[  This is a personal non-profit online research library and is solely used by Scott Bryan Hill.  Some of the links on this page lead to outside resources and the presence of these links should not be taken as an endorsement.  ]

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

( Symbol Guide )

[ A ]

Advisers May Get Second Chance to Fail, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, April 6, 2003.  "Do you think Salomon Smith Barney, the brokerage firm that bankrolled WorldCom and advised it on a business and financial strategy that failed rather spectacularly, should be allowed to represent the interests of the company's employees, bondholders and other creditors while WorldCom is in bankruptcy?  If you answered no, you win a gold star for common sense and for knowing right from wrong. If you answered yes, you must be either an investment banker looking for work or a member of Congress looking to fill campaign coffers."  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

Amid Tumult in Health Care, A Banker Carves a Rich Niche, Ann Davis, The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2004.  “UBS's Benjamin Lorello Excels At Getting Deals Done, But Some Later Fall Flat Blowback From HealthSouth.”  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ B ]

Big Firms Has Research Ploy: Quiet Payments Among Rivals, Randall Smith, The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2003.  "Settlement Reveals Technique Not Widely Known in Industry - Five big Wall Street securities firms found a new way to issue tainted stock research to investors during the stock-market bubble, according to regulators.  In one of the most surprising elements of Monday's $1.4 billion research settlement with the government, half of the 10 securities firms cited for civil violations were charged with making or receiving undisclosed payments for research. The upshot, according to regulators: Firms would pay their rivals what were sometimes called "research guarantees" to build more positive ratings on stocks, rigging the system against unwitting investors who didn't know the game."  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ C ]

Credit Suisse Link Between Banking and Research, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, October 8, 2002.  “Credit Suisse First Boston used its research analysts' rosy stock ratings to attract investment banking fees from companies hoping to raise money from investors, according to documents obtained by securities regulators investigating the firm and its research practices.”  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ D ]

 [ E ]

 [ F ]

Mergers: Fair Should Be Fair, Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times , March 20, 2005.  “So maybe all is not fair in love and investment banking.  For the last several months, regulators have been on Wall Street's back about "fairness opinions," those conflict-ridden fig leaves that banks provide to clients to justify a proposed merger or acquisition. The National Association of Securities Dealers has just finished gathering comments from the public on how to change the practice and is expected to set new rules for fairness opinions soon, possibly in concert with the Securities and Exchange Commission." (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ G ]

 [ H ]

How Investment Banking Fees Corrupt Wall Street, Michael Lewis, Bloomberg, April 19, 2002.  "The general view, implicitly accepted by the 11 banks and Wall Street firms that bowed to GE's credit demands, was that any firm that didn't give GE what it wanted would be excluded when it came time for GE to dole out its huge banking fees. As the former head of corporate bond research at Deutsche Bank AG put it, ``If you say no to GE, you get banished to the underworld.''  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ I ]

 [ J ]

 [ K ]

 [ L ]

 [ M ]

 [ N ]

NASD Scrutinizes Conflicts In Bankers' 'Fairness Opinions', Ann Davis, The Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2004.  "Wall Street bankers involved in the lucrative and thinly policed business of offering "fairness opinions" on the value of corporate mergers and acquisitions may face tough new rules for disclosing the financial incentives that they and the company executives they advise have for pushing through deals.  The NASD, the main self-regulatory body for brokerage firms, has begun a potentially far-reaching inquiry into the fees, methods and possible conflicts of interest connected with such opinions, people familiar with the inquiry say. At a time when the M&A business is gaining momentum in a resurgent economy -- with 7,226 deals totaling $558 billion in the U.S. last year, according to data company Dealogic -- any significant regulatory shift could touch a lot of wallets."  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ O ]

 [ P ]

 [ Q ]

 [ R ]

 [ S ]

Shopping Spree by the Famous 5, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, May 4, 2003. "Even folks wise to the ways of Wall Street were stunned by the revelation in last Monday's regulatory action that five brokerage firms had paid others to issue research on stocks of companies the firms had underwritten. The practice, at Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan Securities, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, UBS Warburg and Bear, Stearns, seemed designed to ensure that the shares of the companies would be bid up by investors as the claque of "analysts" delivered the applause for which they had been paid."  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

Spitzer Views Salomon Notes As Highlight of Analyst Probe, Randall Smith and Susanne Craig, The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2003.  “The conflicts uncovered by the probes, Mr. Spitzer said in an interview, "shifted the prism, the way we look at" Wall Street and its "facade of integrity, the facade that there are firewalls" between research and banking. "That facade has been shattered."  Still, Mr. Spitzer cautioned, he isn't sure even now whether many of Wall Street's top executives understand the roots of the problem. He cited an article on the editorial page of Thursday's Wall Street Journal¹ by Stan O'Neal, CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co., in which Mr. O'Neal warned against excessive regulation of free-enterprise risk taking, saying that it could lead to "economic stagnation."  "Do they get it now?" Mr. Spitzer asks. "You see the Stan O'Neal op-ed piece and you think they don't get it. They make me wonder, have we really learned anything?" In a news conference Monday, Mr. Spitzer said, referring to Mr. O'Neal and Merrill: "What we have alleged about your company is that you committed fraud -- that is not risk."  Merrill Lynch declined to comment.”  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ T ]

 [ U ]

UBS Helped Guide HealthSouth In Years Leading up to Scandal:   Investment Bankers Were More Involved In the Company Than Previously Disclosed, Carrick Mollenkamp and Robert Frank , The Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2003.  “UBS Warburg's top health-care investment bankers helped HealthSouth Corp. make management and business decisions in the years leading up to the company's accounting scandal, according to newly released documents.  The disclosures show that UBS, a securities firm that is struggling to rebuild its reputation amid regulatory fallout on Wall Street, was far more involved in the inner workings of HealthSouth than previously disclosed and maintained an unusually close relationship with HealthSouth's embattled founder, Richard Scrushy.”  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ V ]

 [ W ]

What Are Mergers Good For?  The Dark Side of the Deal, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, June 5, 2005.  “To most investors, mergers are the stock market's equivalent of catnip. Takeover bids typically provide a nice boost to investors' portfolios and confirm their stock-picking smarts. And to hear the executives orchestrating them tell it, they always produce greater profits at the combined company down the road. Business publications and newspapers, including The Times, celebrate the deals with breathless tales of how they came together, complete with photographs of smiling executives shaking hands in front of a crowd.  This year, with the stock market moving sideways, buyouts and the gains they generate are prized all the more. There have been a lot of them, too. This year, according to Thomson Financial, the first quarter's combinations were valued at $308.2 billion, up 17 percent from the value of deals announced in the same period in 2004. If this activity continues, 2005 will be the fourth-largest year in deal size." (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

With Rest of Wall St. Penitent, Morgan Stanley Tries On a Halo, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, April 30, 2003.  “Most Wall Street firms and their executives, embarrassed by details in the industrywide settlement on how they duped investors to keep their corporate clients happy, have either kept quiet or issued statements of contrition for the lapses that occurred during the stock boom of the 1990's.  Then there is Philip J. Purcell, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley. According to Mr. Purcell, Morgan Stanley and its clients should not be disturbed by the firm's activities during the bubble.”  (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ X ]

 [ Y ]

Yet Another Persecuted Architect of the Tech Bubble, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, February 9, 2003. "During the technobubble, Frank P. Quattrone was the man to see if you were a new-economy entrepreneur looking for other people's money to pocket. In the technobust, Mr. Quattrone, an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, is facing questions over his advice to colleagues that they shred documents about the faltering companies he helped finance." (Financial Firms | Investment Banking)

 [ Z ]