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Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job

May 8, 2013 By

8bc989638bfca89863dc866f99aea1bf Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job

(PhatzRadio / AP) — MANCHESTER, England – is retiring at the end of the season, bringing a close to a trophy-filled career of more than 26 years at that established him as the most successful coach in British .

“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly,” the 71-year-old Scotsman said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is the .”

The club, which is owned by the American and listed on the , did not immediately announce a successor, but will need to act swiftly to stave off any .

Ferguson’s , Everton manager , is out of contract at the end of the season and quickly emerged as the front-runner.

During at Everton, Moyes has overseen impressive consistency on a limited budget, and has a long-standing friendship with Ferguson.

“He is a first-class manager,” Ferguson, who is being consulted on his successor, said of Moyes last year.

Few managers at United — or anywhere in global football — will come close to matching Ferguson’s achievements.

Since taking charge at in 1986, Ferguson has won a total of 38 trophies, including 13 championships, two titles and five .

“It was important to me to leave an organization in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so,” Ferguson said. “The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth setup will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one.”

Ferguson reversed a previous plan to retire at the end of the 2001-02 season.

After United secured its latest Premier League title two weeks ago — extending the club’s record English championship haul to 20 — Ferguson declared that he had no retirement thoughts. But now he has just two more league matches left in charge.

United’s last home game — a chance for fans to pay an emotional farewell to Ferguson — is against Swansea on May 12. United then travels to West Bromwich Albion a week later in the final match for the man who has turned the club into one of the world’s biggest sports powers

“His drive, ambition, skill, passion and vision have not only shaped Manchester United, but in many ways the game of football as we now know it,” Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said.

Ferguson has previously said only health problems would force him to relinquish the job, and it emerged over the weekend that he requires hip surgery. However, the retirement statement did not mention health issues.

Ferguson will continue to loom large at United as he will remain as a club director and ambassador.

“His contributions to Manchester United over the last 26 years have been extraordinary and, like all United fans, I want him to be a part of its future,” joint chairman Avie Glazer said.

Talk of Ferguson leaving first surfaced following the club’s golf day on Tuesday. When the official announcement came it prompted an outpouring of tributes from inside and outside the game.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Twitter that Ferguson’s “achievements in the game place him without doubt as one of the ‘greats’.”

UEFA President Michel Platini hailed Ferguson as a “true visionary.”

“His CV is almost unique in a results-based profession that normally focuses on short-term solutions rather than long-term vision,” the former France star said.

The announcement even grabbed the British media spotlight from the buildup to the State Opening of Parliament, where Queen Elizabeth II, who knighted Ferguson in 1999, was setting out the government’s planned legislation.

Ferguson has played a high-profile role campaigning for the Labour Party.

“Proud man. Great manager. Staunch Labour Party supporter,” Labour Party leader Ed Miliband tweeted. “Sir Alex Ferguson will never be forgotten.”

Tributes crossed the political divide, with Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, a member of the Conservative Party, praising Ferguson for his “enthusiasm for our national game.”

Ferguson has defined the modern era of success at United, resuscitating the fortunes of a club that was floundering when he arrived more than a quarter of a century ago, having won a European title at modest Aberdeen in Scotland.

While it took time for Ferguson to impose his leadership at , directors showed a degree of patience rarely afforded to current managers.

With his unwavering approach, Ferguson eventually produced his first trophy in 1990 — the FA Cup — and in 1993 the club won its first topflight title since 1967.

Since then, he has turned United into a European power and one of the world’s wealthiest sports clubs. In addition to Champions in 1999 and 2008, United has also won four League Cups and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup.

“In my early years, the backing of the board, and Sir Bobby Charlton in particular, gave me the confidence and time to build a football club, rather than just a football team,” Ferguson said. “Over the past decade, the Glazer family have provided me with the platform to manage Manchester United to the best of my ability.”

Ferguson thanked his players for their “staggering level of professional conduct and dedication that has helped to deliver so many memorable triumphs.”

“Without their contribution the history of this great club would not be as rich,” Ferguson said.

Now United will have to plan for a future without Ferguson in the dugout.

“Alex’s vision, energy and ability have built teams — both on and off the pitch — that his successor can count on as among the best and most loyal in world sport,” United’s chief executive David Gill said.

Gill told The Associated Press two weeks ago that Ferguson’s successor would have to adapt to the existing squad and support team rather than making radical changes.

“The quality of the squad, the composition of that squad, means that any new manager coming in will inherit a great squad of players,” Gill said. “And yes he may, whenever that is … clearly want to bring in one or two of his own people, new players.

“But he won’t want to change the squad wholesale because he won’t be our manager.”

Such a vision would point to the 51-year-old Moyes being hired over another manager being tipped by bookmakers, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho.

“What we are looking for is not someone to come in (for) 10 months or three years, we want someone to come stay there and give stability,” former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said. “When we talk about Moyes, he has been a decade at Everton and done a fantastic job on limited funds.”

Before United was listed on the NYSE last year, the club warned that a successor to Ferguson “may not be as successful.”

“A downturn in the performance of our first team could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain coaches and players,” United said in July.

___

Rob Harris can be reached at http://twitter.com/RobHarris

Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job

Soccer: Man United Alex Ferguson retiring at end of season after more than 26 years in job

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FBI probes trading as KPMG quits Herbalife, Skechers audits

April 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

FBI probes trading as KPMG quits Herbalife, Skechers audits

() – In a blow to one of the world’s largest accounting firms, KPMG said it resigned as auditor of two U.S. corporations amid an into allegations involving leaked information and a former senior partner.

The two California-based companies – nutritional products group Herbalife Ltd and footwear maker Skechers USA Inc – said separately on Tuesday that KPMG had quit as their auditor in connection with the leaks.

The FBI’s Los Angeles office is investigating the matter, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Skechers Chief Financial Officer told Reuters in an interview that Scott London had been the lead auditor for Skechers and had resigned after the leaks. Weinberg said that London had admitted to sharing inside information.

A KPMG spokesman confirmed that London was the partner who had resigned from the firm.

London was not immediately available for comment. The 50-year- native worked at KPMG for 29 years. A baseball lover, London became chairman of the L.A. Sports Council in 2011. He is also listed as a 2012 director on the board of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Shares of Herbalife closed down 3.8 percent at $36.95, while Skechers shares were up 1.9 percent at $21.91 on Tuesday on moderately bullish Exchange trading.

ANALYST DOWNGRADES HERBALIFE

“This is and will be disruptive to the stock, but hopefully not the company,” said Timothy Ramey, an analyst at investment services firm D.A. Davidson & Co. in a report on Herbalife.

Ramey downgraded Herbalife shares to “neutral” from “buy.”

Herbalife said in a statement that KPMG’s resignation had nothing to do with the company’s or the integrity of its management – issues called into question by the high-stakes drama between hedge fund titans Bill Ackman and over the company.

KPMG said in a statement late on Monday that it had resigned as the outside auditor for two clients due to the actions of a senior partner, who was in charge of the audit practice in its Los Angeles business unit.

Monday’s announcement did not identify the partner or the companies involved. It said the unidentified partner provided inside information about its clients to someone who had used that information in .

“The partner was immediately separated from the firm,” KPMG said in its statement. “This individual violated the firm’s rigorous policies and protections, betrayed the trust of clients as well as colleagues, and acted with deliberate disregard for KPMG’s long-standing culture of professionalism and integrity.”

CALLS FOR MORE TRANSPARENCY

When the KPMG resignations became known late on Monday, the identity of the senior partner involved was initially unknown. London’s name did not emerge until late on Tuesday.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which polices audit firms, proposed in 2011 that the firms be required to disclose the names of individual engagement partners in audit reports, as they must in some other countries.

That proposal has not been made a U.S. rule. Some audit critics said it should be to make auditing more transparent, though audit firms have resisted this idea for a variety of reasons.

A PCAOB spokeswoman declined to comment.

KPMG is the smallest of the Big Four global accounting and audit firms. It reported 2012 revenue of $23 billion, up 1.4 percent from the year before.

The other three firms are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Ernst & Young. All are U.S.-based and operate affiliate networks around the world.

Ackman and Icahn were not immediately available for comment.

Any controversy over KPMG’s dealings could hurt the firm’s reputation. In 2005, KPMG narrowly avoided a criminal indictment by agreeing to pay $456 million in a deferred prosecution settlement with U.S. authorities over its sale of tax shelters. Three years earlier, smaller rival Arthur Andersen collapsed over its auditing work for energy company Enron Corp.

In addition, KPMG partners were the only ones so far to have been sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the global financial crisis.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York,; Ben Berkowitz in Boston, Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; and Nanette Byrnes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Matthew Lewis and Lisa Shumaker)

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FBI considered Occupy movement potential threat, documents say

December 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

120917042222 occupy 14 horizontal gallery FBI considered Occupy movement potential threat, documents say

New York () — The FBI extensively monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement around the United States, using agents and other resources, according to recently released FBI internal documents.

The heavily redacted documents indicate that FBI counterterrorism agents were in close communication with , businesses, universities and other organizations across the country about the Occupy Wall Street movement, even before Occupy Wall Street set up a camp in New York’s in September 2011.

In August 2011 the FBI informed Exchange officials of a “planned Anarchist protest titled Occupy Wall Street” scheduled for September 17, 2011. The FBI also notified several New York businesses of the impending protests, according to the documents.

The documents, released under a request, contain references to an October 2011 FBI briefing in Jacksonville, Florida, regarding the spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement and “the emergence of Occupy chapters in and around the North Florida area.” FBI officials also recommended setting up tripwires with Occupy event organizers.

The FBI was concerned that the Occupy venues could provide “an outlet for a lone offender exploiting the movement for reasons associated with dissatisfaction,” according to the documents.

At a Joint Terrorism Task Force meeting in November 2011, FBI agents reported about Occupy Wall Street activities in Anchorage, Alaska, according to the documents.

The documents also described instances from California, Colorado Mississippi, Virginia, and other states involving cooperation between the FBI and other agencies.

FBI counterterrorism agents are traditionally tasked with investigating and curtailing both domestic and foreign terrorism threats.

The agency prepared surveillance and despite acknowledging that Occupy Wall Street organizers “did not condone the use of violence during their events” and, and that the organizers had called for peaceful protest, according to the documents.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which describes itself on its website as a Washington-based organization “dedicated to the defense of human and civil rights secured by law, the protection of free speech and dissent, and the elimination of prejudice and discrimination,” obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the organization.

“These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity.”

The FBI, responding to the release of the documents regarding Occupy, said it recognizes the rights of individuals and groups to engage in constitutionally protected activity but must take precautions to deal with any potential threats of violence.

“While the F.B.I. is obligated to thoroughly investigate any serious allegations involving threats of violence, we do not open investigations based solely on First Amendment activity,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said in a statement to CNN. “In fact, the Department of Justice and the F.B.I.’s own internal guidelines on domestic operations strictly forbid that.”

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund said it believes the FBI is withholding more information regarding its surveillance of the Occupy movement, and will be filing an appeal demanding full disclosure of its operations, according to Verheyden-Hilliard.

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Stock markets closed as storm hobbles New York

October 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

2be341cb6ec97c5b0cb9ce7ef89246e6 Stock markets closed as storm hobbles New York

() – U.S. stock and options markets will be closed on Monday, and possibly Tuesday, as regulators, exchanges and brokers worry about the integrity of markets and the safety of employees in the face of Hurricane Sandy.

Market participants and regulators decided late on Sunday to shut the market, reversing a plan to keep electronic trading going on Monday. Bond markets will remain open, but will close at noon, a trade group said.

The decision to close stock and options markets came after regulators, exchanges, and dealers discussed the unknowns that would have been tested if the markets opened on Monday, three sources familiar with the situation said.

For example, ’s Exchange had initially planned to shut its physical trading floor, which would have meant operating as an all-electronic exchange for the first time.

The decision to shut down the stock markets came after Wall Street had prepared to open for business on Monday with limited staffing after a mass transit shut-down in New York, booking hotel rooms for key employees and leaning on offices in other cities.

, including and , activated their emergency plans, which many firms put in place after the September 11, 2001, attacks. It was not immediately clear if those plans had also changed.

Some bank offices in ’s Financial District are in and most non-critical staff and employees who don’t rely on high-speed systems, including some investment bankers, were asked to work from home.

“SUPER STORM”

The storm is expected to slam into the U.S. East Coast on Monday night, bringing torrential rain, high wind, severe flooding and power outages. The rare “super storm” – created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm – could be the biggest to hit the U.S. mainland, forecasters said.

The scramble started early as the threat of the storm forced the New York to shut down on Sunday evening, leaving tens of thousands of employees stuck at home.

About 8.5 million use the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s transit lines daily, meaning most Wall Street employees would be unable to get to work. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also closed public schools and ordered an evacuation of 375,000 people in coastal areas, including downtown offices of banks such as Citigroup.

The major exchanges and most big trading firms have alternate trading facilities if downtown Manhattan is inaccessible, but the storm’s wide path may affect a number of sites in the New York metropolitan area. Authorities have warned of possible widespread power outages that could last for days.

Wall Street was spared the worst of Hurricane Irene in August last year. Officials had feared Hurricane Irene would flood lower Manhattan and cripple business in the world’s financial capital, but the flooding was minor and there were no major disruptions at the exchanges.

All of the U.S. exchanges, as well as major broker-dealers, and regulators were involved in the decision to close the markets, according to several executives at exchanges and financial firms.

The U.S. markets have seen three high-profile snafus this year, beginning with the failed IPO of BATS Global Markets, the No. 3 U.S. equities exchange, on its own exchange; Facebook Inc’s botched markets debut on Nasdaq’s exchange; and a software glitch that cost trading firm Knight Capital well over $400 million, nearly forcing it into bankruptcy.

BOND MARKETS

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said earlier on Sunday it is recommending an early close of noon EDT on Monday for the trading of U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-income securities. It said its member firms should decide for themselves whether their fixed-income departments remain open for trading.

The foreign exchange market’s activity generally follows the fixed income markets.

The New York Federal Reserve has calls scheduled for early Monday morning with dealers to see what each dealer is doing to cope with the storm, and will modify its market activities accordingly.

In Washington, the Commerce Department said it would post its report on personal income and spending for September on its website at 8:30 a.m. as scheduled, even though the federal government was closed.

The Federal Reserve said it would postpone its regularly scheduled releases, including its weekly report on selected interest rates and daily commercial paper data. The Fed said it would release the data when federal offices in the Washington area reopened.

CME Group Inc said it will be closing its U.S. equity index futures and equity index options on futures markets on the trading floor and on CME Globex at 8:15 a.m., Central Time, on Monday. All other CME Group futures and options on futures markets will remain open.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc said trading in the ICE Futures Russell equity index futures and options will close early, at 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday. It said ICE Clear Credit will close at noon Eastern Time on Monday, with the U.S. fixed income markets. It said all other ICE markets and clearing houses will remain open and follow regular market hours.

WORK FROM HOME

Goldman, whose office in lower Manhattan is in one of the areas to be evacuated, told employees earlier on Sunday that it would open for business, with some staff working from offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in Princeton, New Jersey. It also plans to use teams in London and other locations around the world for support.

Citigroup, which has three buildings in the evacuation zone, said “non-critical personnel should invoke their work-from-home strategies.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co said its buildings were still open Monday and the bank was planning to be fully operational, using resources in the United States, Europe and Asia.

For many investment bankers and private equity executives, working from home will make the most sense. Blackstone Group planned to close its office on Monday.

Hurricane Sandy also led to some events being canceled or postponed. Citigroup Prime Brokerage postponed a hedge fund event that had been scheduled for Tuesday.

(Reporting by John McCrank, David Gaffen, Caroline Humer, David Henry, Charles Mikolajczak, Richard Leong, Edward Krudy, Lauren LaCapra, Dan Wilchins and Rick Rothacker; Editing by Paritosh Bansal, Jennifer Merritt, Tiffany Wu, Maureen Bavdek, Dale Hudson, Gary Crosse and Robert Birsel)

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Hertz to buy car hire rival Dollar Thrifty for about $2.3 billion

August 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

01c325062171741208c8514ca46b5b13 Hertz to buy car hire rival Dollar Thrifty for about $2.3 billion

() – Hertz (HTZ.N), the No. 2. U.S. car rental company, said it will buy smaller rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG.N) for about $2.3 billion, ending more than two years of an on-off .

Hertz and third-ranked Avis have made several offers for Dollar Thrifty, but until now they have been blocked by over price and doubts about .

Hertz will buy Dollar Thrifty for $87.50 per share in cash, a premium of 8 percent over Dollar Thrifty’s Friday closing price of $81 on the Exchange, and far higher than the $1.2 billion offer Hertz first made in April 2010.

Dollar Thrifty, the final big in an industry that has consolidated rapidly, this month urged Hertz to end its failed takeover moves by making a compelling bid or letting it go ahead alone.

Several top Dollar Thrifty shareholders told Reuters last week they would accept a takeover offer from Hertz that valued the company at more than $87 per share.

“Hertz has made a compelling offer to our stockholders that reflects the strength of our business,” Dollar Thrifty Chief Executive said in a statement.

In a bid to win regulatory approval for the deal, Hertz has agreed to sell its budget brand Advantage, which caters to the same market as Dollar Thrifty, to Franchise Services of North America (FSNA) and Macquarie Capital. Hertz did not specify the sale price.

Hertz said late on Sunday it expects at least $160 million of annual cost savings from the transaction.

(Reporting by Sakthi in Bangalore; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Analysis: Nasdaq plays tough with clients angry over Facebook

June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

806dcdd03f72f9543af3ba4d0454f391 Analysis: Nasdaq plays tough with clients angry over Facebook

(Reuters) – It’s crisis communications 101 for Corporate America: when a company bungles an event as big as the Facebook IPO, alienates customers, and spawns lawsuits and regulatory inquiries, the CEO apologizes and agrees to provide compensation to make things right. Everyone can then move on.

Not so at Nasdaq Group, where technology glitches and a communications breakdown marred Facebook’s $16 billion on May 18.

Since then, the exchange has done little to conciliate market making clients – a number of which lost tens of millions of dollars each due to the trading problems. There has been no outright apology. And as angry as some customers may be, experts say they have little alternative but to keep trading on the exchange.

And they have. Nasdaq’ volume this week is above the monthly average, and its share price is nearly unchanged two weeks after the trading .

Nasdaq, one of only two U.S. exchanges on which companies can list their shares, is home to a raft of heavily traded household technology names such as Apple and , and has challenged the for marquee listings. The Facebook IPO was seen as a major coup.

With so few options for traders, Nasdaq’s strong position is giving confidence to investors and analysts.

“We expect this to blow over with time,” said Chris Allen, an analyst at Evercore Partners, in a note to clients.

Many of Nasdaq’s customers sing a different tune, however. During the first day of Facebook trading, left the market makers – who facilitate trades for brokers and are crucial to the of stock trading – in the dark for hours as to which trades had gone through.

The result was up to $115 million in losses for the Nasdaq’s top four market makers alone. Two in the financial industry have said they expect Nasdaq member claims to total $150 million to $200 million.

Nasdaq’s response amounted to a members-only call with one of its executive vice presidents, a statement that the exchange would set aside a pool of $13.7 million to accommodate losses, and a brief mention of Facebook during the company’s shareholders meeting. Greifeld also hosted Nasdaq’s party at a technology conference this week in California.

A source close to the exchange said it is reaching out to affected clients. Yet some big clients are still unhappy.

“Communication has been about as good as it was on the day of the IPO – minimal,” said Mark Turner, head of trading at New York-based market maker Instinet.

Turner declined to say how much his firm lost but said it paled in comparison with losses suffered by larger counterparts like UBS, Citigroup, Knight Capital, and Citadel Securities, which lost between $20 million and $35 million.

THROWING OUT THE CRISIS PR PLAYBOOK

In most corners of Corporate America, such a situation would have driven executives into crisis communications overload.

Regular communication, not necessarily more, is the best way to handle a crisis situation, said John McInerney, a global vice president at public relations firm Makovsky and Co.

“Just saying ‘we are going to talk to you at 4:00 or at a certain point and we are going to tell you where things are right now,’ I think people can live with that kind of uncertainty as long as they know they are going to hear something,” he said. “And that didn’t happen.”

On a call with select reporters the Sunday after the Facebook IPO, Greifeld said Nasdaq was “humbly embarrassed” over the trading glitch, but he stopped short of a public apology.

“They have failed in executing a comprehensive or cohesive communications strategy,” said Michael Robinson, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission public affairs and policy chief who also spent three years in media relations at Nasdaq.

“Here we are a couple of weeks later and I’m still not entirely sure what it is they said went wrong,” said Robinson, who is now an executive vice president at Levick Strategic Communications.

It’s a sharp contrast to the way rival exchange BATS Global Markets handled a major crisis – the withdrawal of its own IPO on its own exchange in March after a technological glitch disrupted trading. Joe Ratterman, chief executive of BATS, was on television the next day taking the blame and explaining why the company pulled the plug.

The incident was an embarrassment at the time, but now say BATS’ swift response looks like a brilliant move compared with Nasdaq’s inaction.

“Although they were highly criticized, guess what, no one lost any money, other than maybe the BATS guys. But … investors didn’t lose,” said a financial industry executive who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“MODUS OPERANDI”

A lack of public communication is partly protective – lawsuits against Nasdaq by disgruntled investors are stacking up. But many people who deal with Nasdaq regularly, or are familiar with how it has handled its customer relationships, say even if there were no legal issues, the silence and lack of contrition expressed to market makers is par for the course.

“This is their modus operandi,” said independent trading and market structure consultant William Karsh, a former chief operating officer of rival electronic exchange Direct Edge. “They screw the wholesalers because they can. At the end of the day, the wholesalers have no choice but to use them – they are still a huge liquidity pool.”

Nasdaq declined to comment for this article.

Nasdaq’s liabilities for a trading glitch are limited through regulation and a contract with its customers to $3 million per month. The exchange has applied to the SEC to increase the amount to $13.7 million to include a gain of $10.7 million it made from the Facebook IPO through the sale of shares it was left holding due to the technology glitches.

“They are certainly facing the specter of some significant lawsuits if this pool is not enough,” said an attorney who is familiar with the situation.

The customers are arguing that the limit on liabilities should not apply because the Facebook problems were the result of gross negligence.

While its trading customers have little option but to stick with Nasdaq to do their business, the longer-term risk for the exchange is not landing the next Facebook.

“The Nasdaq has just handed the New York Stock Exchange the best marketing bonanza they could ever hope for,” said Robinson.

(Reporting By John McCrank; editing by Jennifer Merritt and Edward Tobin, Martin Howell)

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Citigroup loses advisory vote on executive compensation

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

6ad0d7f9921aee4a5f80d533612ca055 Citigroup loses advisory vote on executive compensation

() – (C.N) shareholders gave a to the bank’s executive compensation plan on Tuesday, dealing a surprise embarrassment to Chief Executive .

Only 45 percent of shareholders endorsed the pay plan in an advisory vote required under the Dodd-Frank law, Michael Helfer, general counsel and corporate secretary, said at Citi’s annual meeting, citing preliminary vote totals.

Citigroup may have upset shareholders by increasing Pandit’s pay to $14.8 million last year, similar to executive pay levels before the struck, despite the challenges that the bank still faces. Last month, Citigroup was one of only a handful of large financial institutions that failed to win approval from regulators for a dividend increase or .

Pandit received only a symbolic $1 in 2010 and just $128,741 in 2009.

Citigroup’s failed “say on pay” measure is also the latest signal that shareholders are turning up the pressure on top executives who have failed to deliver improved performance. Goldman (GS.N) struck a compromise with shareholder activists last month to avoid a similar showdown over board leadership at its annual meeting.

On Monday, Citigroup posted a 2 percent decline in net income for the first quarter from a year earlier, reflecting the bank’s difficulties as it works to boost profits in a sluggish global economy. Still, Citigroup shares, up more than 33 percent so far this year, closed 3.2 percent higher at $35.08 on the Exchange.

Richard Parsons, chairman of the board, called the outcome “a serious matter” and said directors would meet shareholder representatives to discuss their objections.

The Citigroup vote tally surprised some analysts who follow corporate governance issues.

“I would think that, given the amount of public and regulatory attention that Citigroup has had for the last four years, they would not be in a position to go to a meeting and have a negative investor vote,” said Beth Young, a senior research associate for GMI Ratings in New York.

Shareholders are also expected to pressure executives of other companies at annual meetings in the coming weeks, including Janus Capital Group (JNS.N) and US Steel (X.N). Last week, casino equipment maker International Game Technology (IGT.N) got only 44 percent shareholder support for its pay vote.

Only a handful of major companies last year, including Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and Janus, failed to get majority shareholder support for their pay contests, the first year in which the contests were widely required. Just 41 companies in the Russell 3000 Index lost “say on pay” votes last year, according to ISS, a research firm that advises institutional investors on corporate proxy issues.

But the races appear to be tightening in 2012, said Deborah Lifshey, a managing director at Pearl Meyer & Partners, an executive-compensation consulting firm in New York. In addition to Citi’s loss, she noted several others including at IGT and industrial products maker Actuant (ATU.N).

In many cases, pay increases have outstripped market gains for investors, Lifshey said.

This year, “people are more discontent with execs being paid when they are not being paid,” she added.

For the Citigroup vote, proxy adviser ISS recommended siding against the board and voting “no” on the 2011 pay plan. Glass Lewis & Co, another governance advisory firm, also recommended voting against the compensation plan.

In addition to Pandit’s pay increase, another area of concern to proxy advisers was the bank’s 2011 retention awards, stock grants aimed at convincing executives not to jump ship, noted Todd Sirras, a partner at compensation consulting firm of Semler, Brossy, which tracks the “say on pay” votes.

“Retention awards in the current environment tend to be viewed negatively,” Sirras said.

The majority of Citigroup shares are held by institutional investors, but professional money managers were not an obvious presence at the meeting. Only a few hundred people were in the half-filled ballroom in Dallas.

The shareholders who spoke were small investors or representatives of groups promoting social causes. No representatives of major investment management firms spoke.

(Reporting by David Henry in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; editing by Aaron Pressman, Andre Grenon and Maureen Bavdek)

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Occupy protesters march to NYC financial district

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

d3537ab26b1ec1232bb07ced9dbbb53d Occupy protesters march to NYC financial district

( News / ) — NEW YORK – A crowd of several hundred protesters marched from in toward the a few blocks away on Thursday as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators across the country promised mass gatherings to mark the movement’s two-month anniversary.

Lines of helmeted police blocked every approach to the financial district in New York. Several streets in the area were closed.

“Whose street? Our street!” the protesters chanted.

PHOTOS: Protests against Wall Street
INTERACTIVE: Full coverage on Occupy Wall Street

Several people who sat in the street trying to block traffic were arrested. Protesters had to break into two groups as they encountered police at each intersection leading to the exchange.

The demonstrators said in a statement they want to “exchange stories instead of stocks” — stories about the and corporate malfeasance they claim is crippling the economy.

It was the first of several planned events to mark the anniversary and came two days after police dismantled the protesters’ camp at the park. Events planned around city include speeches and talks with commuters at subway stations.

Occupy spokesman Bill said Thursday, “This day is about taking our ideas to every block, every street, every subway.” Organizers said on the Occupy website there were no plans to disrupt .

The day of action had been planned before the city and park owners cracked down on the encampment in Zuccotti Park, but took on added importance to the protesters after tents, tarps and sleeping bags were cleared out and the granite plaza was cleaned for the first time since the group arrived more than two months ago.

“This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,” said Paul Knick, 44, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. “It seems like there’s a to stop the movement and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Transit officials were preparing to deal with the crush of people. After the rally near the New , protesters planned to fan out across Manhattan before gathering downtown and marching over the Brooklyn bridge.

Similar protests were planned around the country.

In Dallas, police evicted dozens of protesters from their campsite near City Hall citing public safety and hygiene issues. They arrested 18 protesters who refused to leave.

New York City officials said they had not spoken to demonstrators but were aware of the plans.

“The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said. “We will be prepared for that.”

Contributing: Rick Hampson in New York; the Associated Press

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