Finance Matters

Archive for July 14th, 2010

The start of July has seen the U.S. northeast hit with a heat wave of abnormal proportions, according to WSI.

Across the region and even further south temperatures have strayed up to 3 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1971-2000 mean. Out west, however, there has been a significant cooling.

WSI are suggesting that the northeast should see a cool down, but that the south will stay warm. This will impact gas demand, with it increasing everywhere but the north-central U.S. and northeast over the month of July.

Check out this map from WSI, as seen on CNBC today:

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WINNERS OF THE DAY:

Guillaume Rambourg – the star portfolio manager of hedge fund Gartmore Group resigned from the hedge fund that (momentarily) ruined his reputation.

Spencer Greenberg, Jeremy Newton, Jonathan Sturges, and Alexander
Fleiss – They were all featured in a huge WSJ story about their tiny $7 million quant fund, Rebellion Research, just because they’re barely over 20 years old. Now everyone who reads the C-section knows who they are.

Gregg Brockway – The former i-banker, now a multi-millionaire tech entreprenuer after having sold Hotwire to IAC for $650 million, just founded Tripit.

Jamie Dimon – Apparently everyone’s calling him just, “Jamie,” now. They’ve dropped the last name, like he’s Madonna.

Paul Tudor Jones – The hedge fund manager of Tudor was outed for spelling out his initials in three man-made islands off the Chesapeake Bay.

Pablo Calderini – Deutsche Bank’s head of equity proprietary trading continued the mass exodus of prop traders that are leaving DB to join hedge funds. He’s going to a hedge fund. Which one, we’re not sure.

Jeff Urwin and Kevin Willsey – They are the new co-heads of investment banking for U.S. and Canada for JPMorgan.

Jonathan Turnbull – The former head of Citigroup’s infrastructure i-banking group has been poached by Lazard to be managing director of their energy, power, and infrastructure group.

Alastair Maxwell – Goldman Sachs poached the former Morgan Stanley head of energy investment banking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He’ll start in London in October.

All Equities Traders Looking For A New Job: Brevan Howard is hiring.

LOSERS OF THE DAY:

Spencer Greenberg, Jeremy Newton, Jonathan Sturges, and Alexander
Fleiss – They were all featured in a huge WSJ story about their tiny $7 million quant fund, Rebellion Research, just because they’re barely over 20 years old. They make the list under both winners and losers because now everyone who reads the C-section knows who they are, for better or worse.

Stefan Ortseifen – The former German CEO of IKB Deutsche Industriebank officially became the first German exec to get in trouble for his actions during the crisis.

Credit Suisse Employees Working In Germany: Their offices were searched today to find out more info about some workers possibly hiding assets in a tax evasion scheme.

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The SEC filing for Foursquare‘s $20 million Series B round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, just hit the wire.

From the filing, we learn:

• The total offering is actually $19,999,996. (The other $4 must have gone to Starbucks.)

• Foursquare’s founders — Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai — took home $4.64 million in this round, the company confirms to us. (Nice!) Specifically, the filing says $4.64 million “has been or is proposed to be used for payments to any of the persons required to be named as executive officers, directors or promoters.”

• That leaves $15.4 million for the company to spend on growth.

• Foursquare’s official name is Foursquare Labs, Inc. It used to be called Foursquare All-Stars LLC.

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See Also:

• 10 Web/Tech Companies We Actually Like
• Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley’s Epic World Cup Adventure
• It’s Official: Foursquare Raises $20 Million Series B From Andreessen Horowitz At $95 Million Valuation

Admiral Allen has cleared BP to commence integrity test and attempt to close the well. From @BP_america:

• Early this afternoon, I briefed President & Cabinet & we will tell BP to proceed w/ well integrity test. -Adm Allen
• We will start to increase pressure in capping stack in 6 hr intervals to review pressure data as well as sonar & acoustic data. -Adm Allen
• Well integrity test will run for 48 hrs. Then, we stand down, assess where we are at & what to do next. -Adm Allen
• We are building out an enhanced containment strategy in case the tests do not go well & we have to continue containment. -Adm Allen

The White House stopped the test yesterday to allow more analysis of potential risks. With Allen now talking about backup plans, it’s clear these risks still exist — and they’re better than the alternative.

Watch this live cam closely and you will see BP attempt to close the leak:

Don’t miss: Amazing Photos Of Surfers In The Oil Spill

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Apple went shopping again this week — we told you its deal streak wasn’t over — acquiring Quebec-based mapping company Poly9. This is the second maps-focused company Apple has purchased.

What’s the point?

In the short term, and with Poly9 specifically, Apple is buying “its Google Earth,” analyst Greg Sterling writes today.

But more broadly, Apple is preparing for life after Google.

Apple has relied on Google for a number of iPhone services since the phone launched in 2007, including Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, etc.

But through a series of deals, Apple is now preparing to take control of key services for the iPhone that it may no longer be able to trust Google with, now that Google is quickly becoming Apple’s archenemy.

For example…

• Apple’s latest deal (and the one last year) suggests Apple is taking control of mapping.

• Its previous deal to acquire Siri suggests Apple is taking control over some mobile search functions.

• Its recent deal to put Microsoft’s Bing on the iPhone — not as default, yet, but as a user-selected option — doesn’t immediately replace Google, but provides an option for the future.

• Apple’s iAds (via its Quattro Wireless deal) provides Apple’s iOS developers an alternative to Google, especially after Google bought AdMob, the leading iPhone app ad network.

All that’s missing now is Apple’s version YouTube, if Google ever decides to tax Apple for access to YouTube’s APIs, or demands to take over the app. Well, there’s always iTunes.

Make no mistake. Apple may still talk about how only certain teams at Google and Apple hate each other, and that the companies are still partners in many other areas.

But Steve Jobs would be insane not to Google-proof every area of his business.

Don’t miss: The Next 5 Apple Gadgets To Waste Your Time Obsessing About

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See Also:

• The Next 5 Apple Gadgets To Waste Your Time Obsessing About
• Here’s Why Gaming Could Be Apple’s Winning Ticket Into The Living Room
• Apple Acquires Another Mapping Company