Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Investment Banks
High Yield debt is High Yield because of the underlying risk profile of the issuer. "Whole Business" securities masked this risk - and won High Grade status - by pledging additional assets. Guess which security type is blowing up? High Yield debt is High Yield no matter how you package it. High Yield issuance exploded … Continue reading High Yield Is High Yield No Matter How You Securitize It
Time for VC's to write down their portfolios. The same holds true for Private Equity portfolios. We led with VC's in the title because venture-backed valuations bear little resemblance to any economic reality whereas private equity valuations are largely grounded in reality. Public company valuations are not going to snap back to normal. The U.S. … Continue reading Public Service Message to VC’s: Time to Write Down Your Portfolios
It is difficult to get excited about Morgan Stanley's recently announced acquisition of ETrade. The latter is essentially a no growth business (P&L below), competing in a cut-throat market. On the other hand, Square - albeit a larger company that would command a larger price - is a FinTech leader in growing consumer markets. If … Continue reading Square Makes More Sense for Morgan Stanley
The SEC's proposal to improve stock-price data available to the public is a step to further democratize financial market data. This weakens the position held by incumbent market data providers such as Bloomberg, FactSet (FDS), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), S&P Global (SPGI), The London Stock Exchange/Refinitiv (LSE) and others. The SEC's proposal could be a precursor … Continue reading Financial Market Data: Ripe For Disruption
Lost amidst the drama around Jes Staley's ties to convicted (deceased) sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is Staley's poor performance as Barclays CEO. This speaks to Barclays' weak Board of Directors and lack of corporate governance. One need look no further than the numbers. Barclays has under-performed during Staley's tenure. Staley was groomed by JP Morgan … Continue reading Why Does Jes Staley Remain Barclays CEO?
Credit Suisse named Thomas Gottstein CEO earlier this morning after previous CEO Tidjane Thiam resigned in the wake of the firm's spying scandal. Gottstein has been a Credit Suisse executive since 1999 having worked across a variety of capital markets and banking functions. Click HERE if you missed our CEORater CEO Churn Report. https://twitter.com/CreditSuisse/status/1225661753360445440?s=20
There were too many quality CEOs to choose from when we went about selecting the "CEORater Technology CEO of the Year" for 2019. Rather than selecting a single "Technology CEO of the Year", we elected to select five top CEOs across five Technology categories: 1.) "PropTech", 2.) "FinTech: Payments", 3.) "Platform Companies", 4.) "FinTech: Capital … Continue reading CEORater 2019 Technology CEOs of the Year
With Michael Bloomberg throwing his hat into the ring for the 2020 Democratic nomination, many have speculated as to how Bloomberg would divest his equity stake in his namesake firm were he to win the Presidency. We don't expect Mr. Bloomberg to win the Office of the President nor would a sale necessarily be required … Continue reading Prospective Bloomberg LP Acquirers
Last Week I Participated on an AI-focused Panel at the SS&C Deliver Conference The panel - “Practical Applications for AI in Investment Operations & Accounting” - was especially enjoyable because the audience engaged. While much has changed since I last worked in an Investment Operations capacity in 1998, much remains the same - meaning there … Continue reading It’s “Early Days” for NLP. The Opportunities Are Many
What if the NFL were to convert to a premium subscription service? From a technical standpoint it would not be terribly difficult to migrate to a streaming service model. The NFL could build the direct-to-consumer platform on top of AWS, Azure or GCP. The NFL’s library isn’t nearly as vast as Disney’s nor Netflix’s. The … Continue reading The NFL as a Streaming ServicePremium
