Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb has gained control of another seat on the board of internet company Yahoo! Inc.(NASDAQ:YHOO). The New York Times reported that Max Levchin, co-founder of e-commerce service PayPal, will serve as the fourth director nominated by Loeb, whose hedge fund firm Third Point is a Yahoo shareholder. He joins fellow corporate turnaround expert Harry Wilson, media consultant Michael Wolf and Loeb himself. The article also said that Intuit CEO Brad Smith and David Kenny, the head of the Weather Channel, are stepping down from Yahoo’s board.
White House, Hedge Funds Discuss Fiscal Cliff (HedgeFund)
When eVestment|HFN put out a poll recently asking visitors to the website if President Barack Obama should meet with hedge fund managers to discuss the “fiscal cliff” crisis, little did it know that the White House would go forward with such a proposition. That’s what Bloomberg reported this week as the president’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was scheduled to meet Wednesday with Daniel Och of Och-Ziff Capital Management. The meeting followed one with Avenue Capital founder Marc Lasry, a longtime Obama supporter, earlier this month.
Florida hedge fund III Associates celebrates 30 years, is optimistic for 2013 (Opalesque)
Few hedge funds can say they’ve lasted 30 years, fewer still can say that they have lasted that long, and are seeing consistent investor interest. For Boca Raton-based III Associates, at 30 the future looks bright. III Associates, is a hedge fund that specializes in relative value portfolios in the global fixed income and credit markets with $2.1bn in assets under management. I spoke with Garth Friesen, co-CIO and Principal about where he sees the firm, and financial markets headed going into the new year. As a firm, III Associates offers its clients including fund of funds and pension funds, with a targeted selection of innovative fixed income, credit, and tail risk products as well as individualized trading strategies. Friesen has been with the firm since 1998, and also currently serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.
Former Hedge Fund Founder Ordered to Pay $5 Million for Securities Law Violations (JDSupra)
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York recently ordered the investment adviser to two hedge funds, and its managing director, to pay nearly $5 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties for violations of the federal securities laws. Defendant Chetan Kapur, through his company ThinkStrategy Capital Management, LLC, induced investors into buying shares in two hedge funds he managed by making misstatements about the hedge funds’ past and present performance, their assets, longevity, and other material misrepresentations. Defendants subsequently entered into consent judgments with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the court, and agreed to pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest thereon, and civil penalties.
Man Group faces heavy GLG write-off (FT)
Man Group is weighing up significant accounting write-offs next year relating to its 2010 acquisition of GLG Partners, a move that will raise eyebrows after the announcement on Monday that former GLG boss Emmanuel Roman is to be the new chief executive of the company. People at Man told the Financial Times it was likely that further impairments would have to be taken in February, when the company announces its full-year results, after a difficult 12 months of lacklustre performance and investor outflows.
Falcone’s Harbinger Not Scrambling to Meet Redemptions (TheStreet)
Harbinger Group Inc (NYSE:HRG), a holding company majority owned by Philip Falcone’s struggling hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners traded nearly 27% lower after the company announced a secondary offering on Thursday of 20 million shares at a price of $7.50. While the offering states that three Harbinger Capital funds are the selling shareholders, a source familiar with the situation denies that the sales are a reaction to investor redemptions. Instead, the share sale is part of a long-term plan to increase Harbinger Group’s public float on the New York Stock Exchange, the source said.
