Finance Matters

Archive for February 16th, 2010

Paulson & Co’s latest 13-F filing is out.

Last quarter, Paulson remained big into Gold ($3.4 billion up from $3.1 billion in the 3rd quarter) and Bank of America ($2.5 billion down from $2.7 billion in the 3rd quarter).

His fund’s third largest holding was Citigroup, a stake that increased from $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion last quarter.

His biggest new stakes include a $465 million investment in XTO Energy (which is being bought out by Exxon (XOM), a sign he’s still into his old merger arbitrage plays) and a $472 million investment in Wells Fargo.

Paulson’s other shifts, according to his most recent 13F report, include moving into CIT Group (which Third Avenue just dropped) with $121 million, DirectTV with $170 million, Kraft with $135 million, and Hyatt hotels with $9 million.

Read Paulson’s latest 13F filing >

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See Also:

• Hedge Fund Brevan Howard Drops Goldman, Picks Up Substantial Gold Stake
• Almost Nobody Wants To Invest In John Paulson’s Gold Fund
• An Actual Deal: Pfizer (PFE) Buys Wyeth (WYE) For $68 Billion

HBO Go is about to break out of beta.

HBO’s streaming video service, which offers movies and series from The Wire to Big Love online, currently works for Comcast and Verizon FiOS subscribers, according to the New York Times. But a big HBO Go press announcement is coming tomorrow, which might mean more viewers will be able to access the site.

But wait! Only paying HBO subscribers will be able to access the videos.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes unveiled an early version of the site in April, at the 2009 Cable Show. The company has been tweaking the service ever since.

Time Warner’s Bewkes has been focusing on the HBO brand, with the launch of a new marketing scheme and renewals of original, scripted programming including True Blood, Hung and Big Love.

Bewkes said on an earnings call on Feb. 3 that adding costly original content will allow HBO to charge higher prices to cable companies and subscribers.

He said HBO Go will have three times the content of what’s already on HBO On Demand. 

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See Also:

• Time Warner Profits Up, Focusing On ‘Additive And Not Cannibalistic’ Models
• Why Netflix Won’t Be The HBO Of The 21st Century
• Who Needs TV? HBO Joins MTV’s New Era Without ‘Television’

From TechCrunch: After hitting a flat spot last fall, Twitter’s worldwide growth is pointing in the right direction again. According to worldwide comScore figures released today, Twitter’s own site attracted 73.5 million unique individuals in January, up 8 percent from December, 2009 (when it had 65.2 million visitors). Its annual growth rate is still a phenomenal 1,105 percent. A year ago, Twitter.com attracted only an estimated 6 million visitors.

Continue reading at TechCrunch »

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See Also:

• Twitter Still Growing, Users Now Send A Billion Tweets Per Month
• CHART OF THE DAY: Kids Don’t Hate Twitter Anymore!
• Thanks To All Those Shills On Twitter And Facebook, People Don’t Trust Their Friends Anymore

CNBC viewers may have noticed a new talking head today in a segment about Simon Properties’ buyout offer for General Growth.

That would be crack FT Alphaville reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael.

Fans of the site know she’s ridiculously knowledgeable, and she’s obviously great on camera, so with the WSJ and CNBC moving further apart — leaving FT to fill the void — she’ll likely be on a lot more.

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See Also:

• Simon Properties Acquiring Hedge Fund Favorite General Growth Properties
• See How Bill Ackman Made Complete Fools Out Of Commercial Real Estate Bears Like Hovde Capital

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A spokesman for Greece’s governing Socialists says the party plans to call on parliament to investigate how the previous conservative government relayed faulty fiscal data to the European Union.

Parliamentary spokesman Christos Papoutsis on Tuesday gave no other details on the probe, which could lead to potential prosecution if politicians are found responsible of wrongdoing.

Greece’s new Socialist government sharply revised the 2009 budget deficit after winning general elections last October. The deficit revision to 12.7 percent of GDP, from a 3.7 percent forecast months earlier, helped trigger a financial crisis around mounting debts by Greece and several other countries using the euro.

The Socialists have 160 deputies in the 300-seat parliament.

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See Also:

• Greek Finance Ministry Walks Off The Job To Protest Debt Crisis Austerity
• Goldman Sachs Shorted Greek Debt After It Arranged Those Shady Swaps
• The Greek Crisis Is A Dress Rehearsal For A Major Speculative Attack On The UK