Hedge Fund News: Ken Griffin, Lansdowne Partners, Elliott Management

Bernanke’s Hedge Fund Gig ‘Wrong On So Many Levels’: Adami (CNBC)
Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke is heading down a well-beaten path: shuffling through the revolving door between Washington’s policy circles and Wall Street’s big money institutions. The $25 billion hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, in a statement said, “Dr. Bernanke will consult with Citadel teams on developments in monetary policy, financial markets and the global economy.” Adding a note from its founder and CEO Ken Griffin, “He has extraordinary knowledge of the global economy and his insights on monetary policy and the capital markets will be extremely valuable to our team and to our investors.”

Hedge Fund Lansdowne Tunes Into Spotify Stake (Yahoo Finance)
An array of prominent global investors including the London-based hedge fund Lansdowne Partners are in advanced talks to acquire multimillion pound stakes in Spotify, the digital music service. Sky News can exclusively reveal the full list of investors who are expected to participate in a $400m (£268m) fundraising that will value Spotify at $8.4bn (£5.6bn). The investors, who are betting that loss-making Spotify can ultimately use its loyal customer base to reap handsome profits, will each buy stakes valued at several tens of millions of dollars, with the largest acquiring up to $100m-worth (£72m) of stock, according to insiders.

Shareholder DC Thomson Backs Alliance Trust’s Fight Against Elliott (Reuters)
Top-10 Alliance Trust investor DC Thomson & Co Ltd said it would vote against activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors‘ resolution to nominate three new directors to the board. Elliott in March launched a campaign to install new directors at the 126-year-old firm, hoping it would kick-start an improved performance by the investment fund. “The Elliott proposals offer board and governance change but, while we welcome open debate, we see nothing in their proposals to persuade us, as long term investors, to give them our backing,” DC Thomson said in a statement.

Canada’s Legacy Oil + Gas Under Fire From Activist Shareholder (Reuters)
Intermediate producer Legacy Oil + Gas formed a special committee on Monday to deal with hedge fund FrontFour Capital‘s move to gain seats on its board, the first major case of shareholder activism in Canada’s oil patch since last year’s sharp drop in crude prices. Calgary-based Legacy, which has assets in the foothills of southern Alberta and light oil operations in the Canadian Bakken region of southern Saskatchewan, came under scrutiny last month after legal documents showed it was backstopping a loan for its chief executive officer, Trent Yanko.