"Carl Icahn buys a stake in Mass. tech firm Nuance; Mass. tech firm may face fight for control" by Michael B. Farrell | Globe Staff, April 02, 2013
Carl Icahn is back in Massachusetts, and this time he may face his biggest brawl yet over a Bay State company.
Icahn, a billionaire investor who pressures underperforming companies to make massive changes, disclosed Monday that he has accumulated 9.3 percent of Nuance Communications Inc., maker of the speech technology behind Dragon software and Siri on the Apple iPhone, whose stock recently fell nearly 20 percent.
The big stockholding sets the stage for what could be a messy battle for control of the Burlington-based Nuance, pitting a veteran of some of Wall Street’s most bruising takeover battles against a combative chief executive who built Nuance into a technology powerhouse while bruising more than a few egos along the way as well.
Chief executive Paul Ricci made Nuance the dominant name in speech technology through a dizzying string of acquisitions, many of them just fledgling competitors, and cemented business connections with industry giants Apple Inc. and Samsung, while also making inroads into the lucrative health-care marketplace.
Widely followed industry analyst Walt Tetschner described Ricci as a “hard-nosed manager,” while critics said Ricci used threats and expensive litigation to wear down competitors.
But now with Icahn on the scene, investment analyst John Bright had this to say for Ricci and Nuance: “Generally speaking, you don’t want to pick fights with bullies.”
Famed — and feared — for his takeover of airline TWA and his unsuccessful run at US Steel, Icahn has also wrought huge changes at two of Massachusetts’ largest companies.
He undertook a prolonged battle for control of Biogen Idec Inc. that eventually resulted in the pharmaceutical firm replacing its chief executive and undergoing a restructuring, and he was also among a group of investors that pressured another drug firm, Genzyme Corp., to sell itself in 2010 for $20.1 billion to French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi SA.....
See: Gagging on Genzyme
Blogger Ruined My Biotech Conference Post
Also see:
Biogen Idec’s ALS drug falls short in trials
Biogen Idec sets price for new MS pill
Biogen Idec sued over deal tied to ALS drug
Henri Termeer isn’t exactly settling into retirement
Genzyme advances MS drug business
Sanofi investigated by US over blood thinner
Sanofi earning slump in 4th quarter
But they still made $593 million. Some slump.
Icahn remains a great force in corporate America. He recently entered the multibillion-dollar buyout battle for computer maker Dell Inc. as a rival to a group led by founder Michael Dell.
Related:
"With the emergence of Blackstone Group as a suitor for Dell Inc., it appears Michael S. Dell may have a change of heart about his plans to take the company he founded private. He considers Blackstone’s proposal potentially friendly to management and may reach out to the private equity firm this week, a person briefed on the matter said. Were he to switch, that would mean backing out of his $24.4 billion plan to take control of the company, made in partnership with the private equity firm Silver Lake."
Also see: Carl Icahn, Blackstone challenge plan to take Dell private
He is also involved in one of Wall Street juiciest battles, backing nutritional products maker Herbalife against a New York hedge fund manager.
In other cases, his investments in companies are lower-key. He owns 10 percent of video streaming company Netflix Inc.....
Prior to Icahn’s arrival, Nuance had been wobbling. In February, after reporting lower-than-expected earnings and cutting its business forecast for the near term, Nuance’s stock took a one-day hammering, falling 19 percent.
But while Ricci has overseen a strategy to buy up the competition and acquire some of the leading talent in the speech recognition field, Tetschner said the company has become bloated and unfocused.
Maybe Icahn “can take a whack at straightening it out,” the analyst said....
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"Ex-KPMG executive tied to insider trading; Suspect may have leaked data on Calif. firms" by Peter Lattman and Michael J. De La Merced | New York Times, April 10, 2013
NEW YORK — Federal authorities in Los Angeles are investigating a former senior executive at KPMG on suspicion of leaking secret information to a stock trader, according to people with direct knowledge of the inquiry....
Related:
"Minutes of the Fed’s March 19-20 meeting were released at 9 a.m. — five hours earlier than planned — after the Fed said it inadvertently sent them a day earlier to congressional staffers and lobbyists. The more than 100 recipients also included employees at JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group, Wells Fargo, and other large banks."
"The release raises the specter of insider trading, though there is no obvious evidence of it."
Also see:
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”"
Just wanted to clear that up for you.
Back to the current case of fraud before us:
The case involves alleged tips about confidential data related to Herbalife, the seller of nutritional supplements, and Skechers USA, the footwear maker, according to these people....
Related: Skechers agrees to a $40m payment
Click to continue reading this article
WTF?
Skechers toning shoes buyers can get refund under lawsuit settlement for false advertising
False advertising means they lied!
Both the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s outpost there are investigating the case, people briefed on the matter said.
Skechers added that, according to KPMG, the former partner in question — Scott I. London, the partner in charge of the audit practice for KPMG in Southern California — was cooperating with authorities. London, 50, could not immediately be reached for comment. He worked at KPMG for 29 years, according to a profile on LinkedIn. A resident of Agoura Hills, Calif., London is chairman of the L.A. Sports Council and sits on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce....
A government action against the former KPMG partner would add to the recent push by prosecutors and securities regulators to root out insider trading.
Depends on who it is.
Also see:
"Warren Buffett is once again the world’s third-richest person [with] a net worth [of] $54.6 billion. Berkshire Hathaway reported net income of $4.55 billion in the fourth quarter."
Oh, yeah, WAY TOO BIG to jail.
The news added to a swirl of publicity surrounding Herbalife, a supplement seller that has been in the middle of a well-publicized battle involving several hedge fund managers. William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management has said that he believes Herbalife is a ‘‘pyramid scheme,’’ and he has a $1 billion bet in place that the price of the stock will drop. On the other side of the trade is activist investor Carl C. Icahn, who owns a large position in Herbalife shares....
In its announcement, Herbalife said it believed its financial accounts for its last three fiscal years remained accurate. But...
But?
David Weinberg, Skechers’ chief financial officer, said in a statement....
The news of possible insider trading emerged in an unusual fashion late Monday....
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"Ex-KPMG partner facing charges" by Peter Lattman | New York Times, April 12, 2013
The payments came in various forms. There were envelopes of $100 bills wrapped in $10,000 bundles. There were tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert. There was a 2011 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona valued at $12,000.
Looks like a package for Ehud Olmert , and that's the second time I saw a Springsteen in my paper today.
Bryan Shaw, the owner and operator of a Los Angeles-area jewelry business, bestowed these gifts on his longtime friend and golf buddy Scott I. London, a senior partner at the accounting giant KPMG. In return for such largesse, Shaw received secret information from London about KPMG clients, and earned more than $1 million illegally trading in the shares of publicly traded companies.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against London, laying bare a brazen two-year insider trading scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil case against London and Shaw....
Shaw began cooperating with the government in February after they confronted him with evidence of insider trading. He turned against his friend, recording telephone conversations and in-person meetings to help the authorities build a case against London.
Federal authorities opened up an investigation last July after the brokerage firm Fidelity raised red flags about activity in Shaw’s account.
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And about that Dell:
"Windows 8 a further drain on flagging PC sales" by Peter Svenssonand Michael Liedtke | Associated Press, April 11, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — The ailing personal computer market is getting weaker, and it’s starting to look like it will never fully recover as a new generation of mobile devices reshapes the way people use technology.
The latest evidence of the PC’s infirmity emerged Wednesday with the release of two somber reports showing unprecedented declines in the sales of desktop and laptop machines in the first quarter.
If that news weren't troubling enough for PC makers, it appears that a pivotal makeover of Microsoft’s Windows operating system seems to have done more harm than good since the software was released last October.
What that means is people passed on Microsft upgrades because they are tired of buying something and then having it become obsolete forcing them to buy another one in five years.
We are TIRED of the FORCED CONSUMPTION and MARKET CREATION due to CRAP PRODUCTS!
Besides, we NO LONGER HAVE ANY MONEY because we NO LONGER HAVE JOBS!
‘‘This is horrific news for PCs,’’ said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis....
No matter how things are parsed, this is clearly the worst shape that the PC market has been in since IBM Corp. released a desktop machine in 1981.
In an attempt to keep the PC relevant, Microsoft released a radical new version of Windows last fall. Windows 8 has a completely new look that’s similar to the design of the software running the most popular smartphones and tablet computers. The overhaul requires a relearning process, a leap that many consumers and corporate buyers aren’t ready to take.
Looks like I'm not the only one tired of the $cams.
All signs so far point to Windows 8 being a flop.
‘‘Unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only didn’t provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market,’’ IDC vice president Bob O’Donnell said.
The newest version of Windows is designed to work well with touchscreens, but the displays add to the cost of a PC.
Representatives of Microsoft Corp. were not immediately available for comment....
Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest maker of PCs, saw a 24 percent drop in shipments in the first quarter compared with the same period a year ago.
See:
Hewlett-Packard to cut 27,000 jobs
2,000 more jobs to be cut at HP
$8.8b accounting charge after HP cites irregularities
Autonomy founder says HP’s claims off base
The industry’s number two player, China’s Lenovo Group, is benefiting from sales to first-time buyers in China and other developing countries. As a result, it held sales steady, alone among the world’s top five PC makers, according to IDC’s figures.
China must be producing a better computer then.
Man, has AmeriKan industry really turned to $hit because of the money junkies.
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Also see: Noted film critic Roger Ebert dies
Roger Ebert, 70; movie critic had sharp opinions
Roger Ebert, an early and wise adopter of online journalism
Ebert democratized movie criticism
He was also an icon of sorts.
