The hedge fund industry has been feeling the effects of the difficult financial times we are living through. However there are some bright spots on the dark background, including the Baupost Group, managed by Seth Klarman. For Baupost, 2011 finished in the black due, according to Klarman because of the company’s “focus on risk-aversion and…
Category Archives: Company Spotlight
Company Spotlight: Technicolor
Technicolor, a leading media and entertainment tech company, recently found salvation in JP Morgan Chase & Co. The American investment firm will contribute as much as $195.4 million in Technicolor, for a 29.96% equity share, after the tech company managed to pull out of bankruptcy protection two years ago. Technicolor plans to use the development…
Focus on Companies: Man Group
The Man Group Plc (EMG) is the largest publicly traded hedge fund manager in the world, but that has not prevented them from suffering from bad economic times. They say that clients relieved them of a net value of $1 billion in funds during the first quarter of 2012, and other costs such as employee…
Focus on Companies: Is It a Good Idea to Buy Dell Now?
Dell has a hard time over the past several years as Apple expanded its product base into the PC market. Despite the challenge and the resultant decline in revenue from the consumer and public segments during fiscal year 2012 Dell still posted growth in its Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of 26%. The growth…
Company Spotlight: Och-Ziff Capital Management Group
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group is a global alternative asset management firm as well as an American hedge fund manager. At the beginning of 2011 OZM was managing over $28 billion in assets. The firm is large, with over 400 people employed throughout the world with offices located in Beijing, Mumbai, Hong Kong, London, and New…
Company Spotlight: Appaloosa Management
Appaloosa Management is an employee-owned hedge fund established in 1993 by David Tepper and Jack Walton in New Jersey, USA. Appaloosa Management runs four investment firms, including its offshore Palamino Fund LTD, two versions of the Thoroughbred fund, both offshore and onshore, and its leading fund, Appaloosa Investment. The firm invests in both public equity…
Investors Surprised as Alcoa Posts Gains
As global markets for aluminum improve in the automobile and aerospace industries, Alcoa Inc showed significant improvement in profits for the first quarter of 2012, after posting losses at the end of 2011. In the face of analysts’ predictions that Alcoa Inc would come away from 2011’s first quarter in the red, the gains stimulated…
Spotlight on Companies: United Services Automobile Association
Despite the fact that the United Services Automobile Association is not “in-your-face” like some other of America’s largest companies, it ranked 145 in 2011 on the Fortune 500 list of revenue makers. Even more impressive, however is that it ranked 17th in a list of America’s best companies to work for. Judged by revenue alone…
Expectations High for new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins
Two months ago, when Thorsten Heins took over the reins of Research in Motion Ltd, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, he promised to improve both marketing and execution at the woebegone high-tech company. Today is the day investors will be able to judge whether Heins will be able to fulfill his promises, and to what…
TIG Advisors Closing 15-Year-Old Hedge Fund
Joining a growing list of hedge funds closing shop, TIG Advisors, LLC is shutting down its $210 million, 15-year-old emerging markets hedge fund. In 2008 the long/short equities hedge fund was valued at about $1.5 billion, falling to $750 million just one year later, in April 2009. Suffering its second annual loss within four years,…