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27 Apr 2010 20:20

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Biz: Goldman Sachs execs had a lot of sweat furrowing their brows today

  • They’re buying something from you, and you are betting against it. And you want people to trust you? I wouldn’t trust you.
  • Sen. Carl Levin • Talking in very harsh terms to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein – a hearing put together in the wake of the SEC lawsuit against the company. He and other Goldman staffers looked really uncomfortable with being there, and Levin didn’t help – especially due to all the profanity he was using in criticizing them. He said “)*#(%@” eleven freaking times in a ten-minute period. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Apr 2010 12:00

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Biz: Goldman Sachs e-mails: Yeah, we bet against mortgages

  • Of course we didn’t dodge the mortgage mess. We lost money, then made more than we lost because of shorts.
  • Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein • In an e-mail regarding its role in the mortgage crisis. The e-mail, one of many released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, suggests that the company was betting against the failing housing market and profiting significantly from it – one of the main claims of the SEC’s lawsuit against the investment firm. This could be bad news for Goldman Sachs. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2010 10:18

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Biz: CIT Group’s new CEO, John Thain, knows a thing or two about bailouts

  • $6
    million     amount of money John Thain will make in his first year as CEO for the emerging-from-bankruptcy small business creditor CIT Group
  • $15
    billion     amount of money Merrill Lynch lost on his watch in the fourth quarter of ’08; is this really the right guy for this particular job? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Dec 2009 21:25

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Tech: AT&T’s CEO is a giant douchenozzle, based on this statement

  • The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data. Longer term, there’s got to be some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the users.
  • AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega • Describing his frustration with smartphone data users (iPhone users, mostly) who go whole-hog on data usage because, well, just look at their phones. The company’s service, which has gotten suckier as more people give into the iPhone’s charms (and because they agreed to the Apple deal without the infrastructure to handle it), could turn into a pay-toll-style service based on what this jerk just said. His claim: 3% of users are responsible for 40% of data use. Our claim: Those 3% are setting the template for your other 97%. Get ready. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2009 20:17

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Biz: We’d like to announce our candidacy for GM’s open CEO position

  • Dear rich people, we think we’d be a perfect fit for you. General Motors has had an incredibly rough last twelve months or so (though they’re recovering). Between a bankruptcy and a watchdog federal government, they’ve had zero room for error. And now their nine-month-old CEO, Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, is retiring. We smell a job opening! Here are three reasons GM should hire us as CEO:
  • Fresh bloodWe’re not the old guard, General Motors. We don’t do (#&@ the old way. In fact, we have no clue what the old way was! When we step into Fritz Henderson’s dusty old office (after having an exterminator go in and check for termites and bailout money), we plan on running the company as if we don’t know what we’re doing. But we do!
  • cars with brevity Here at ShortFormBlog, we know a thing or two about keeping things short and efficient. And we know that the government is on your back about creating more efficient cars. We plan on bringing our blogging technology to General Motors, and we’re going to upgrade the engines from internal combustion to WordPress. Thank us later, guys.
  • Family reunionWe know some of your old workers aren’t happy with you – all those layoffs, the concessions you forced the United Auto Workers to take, the outsourcing – and we plan to make it up to them, using the only method we know how – we’ll move them out of Michigan and put them in a state that isn’t a black hole of depression. Sound fair? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

16 Oct 2009 11:06

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Biz: Ken Lewis is retiring rich, but Bank of America is still struggling

  • $1 billion in losses, mostly from bad debt, this quarter alone source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2009 20:00

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Biz: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis sure regrets that Merrill Lynch merger

Lewis will be retiring at the end of the year, the victim of months of heavy scrutiny – by regulators and investors – of the failed merger. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

28 Sep 2009 09:39

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Biz: Abercrombie & Fitch pays its CEO an absurd amount of money

  • $71.8 million the amount longtime A&F CEO Michael Jeffries gets in total compensation in 2008, including a $6 million “stay bonus”
  • 71% tumble the freefall of that stock during the twelve months of 2008; it’s up a little since then, but it’s nowhere near its January 2008 levels source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Sep 2009 11:51

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Biz: Question to Citigroup CEO: Is an employee’s $100 million salary too much?

  • You can bet he answered yes. Vikram Pandit of Citigroup admits that they’re probably paying too much to Andrew Hall, that trader who lives in a castle thanks to his massive salary. Wouldn’t it have been funny if Pandit said, “No, we’re not paying too much to a single guy!”? Man, the bailed-out company would be hearing it for months. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Sep 2009 20:34

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Biz: Ex-Lehman Bros. CEO Dick Fuld tired of getting “dumped on”

  • You know what? The anniversary’s coming up. I’ve been pummeled, I’ve been dumped on, and it’s all going to happen again. I can handle it. You know what, let them line up.
  • Former Lehman Bros. CEO Dick Fuld • Describing the torrent of criticism he’s gotten since the company completely collapsed last year. Fuld has been a bit press-shy since the collapse for understandable reasons. “Nobody wants to hear it,” he says. “The facts are out there. Nobody wants to hear it, especially not from me.” The full article is quite good. If you choose one link to click on tonight, choose this one. -> • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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