SAC Prosecutor Tells SEC Cohen’s Case Should Be Delayed (Bloomberg)
SAC Capital Advisors LP founder Steven A. Cohen’s case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be put on hold because criminal prosecutions of his former employees aren’t fully resolved, a prosecutor told the judge handling the administrative action. The SEC filed its case against Cohen last year, alleging he failed to supervise former hedge fund managers Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg and ignored indications that they illegally traded stocks based on confidential information. Both men were convicted after separate federal trials in Manhattan.
Coatue changes mind on $2 billion capital return (CNBC.com)
Coatue Management may not be giving back $2 billion to clients after all. In April, founder and Tiger Management alum Philippe Laffont announced that his main technology-focused hedge fund had grown too large to invest efficiently, especially its “short” bets against stocks. He said Coatue would return about $2 billion from the more than $7 billion fund by June 30 following losses of 7.4 percent in the first quarter and 8.7 percent in March alone.
Does Tely Labs Threaten George Soros’s 9.4 Million Polycom Share Bet? (Forbes)
In February George Soros reported that he had bet 9.4 million shares on videoconferencing player Polycom Inc (NASDAQ:PLCM) which replaced its CEO in December 2013. But a fast-growing upstart is threatening the videoconferencing industry structure which has been dominated by Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Polycom. Does that mean Soros made a bad bet? The upstart is Tely Labs, an “under 50-person” Redwood City, Calif.-based startup that’s “doubling its revenues year over year.” It controls 20% of the single-codec videoconferencing endpoint market in North America according to Wainhouse Research. And Tely believes that it’s poised to take second place from Polycom — with a 21% share — by the end of 2014.
Ziffs Shut Down Hedge Fund, Shift Way Wealth Is Managed (Wall Street Journal)
The billionaire Ziff brothers are winding down the multibillion hedge funds that invest their family fortune, one of the biggest such pots of money in the world. The three brothers, heirs to the wealth created by their grandfather’s magazine-publishing empire, are shutting the second of their two hedge funds and stepping away from the one-for-all, all-for-one investing style they followed for more than two decades, according to people familiar with their plans. Dirk, Robert and Daniel Ziff, ages 50, 47 and 42 years old, respectively, are closing their London-based hedge fund after its veteran portfolio manager, David Fear, decided to strike out on his own, the people said.
Obus Testifies In Insider-Trading Case (FINalternatives)
More than a dozen years after he allegedly committed insider-trading, Nelson Obus yesterday got the chance to deny the charges with his own voice. The Wynnefield Capital founder took the stand yesterday at his civil trial, at which he is accused of illegally trading SunSource shares in 2001. The Securities and Exchange Commission claims he learned of SunSource’s planned acquisition by Allied Capital Corp. from his analyst, Peter Black, who in turn learned it from a friend at GE Capital, Thomas Strickland.
Betting on bankruptcies (CNBC.com)
