Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Exits Yahoo, Amazon Last Quarter (Bloomberg)
Tiger Global Management LLC, the $14 billion investment firm run by Chase Coleman, increased its stakes in industrial companies last quarter and reduced holdings of technology firms. Tiger bought 3.9 million shares of car-rental company Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR), which had a market value of $190 million as of March 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, and 1.64 million shares of real-estate data firm Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) worth $144 million. The New York-based firm exited its stakes in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX).
Daniel Loeb’s hedge-fund Third Point LLC added sizeable new stakes in companies including American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL), Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), according to a regulatory filing Thursday. The hedge-fund manager, who recently settled a seven-month-long battle with art auction house Sothebys (NYSE:BID), disclosed he held at the end of March 2.7 million shares of American Airlines, 1.4 million shares of Anheuser-Busch and 3.5 million shares of Verizon worth about $166 million.
The rise of David Tepper (MarketWatch)
David Tepper is arguably the most influential “smart-money” voice in the markets right now. While hedge funds have persistently underperformed the market of late, there are at least a handful of talented money managers with some undeniably jaw-dropping track records. Tepper is in that category. SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, the host of the SALT hedge fund conference in Las Vegas, says that $1 million invested with Tepper’s Appaloosa Management when it was founded 20 years ago would be worth $149 million now, net of fees. Tepper’s public pronouncements remain rare.
Billionaire Democrat Sets Eye on Senate Races (New York Times)
Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist, recently contributed $5 million to a “super PAC” dedicated to keeping Democrats in control of the United States Senate, cementing his alliance with the party as the 2014 campaign swings into high gear. Mr. Steyer, a retired hedge fund manager, has used some of his fortune in an effort to make climate change a more potent political issue in pivotal states like Florida, Iowa and Virginia. He is planning to raise $100 million to run campaigns on climate issues, including efforts to persuade lawmakers and the Obama administration to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Hedge funds haunted by deflation spectre (Financial Times)
There was an incongruity to the warnings of European deflation and grindingly disappointing US growth that were sounded from the stage at the SALT conference, when the evenings were spent at lavish poolside parties, replete with masked ball-style costumes, fire-eaters and a revival performance by Lenny Kravitz. One would have worried about the cognitive dissonance, if one’s cognition were not made fuzzy by the delicious cocktails. The invite-only event is a name-dropper’s paradise, where 1,800 attendees from hedge funds rubbed shoulders last week with the titans of their industry, while Tony Blair added political gravitas and Kevin Spacey and Francis Ford Coppola brought Hollywood glitz.
Verizon rises on hedge fund bets (CNBC.com)
