Vivendi took control of the board in 2016, the people said. Elliott has contacted several Italian investors to get involved, one of the people said.
