Hedge Fund Elliott Clings to Kabel Stock in Vodafone Buyout (BusinessWeek)
Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (KD8) shareholder Elliott Management Corp. is holding out as Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) attempts to persuade investors to cash out so it can complete its takeover of the German cable company. Elliott hasn’t reduced its 11 percent holding since September, when investors were asked to tender their Kabel Deutschland shares to Vodafone, the German company said at a shareholder meeting in Munich today. The hedge fund may be betting it can force a higher price from Vodafone using that strategy, a person familiar with the takeover offer said last month.
$10 billion UK hedge fund heads Stateside (CNN)
Odey Asset Management, a $10 billion hedge fund based in London, is opening a U.S. office in New York, Fortune has learned. It will be led by new head of U.S. sales Tom Trowbridge, who previously was head of marketing for Lombard Odier’s 1798 Investment Strategies Fund. In an email to friends and colleagues, Trowbridge wrote of Odey: Besides the flagship global equity long/short hedge fund which has compounded at 14% over the past 21 years, the firm also offers several funds in European equity and global macro strategies.
Lavish nights at Club Godfather opened door to Japan pension fund bribery case (Reuters)
When a Tokyo-based investment manager set out to win business from a pension fund in northern Japan, the cost included dozens of nights drinking at Club Godfather, a discreet watering hole with a $200 cover charge and kimono-clad hostesses. Kazuyoshi Takahama, now 71, was treated to more than 50 nights out at the club in Sapporo as KTOs Capital Partners, a hedge fund, lobbied for a share of the $245 million pension fund he helped oversee as its chairman, prosecutors say. Takahama favored shochu, a local liquor, while his free-spending hosts ordered up expensive wines.
Market Mood Swings Sway Popular Hedge Fund Stocks (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Now, this is what you call volatility. The first eight trading days of the fourth quarter have been especially rocky and unpredictable for several of the equity market’s highest-flying stocks, many of which are widely owned by hedge funds. Some of these stocks fell by double-digit percentages in just the first five or six days of October at the same time that the S&P 500 dropped a modest 2 percent or so.
Hedge fund shaking up Microsoft is a kinder, gentler barbarian (CNN)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s management’s biggest worry these days may not be Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), but an investor out of San Francisco. Earlier this year, Jeffrey Ubben announced at a conference that his hedge fund ValueAct had bought $2 billion worth of Microsoft’s shares. The investment might have been seen as a vote of confidence in Microsoft and its management. But in late August, Microsoft (MSFT) said long-time CEO Steve Ballmer would be leaving in the next 12 months. Now some investors are reportedly pushing the board to oust chairman Bill Gates. Ubben and ValueAct have never publicly criticized Ballmer or Gates.
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