DealBook: Wall Street on Spitzer: 'There Is a God'

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Edited by Andrew Ross Sorkin

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 M & A: Hostility Has Its Rewards BANKING: Morgan's Mack Under Pressure Over Risk PRIVATE EQUITY: The Debt Burden Squeezing Buyout Firms HEDGE FUNDS: Citi to Inject $1 Billion Into Hedge Funds OFFERINGS: Societe Generale Raises $8.5 Billion in Offering VENTURE CAPITAL: iPhone Entrepreneurs Line Up for Funding LEGAL: Malone Speaks of Diller as Court Battle Starts TOP STORY Wall Street on Spitzer: 'There Is a God' Wall Street was awash with schadenfreude on Monday, as many financial types took pleasure in seeing a scandal rise up over New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was linked to a prostitution ring. During his years as the state's attorney general, Mr. Spitzer had fiercely sought to punish investment banks, insurance companies, research analysts and the New York Stock Exchange for a litany of perceived sins, assuming the mantle of "Mr. Clean." On CNBC on Monday, markets reporter Bob Pisani quoted an unnamed trader's reaction, which spoke for the vast majority on the Street. "There is a God," the trader reportedly said. Kenneth D. Langone, a former director of the New York Stock Exchange and a target of one of Mr. Spitzer's lawsuits, had this to say to The Wall Street Journal: "He actually believes he's above the law. I have never had any doubt about his lack of character and integrity -- and he's proven me correct." Not everyone was rejoicing. Jim Cramer, the CNBC host who was Mr. Spitzer's classmate in law school, said, "Eliot's one of my oldest friends," adding, "If it's true, it's obviously very sad." Go to Item from DealBook» Go to Article from The New York Times» In other fallout, concerns emerged Monday that Mr. Spitzer's troubles could undermine the rescue of battered bond insurers at a time when the teetering financial sector can ill afford another letdown. Go to Article from The Financial Times» Go to Article from The Globe and Mail» Go to Article from MarketWatch» Mr. Spitzer's woes have also turned attention to hedge-fund manager George Fox, a political supporter of Mr. Spitzer whose name the governor used to reserve a room in a Washington hotel. Go to Article from The New York Post» Go to Article from Radar Online» Read More Add a comment ADVERTISEMENT Back to Top MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS "They are copying us," Oracle's Larry Ellison says of Microsoft and Electronic Arts as they pursue the latest hostile bids to arise in the tech sector. And, Mr. Ellison tells Andrew Ross Sorkin in his latest DealBook column, they would be foolish not to try. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Looking to squelch persistent rumors about a sale of NBC Universal, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman of General Electric, plans to make his most definitive statement yet about his company's chief media asset. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by market value, plans to press ahead with its $4 billion takeover of Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lender under F.B.I. investigation for possible securities fraud. Go to Article from Bloomberg News via The Houston Chronicle» Go to Previous Item from DealBook» Read More Add a comment One of Yahoo's potential white knights in its struggle to avoid being taken over by Microsoft -- Rupert Murdoch of the News Corporation -- just put his steed back in the stable. Go to Article from The San Jose Mercury News» Read More Add a comment The computer storage provider Iomega said Monday it received an unsolicited acquisition offer from a rival, EMC for $178.1 million but said the offer was not superior to a share purchase deal. Go to Article from Reuters via The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Air France-KLM Group won approval Monday from its board to make a binding bid for the Italian state-controlled carrier Alitalia. Go to Article from The International Herald Tribune» Read More Add a comment Nationwide Financial said Monday that its parent company, Nationwide Mutual, has offered to buy the shares in the financial services firm that it does not own for $2.2 billion in cash. Go to Item from DealBook» Go to Nationwide Financial Press Release via Business Wire» Read More Add a comment Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to trade its 16.3 percent stake in White Mountains Insurance Group for two subsidiaries and $751 million. Go to Article from The Associated Press via The San Jose Mercury News» Read More Add a comment Dow Jones & Company, a unit of global media conglomerate News Corporation, said Monday it acquired Betten Financial News, a Dutch-language news service covering the corporate sector in the Netherlands. Go to Article from The Associated Press via CNN Money» Read More Add a comment Back to Top INVESTMENT BANKING Morgan Stanley chief John J. Mack is expected to be confronted by a campaign by the CtW Investment Group, a union-backed shareholder activist group, seeking the appointment of an independent chairman for the securities firm. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank, is laying off 5 percent of its work force, or about 1,430 people, because of difficult market conditions, according to Reuters. Go to Article from Reuters via The Globe and Mail» Go to Article from The New York Post» Go to Article from The Times of London» Read More Add a comment As rumors about a liquidity crunch sent Bear Stearns's shares sharply lower Monday, Alan Greenberg, the chairman of the firm's executive committee, appeared on CNBC calling such speculation "totally ridiculous." Go to Article from Bloomberg News» Go to Article form CNBC.com» Read More Add a comment Lazard said on Monday that its chairman and chief executive, Bruce Wasserstein, received a salary of $4.8 million in 2007. Go to Article from Dow Jones via The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Back to Top PRIVATE EQUITY Celebrated buyout firms like the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, hailed only a year ago for their deal-making prowess, are seeing their profits collapse as the credit crisis spreads through the financial markets. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment The New York Public Library's venerable lion-guarded building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street is to be renamed for the Wall Street financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, who has agreed to jump-start a $1 billion expansion of the library system with a guaranteed $100 million of his own. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Back to Top HEDGE FUNDS Citigroup, the banking giant, moved Monday to shore up six of its hedge funds pressured by a tightening in the municipal bond market, the newest problem to entangle the struggling company. Go to Article from The New York Times» Read More Add a comment Charming Shoppes, the owner of women's plus-size apparel retailer Lane Bryant is suing a pair of activist hedge funds, accusing them of misleading the chain's investors as they mount a proxy campaign to shake up the company's board. Go to Article from The New York Post» Go to Article from The Philadelphia Inquirer» Read More Add a comment Should the ban on hedge-fund advertising be eased? Lawrence Cohen of law firm Morrison Cohen talks about what's at stake as a fund manager plans to sue over the rule. Go to Item from DealBook» Read More Add a comment Back to Top I.P.O. / OFFERING Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank, raised 5.54 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in a rights offer to replenish capital depleted after trading losses and write-downs. Go to Article from Bloomberg News» Read More Add a comment Bostwick Laboratories, which focuses on cancer diagnostics, plans an initial public offering of common stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday. Go to Article from The Associated Press via CNN Money» Read More Add a comment Eyeblaster, a global provider of online campaign management solutions and services, on Monday said it is planning an initial public offering of as much as $115 million in common stock. Go to Article from Reuters» Got o Article from peHUB» Read More Add a comment Back to Top VENTURE CAPITAL It was only last week that Apple announced that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers would pony up $100 million to invest in start-ups seeking to create applications for iPhone, but already hopeful entrepreneurs are knocking on Kleiner's door. Go to Article from the Red Herring» Go to Previous Item from DealBook» Read More Add a comment Fluid Entertainment, a kid-oriented online video game company, is near a test launch of its massively multiplayer online game and it is the latest to benefit from a round of V.C. money. Go to Article from VentureBeat» Read More Add a comment Less than three months after announcing its initial funding, mobile social networking start-up Kyte on Monday said it raised $21.1 million in a second investment round led by Steamboat Ventures and Intellect Capital Ventures. Go to Article from the Red Herring» Read More Add a comment Back to Top LEGAL The cable media mogul John C. Malone told a judge on Monday that he held no ill will toward his longtime business partner, Barry Diller, who controls IAC/InterActiveCorp, even though the two are now battling over who controls what at IAC. Go to Article from The New York Times» Go to CNBC Video via The New York Times» Read More Add a comment A Securities and Exchange Commission filing, a shareholder lawsuit and a dollop of verbal jousting kept things percolating Monday in Electronic Arts' pursuit of Take-Two Interactive Software. Go to Article from The Los Angeles Times» Go to Article from The San Jose Mercury News» Read More Add a comment Theodore Roxford, who used several names over the years as he made false bids for the likes of Sony and Playboy Enterprises, was ordered to pay a $900,000 fine but was denied his request for "execution by firing squad." Go to Item from DealBook» Go to Article from Bloomberg News» Read More Add a comment Get home delivery of The New York Times for as low as $3.15 a week.

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