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The document dump to end all document dumps.
With Christmas and New Year's both falling in the middle of the week, it's been a slow week in boardrooms and newsrooms, except for lawyers filing documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With many analysts and reporters on vacation, companies often rush out news that they might not want to see broadly covered. Here's a selection of the best public filings of the holiday season.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
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Sahm Adrangi, 32, went from pondering a journalism career to managing a $300 million hedge fund. He spoke with BuzzFeed about his career transformation, the climate for hedge funds, and some activist investor campaigns currently being waged.
Sahm Adrangi
At age 32, Sahm Adrangi possesses all the traits of a seasoned hedge fund veteran. Sharp suits, check. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment gains, check. Love of publicity, double check.
Looking at Adrangi now, it's hard to fathom that at one point he coveted a career in journalism, and even got a job offer from The Wall Street Journal. In retrospect, the visa issues that prevented the Canadian-born Adrangi from accepting the WSJ's offer may have been the best thing to ever happen to him.
The Yale alum now leads New York–based Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million hedge fund birthed in 2009 largely from prescient short bets against Chinese companies he believed had shady business tactics that went unnoticed by the country's weak financial regulatory system.
Adrangi spoke with BuzzFeed about his hedge fund beginnings, the outlook for the industry, and some activist investor campaigns currently being waged.
I got an internship at The Wall Street Journal, but I'm Canadian and had visa issues. They gave me an offer and it was just that I needed a card that hadn't come in yet, and they didn't want to deal with the immigration around it. I wanted to be a journalist — I had a summer position at the The Globe and Mail and it didn't get extended to full-time work, so it was time to cash in that chip and go into finance.
I went into investment banking at Deutsche Bank, and I had another offer from Credit Suisse. When you're an analyst, you usually go to private equity or a hedge fund after a couple years of investment banking, or maybe b-school. I always wanted to go onto the hedge fund side of things, so I went to Long Acre, a relatively traditional hedge fund with great guys, well-known within the distressed assets community.
Taking research and publishing it, that trend is going to grow. You [recently] saw Citron Research release their report, and I think the trend of buy-side firms publishing research on the short side is going to grow. It's a good way of generating returns to the extent that certain stocks are mispriced, and firms are using the credibility they've built to correct those valuations as an investment strategy.
You've also seen a big discrepancy between developed market valuations and emerging market valuations, with the former up and the latter down. As interest rates are set to increase, money is moving into developed markets, usually it's the opposite.
Regarding activist investing, in terms of the U.S., it will probably continue to accelerate. I don't know if it will really change in any fundamental way, just more activist firms and dedicated hedge funds will participate.
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J.C. Penney amended its licensing agreement with Justin Timberlake’s William Rast brand to end in June 2014 instead of January 2016, according to a regulatory filing today.
Via jcpenney.com
J.C. Penney is ending a licensing deal with the William Rast clothing line, founded by Justin Timberlake in 2005, about 18 months earlier than expected.
The retailer, which inked an agreement with the line under former chief executive officer Ron Johnson in November 2011, amended the deal on Christmas Eve to end on June 30, 2014, instead of Jan. 30, 2016, according to a regulatory filing today. William Rast, which was previously exclusive to J.C. Penney, is now able to enter licensing agreements with other sellers. The shift is part of a broader move by J.C. Penney to remove trendy brands introduced under Johnson so it can beef up the presence of its private-label lines and other mainstays among older, traditional shoppers of the chain.
Timberlake and friend Trace Ayala started William Rast in 2005. The brand "mixes unexpected fabrics, textures and premium washes but stays true to the heritage of American denim," as per J.C. Penney's website. "Each tailored look is as effortless as it is adventurous."
Only 10 William Rast products are available on J.C. Penney's website, and all of them are on clearance for 50% off, ranging in price from $9.99 to $29.99.
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Because people, especially young ones, are very into brands at a discount.
Graphic by John Gara
Every few weeks, Nordstrom Rack announces a new opening: Greenville, S.C., Tulsa, Okla., Livingston, N.J.
There are now 141 of the discount stores, outnumbering Nordstrom's 117 full-line department stores, and that gap will blow out in the next two years to 230 against 128, dramatically changing the makeup of what the high-end retailer is today.
Nordstrom, which started expanding the discount chain in earnest during the recession, is enjoying a taste of the billions consumers spend at off-price brand behemoths TJX and Ross Stores. But it's also figured out how to get twentysomethings into some kind of Nordstrom property without destroying the formula that works for its existing, affluent customer base. With Rack, along with online flash-sale site HauteLook, Nordstrom is successfully wooing young, cash-strapped shoppers, with the intention that they'll turn into spenders at the pricier, full-line stores later in life.
"In spite of our efforts over the last 13 years, our customer has aged," Nordstrom President Blake Nordstrom said at a Goldman Sachs retail conference in September. "Where the bigger opportunity lies is acquisitions of a younger aspirational customer, again, without alienating the customer that's paying the rent."
By primarily utilizing the web and channels like Rack for attracting younger customers, Nordstrom is avoiding repeating the mistakes of its $40 million "Reinvent Yourself" campaign from 2000, when provocative ads and too-edgy fashions in its main stores rankled some longtime shoppers. The challenge of continuing to serve a core, reliable customer while attracting a younger, cooler audience is one that many retailers, such as J.C. Penney and Talbots, have struggled mightily with.
While Nordstrom has made moves in its full-line stores to attract that generation, like adding clothes from British retailer Topshop and expanding its Savvy department, much of the effort seems to be happening off the premises. Recently, Nordstrom said that purchases from HauteLook — which very much skews younger, and boasts 14 million email addresses — can be returned at Rack locations, not full-line stores.
Importantly, the brands sold at Nordstrom Rack, like Joe's Jeans, Vince Camuto, and Eileen Fisher, are on board with existing at both chains — a requirement, given the pace of expansion. JPMorgan analyst Matthew Boss said in a note earlier this month that 49 of the top 50 brands in Nordstrom's full-line stores sell directly to Rack today, compared with just 10 of the top 50 a decade ago.
Only 18–19% of the merchandise in Rack actually comes from full-line Nordstrom stores, which is typical for off-price retailers, although consumers often believe they're getting excess inventory at such places and in outlets. It stands to reason that percentage will fall as more Rack stores are built. Nordstrom is careful only to mark a higher price if it was actually sold at that level in stores, the company said.
"There are always vendors that will make product for those," said Matt Berglass, a headhunter specializing in retail. "A lot of the cuts for TJX, obviously it's not overbuying, or bad sizes or seconds. That is merchandise made by manufacturers and brands for their businesses."
It's easy to see why Nordstrom wants to double down on the off-price business: America is more obsessed with it than ever. Outlets have been booming in the past few years while regular malls have faced limited growth. Further, the biggest players in the off-price space — TJX and Ross Stores — have been among the best, most consistent retailers since the turn of the century.
TJX, the owner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods, hasn't posted a drop in same-store sales in the past decade while Ross has had just one. In that time, Macy's has posted five. TJX is now, in fact, only slightly smaller than Macy's with $25.9 billion in annual sales last year. (Ross posted $9.7 billion while Nordstrom's Rack division reported $2.45 billion.)
While Saks, with its Off 5th outlet chain, and Neiman Marcus, with Last Call, are clearly tapping into the trend as well, Nordstrom's push is far more aggressive and more successful in terms of sales. It also has a superior online presence to both of those chains and to TJX and Ross, Berglass noted. Joe's Jeans executives said at a December 2012 conference that Macy's, which has been rolling out numerous brands geared toward millennials, is aiming to capture some of the 18- to 26-year-olds shopping at Nordstrom Rack.
Of course, the pace of expansion begs the question: Will the presence of so many more Racks than full-line stores hurt the high-end appeal of the Nordstrom brand? Analysts and investors have asked executives variations of that query for the past couple of years, especially recently, and the company is firm that it will not.
Blake Nordstrom says the company's best-performing Racks are those close to a full-line store, suggesting shopping at one breeds interest in the other rather than squashing it, and they intend to build the two close to one another in the future. It helps Nordstrom stores stay fresh, by unloading some inventory to Rack, and keeps the retailer top of mind among consumers who end up going to both.
"There is a synergy between the two," he said at the September conference. "There is integrity in the pricing of each of those entities and the customer understands what we're doing, and it enables us to attract more customers. That customer that shops in both venues…is a bigger spender for Nordstrom."
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But the company says that it is still “fully committed to returning cash to shareholders.”
Robert Galbraith / Reuters
Chip East / Reuters
Apple has listened to Carl Icahn and said no — and it wants its shareholders to do the same.
The 77-year-old billionaire investor's latest proposal is for Apple to boost its share buyback by $50 billion in the 2014 fiscal year. In its preliminary proxy statement for its annual meeting in February, Apple has recommended that shareholders reject Icahn's plan.
Right now, Apple has authorized $100 billion in combined dividends and buybacks, buying back $23 billion worth of stock in 2013, partially funded by borrowing $17 billion. Since March 2012, when Apple announced its first dividends and buybacks, the company has spent over $43 billion returning money to its shareholders. Apple's cash pile is up to $146 billion, making it a juicy target for investors looking for dividends and buyouts.
But Apple's current efforts have not been enough for Icahn, who since announcing his stake in Apple this August via Twitter, has leveraged his relatively small stake in Apple into a full-spectrum media campaign to get more money out of the company, frequently appearing on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and even gracing the cover of Time. He also had dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook, where he once again pressed his case for a massive $150 billion buyback.
His latest request, first revealed in Time is more modest, merely $50 billion, and even if its approved by Apple's shareholders, would not be binding on the company's management.
"I'm not against the management of this company. But they've got too much money on their balance sheet," Icahn said earlier this month.
In an October public letter in support of his older, bigger proposal, Icahn said that he supported Apple's management across the board, with the exception of "the size and timeframe of Apple's buyback program."
"It is obvious to us that it should be much bigger and immediate," he wrote.
Although Apple is opposed to even Icahn's smaller proposal, the company reiterated its desire to continue paying dividends and buying back shares, solidifying one of Cook's largest departures from his predecessor Steve Jobs. The company said it was "fully committed to returning cash to shareholders" and that it would be "updating perspectives on its capital return program for 2014 and beyond." Any changes in its current $100 billion dividend and buyback program would wait until March or April of next year.
"The Board believes that the Company's management team and Board are in the best position to determine what is in the best long-term interest," Apple said in its proxy statement.
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Citron Research released a report calling the financial practices at construction industry service provider Textura Corp. ” American Hustle meets Wolf of Wall Street ” and sent the stock into free fall. There was also a reference to Die Hard and Liar Liar .
MCT
Short seller Citron Research did not mince words when it published its report on construction industry service provider Textura Thursday, calling the company "a mash-up of American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street" on the heels of its initial public offering, adding, "If it were not for the IPO game and the fraud committed by the underwriters, Textura would have been insolvent last year."
Later in the report, which alleged the company had made fraudulent claims pertaining to client retention and increasing global demand, Citron referenced Liar, Liar when stating that these claims, even when challenged by the Securities and Exchange Commission were false and that Textura "turned and ran" from them.
Citron Research / Via citronresearch.com
It's fitting then, that as the stock reached a low of 17% down from its opening price of around $37 per share Thursday, and remains down by about 5% at $29.38 per share as of midday Friday, Citron also cited Die Hard when outlining its thoughts on Textura's future.
After spending 15 pages passionately making its case against Textura, the report finished off with a line from A Few Good Men:
"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth."
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Hedge fund billionaire Phil Falcone is up for a $20 million payout from his holding company Harbinger after three years of taking no pay.
Via Steve Marcus / Reuters
Phil Falcone's Harbinger Group, a holding company run by a billionaire banned from the hedge fund industry, said in a filing today that Falcone would be eligible for up to $20 million in compensation for the 2014 fiscal year as well as a base salary of $500,000 and a bonus of $750,000, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon. To get the entire haul, he would need to meet certain performance goals. Falcone has not taken any compensation from the Harbinger Group in three years. Falcone first made his riches as a hedge fund manager, where he was one of the wealthiest and flashiest in the industry.
In August, Falcone was banned from the securities industry for five years and his fund, Harbginer Capital Partners, had to pay more than $18 million in penalties in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Falcone and his fund admitted to letting Falcone secretly borrow more than $100 million from the fund to pay his taxes as well as executing a scheme to drive up the price of bonds in order to squeeze a bank that was betting the price would go down and encouraging its clients to do the same.
Following the SEC settlement, New York state's financial and insurance regulator, the Department of Financial Services, banned Falcone form serving as an officer in any New York-based insurance company for seven years. Falcone's Harbinger Group owns Fidelity & Guaranty Life, the Baltimore-based insurance company, which has a subsidiary based in New York, Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company of New York. Harbinger also owns a reinsurance company and a majority stake in Spectrum Brands, the consumer product company behind brands like George Foreman, Black & Decker, and Remington.
So what did Falcone do to become eligible for such a big payout from Harbinger?
Bloomberg
Harbinger's stock, now worth $11.81, was at $7.70 at the beginning of the year. It's been on a tear since then, up 53% compared to the Russell 2000 index, up only 40%.
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“We’re currently finding out who’s the big person and who’s the little person at the dinner table.” Plus, its Dec. 20 conference call gets fiery.
Via facebook.com
Toys 'R' Us has had a tough go of it in recent years, battling against Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon for toy sales. Its other challenge? The drop in U.S. birth rates once the recession hit in 2008.
"We all know the birth rate hit a pretty big air pocket here several years ago, and the kids who weren't born in 2008 and 2009 are not buying 4th and 5th birthday toys and Christmas presents this year, so there is some overall pressure on (the toy) industry," Clay Creasey, the chain's chief financial officer, said on a Dec. 20 call discussing third-quarter earnings. "That mouse is entering the toy-buying part of the snake, if you will."
The U.S. birth rate declined in both 2008 and 2009 after hitting a record high in 2007, potentially driven by the nation's economic woes. Because Toys 'R' Us gets such a significant portion of its business from purchases for newborns and children up to four years old, that's affected sales. It's also caused vendors to cut the chain less slack on items it's forced to sell at a discount.
"It's kind of like kids at the dinner table," Creasey said of the company's cut in what's known as vendor allowances. "When there's enough to eat, everybody eats, and when there's not quite enough to eat, then the big people get to eat and the little people don't. So we're currently finding out who's the big person and who's the little person at the dinner table... the final analysis is eveybody's going to fall a little short of what they wish they could get, and vis-a-vis vendors that often manifests itself in changes in allowance."
That adds extra pressure on Toys 'R' Us to knock it out of the park in the fourth quarter, which is incredibly important for its business —43% of its annual sales occur in the period. The chain is small relative to its discount competitors, with about $13.5 billion in annual revenue last year, though it says it's still the world's biggest standalone seller of toys. Less than 10% of its sales come from the internet, according to the latest call.
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The bank failed to properly record millions of emails, instant messages, and trading records for ten years.
Olivia Harris / Reuters / Reuters
It is a truth universally acknowledged that behind most Wall Street scandals, is an embarrassing instant message or email. And so when a bank isn't retaining its messages correctly, regulators pounce. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the financial-industry's self-regulator, dinged Barclays for $3.75 million for "systemic failures to preserve electronic records and certain emails and instant messages in the manner required for a period of at least 10 years."
While Barclays retained much of the data it was required to — like records of orders and trades — the FINRA order says that it failed to do so in the right format, namely, "write once read many," or WORM, which means that once a record of an order or trade is made, it can't then be altered. This is a standard set by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure the reliability of business records used for supervision and to ensure regulatory compliance. FINRA said that Barclays' failure to format its archived data this way was "widespread and included all of the firm's business areas" and made it so the bank was "unable to determine whether all of its electronic books and records were maintained in an unaltered condition."
FINRA said that for three years, from May 2007 to May 2010, Barclays also failed to properly archive some attachments in emails sent through the Bloomberg messaging system, from October 2008 to May 2010, missed 3.3 million Bloomberg instant messages, which "adversely impacted Barclays's ability to respond to request for electronic communications in regulatory and civil matters."
In the consent order, FINRA says that Barclays, as a firm, has about 2.8 million electronic communications per day, 500,000 of which are emails through Bloomberg and 20,000 are instant messages. The FINRA order says that Barclays' failure to properly archive some of its emails and instant messages was not deliberate, but instead the result of a technical issue with transferring messages from an external served hosted by Bloomberg to a central repository used by Barclays.
"Ensuring the integrity, accuracy and accessibility of electronic books and records is essential to a firm's ability to meet its compliance obligations," said Brad Bennett, FINRA's enforcement chief.
Barclays neither admitted nor denied FINRA's charges.
Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters / Reuters
Barclays is a perfect example of how instant message and email archives can provide a roadmap for regulators in ferreting out and punishing misconduct.
Barclays was the first bank caught up in the scandal over fixing LIBOR, an interest rate used to price over $300 trillion worth of financial products, from mortgages to complex derivatives. Last summer, a group of regulators fined the British bank $451 million for falsifying the submissions used to calculate the rate, which is an average of what rates banks say they could borrow at in a range of time periods.
At the heart of the investigation, which led to billions of dollars worth of settlements with several other banks, were emails and instant messages sent by traders to the employees responsible for making LIBOR submissions. Many of the most blatant ones became legendary in the long history of traders saying things they shouldn't in a recordable form — like one message from an outside trader thanking a Barclays employee for a lower LIBOR submission: "Dude. I owe you big time! Come over one day after work and I'm opening a bottle of Bollinger."
According to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Barclays manipulated LIBOR and other reference rates from early 2005 through mid 2009. The scandal would eventually force then-CEO Robert Diamond from this job, as well as chairman Marcus Agius and other executives.
The FINRA order covers Barclays investment bank, Barclays Capital, which in the U.S. is largely the remnants of Lehman Brothers investment banking business which Barclays bought out of bankruptcy following its collapse in 2008. Most of the embarrassing emails and instant messages in the LIBOR scandal were went between 2005 and 2007.
A Barclays Capital spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many large banks have faced massive fines and even criminal charges thanks to their employees documenting misdeeds in Bloomberg instant messages and emails. Two of the traders behind JPMorgan's 2012 $6 billion trading loss in 2012, the so-called London Whale, were indicted on fraud charges for allegedly hiding the extent of their losses. Much of the evidence in the charges were culled from instant messages. JPMorgan would later pay $920 million to settle with several regulators over the loss and its subsequent reporting to its own board of directors.
In November, JPMorgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told employees, according to Bloomberg News, "Don't exaggerate, don't ruminate, don't bullshit" in instant messages and emails. Several banks have gone so far to ban their employees from using chat rooms used by traders from several banks due to a wide-ranging investigation into possible manipulation of currency markets.
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Robert Best, principal designer for Barbie Collector, talks body image, gendered marketing, competition, and how designing for dolls is different. “You don’t have to consider cold weather. Those are not concerns that worry Barbie.”
Robert Gray / Getty
How did you end up in this job?
Robert Best: It was magic! I'm kidding. I did start out in fashion design, so I was in New York City in the design industry at Isaac Mizrahi. I was just sort of looking for a change and on a whim, I sent in my portfolio to Mattel. I knew some friends who were collectors and they were like, "Oh, you should be designing dolls."
The way I approach the design is from a fashion background — when I'm working on dolls, it's just everything about fashion in miniature. It's the same attention to detail. Barbie is always up to date, so my natural love of fashion found a perfect home at Mattel because we're always changing and looking at who the next great designer is and we have amazing design partnerships as well — we partnered with Coach recently, and Herve Leger to do their classic bandage dresses. So I've been able to keep my hand in fashion.
At the same time, what Barbie allows that fashion didn't is the amazing world of fantasy. You don't have to be bound by, Oh, can that dress fit in the subway? Or, In the south this is what length they prefer. You don't have to consider cold weather. Those are not concerns that worry Barbie. She doesn't care about cold weather.
How long does it take to make a Barbie, start to finish?
RB: The full cycle takes about a year from start to finish — from the time you submitted an approved idea to seeing the doll on the shelf.
Alli Harvey / Getty
There has long been criticism that Barbies contribute to problems with body image standards. What's your response to that?
RB: There are always going to be people who have their strong opinions, pro and against the doll. I think we just think of Barbie as a toy that little girls play with. We think of the girl and her imagination. The doll herself has changed substantially from 1959, when she debuted, to the current doll that's on shelves now. So, Barbie, we always say, has changed to reflect the times around her, both in terms of what the doll looked like originally to what she looks like now, and as well as the different partners we work with. I think we really do offer something for everyone. And, like I said, it's really about little girls today and having a doll that they respond to and that's going to fire their imagination.
Have you modified Barbie's shape or size before? How often does that happen?
RB: In 1959, it was one silhouette, and it's been modified many times over the years. In the '60s, there was a twist-and-turn doll so it could look like she was dancing or whatever. In the '70s with Malibu Barbie, it was a more athletic figure. So Barbie's figure has been modified over the years and we're constantly reevaluating what's happening in culture to assess the need for that as well. When it's appropriate — when Jennifer Lopez said, "I want my doll to reflect my own figure" — we do do a change like that.
How much attention do you pay to criticisms of Barbie?
RB: I think… the right amount. You want to know what the cultural conversation is, and engage with your consumers, and know what people are saying. I did a brief stint on Project Runway, and the one thing everyone told me was, "Don't read the comments." The internet is a crazy wild west where people feel free to say all sorts of horrible things. You have to be mindful of that.
We want to beware of reactions, or people's concerns or comments. That's a gauge of where the consumer is. You want to be engaged enough that you're taking criticism constructively. Constructive criticism is one thing, and pure hate-mongering and bashing is not productive. So I just try to ignore things that feel that way.
Comcast’s Roberts family and John Malone’s Liberty Media have both reshaped and risen to the top of the cable television industry through dealmaking. h/t @qz.
Jim Urquhart / Reuters / Reuters
Kimberly White / Reuters / Reuters
Despite its hundreds of millions of subscribers and hundreds of billions in annual revenue, the U.S. cable television industry has always been a mom-and-pop operation. Not unlike the Hearst, Murdoch or Graham family dynasties of the newspaper industry, the cable industry is controlled by a few very powerful, if less recognizable, families.
Thanks to dual class voting structures, Comcast's Roberts family, Cablevision's Dolan family and Liberty Media's John Malone, among others, have been able to retain ironclad control of their companies even though they are public and, in theory, owned by shareholders. (See the chart below from a report by Macquarie Equities Research for a breakdown of family economic vs. voting interest.)
