Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Hedge fund wants Qualcomm to break up
It's a scheme to run up stock, which is up sharply this morning
Activist investment hedge fund Jana Partners this morning (April 13) said it wants Qualcomm to consider spinning off its chip unit from its patent-licensing business. Qualcomm stock is up more than 5 percent in pre-opening trade. Jana owns $2 billion of Qualcomm stock.
Jana sent a letter this morning, making suggestions for the company to run up its stock price. Just last month, Qualcomm announced a $15 billion stock buyback aimed at driving up the stock price. According to Yahoo.com, Jana says Qualcomm's chip unit is "essentially worthless." The patent-licensing part of Qualcomm accounts for most of its profits.
Jana wants Qualcomm to cut costs, accelerate stock buybacks, and make changes in its executive pay structure, financial reporting, and board of directors.
It's not clear how Jana wants executive pay to be changed, but in March of last year, Steve Mollenkopf took over as chief executive from Paul Jacobs, who became executive chairman. According to Bloomberg Business, Mollenkopf and Jacobs were paid a stunning $117.7 million last year (combined). However, the two will reap some of these gains in later years.
Jana says it has had a "constructive dialogue" with Qualcomm. In its letter, Jana wants Qualcomm to address its "historical underperformance and improve investor perceptions of the company."
Nobody asked me, but I consider the mentality of the Jana letter to epitomize the problem with capitalism these days. Wall Street's focus is only on the stock price. It's not on the performance of the company. Jana's letter represents quintessential financial engineering suggestions. I can remember the day when intelligent companies believed that the most important duty of management was to build a solid company, and the price of the stock would take care of itself. Since the 1980s, the focus has been completely on making moves that will run up the stock. This will end badly.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Hedge fund wants Qualcomm to break up
It's a scheme to run up stock, which is up sharply this morning
Hedge fund wants Qualcomm to break up
It's a scheme to run up stock, which is up sharply this morning
Activist investment hedge fund Jana Partners this morning (April 13) said it wants Qualcomm to consider spinning off its chip unit from its patent-licensing business. Qualcomm stock is up more than 5 percent in pre-opening trade. Jana owns $2 billion of Qualcomm stock.
Jana sent a letter this morning, making suggestions for the company to run up its stock price. Just last month, Qualcomm announced a $15 billion stock buyback aimed at driving up the stock price. According to Yahoo.com, Jana says Qualcomm's chip unit is "essentially worthless." The patent-licensing part of Qualcomm accounts for most of its profits.
Jana wants Qualcomm to cut costs, accelerate stock buybacks, and make changes in its executive pay structure, financial reporting, and board of directors.
It's not clear how Jana wants executive pay to be changed, but in March of last year, Steve Mollenkopf took over as chief executive from Paul Jacobs, who became executive chairman. According to Bloomberg Business, Mollenkopf and Jacobs were paid a stunning $117.7 million last year (combined). However, the two will reap some of these gains in later years.
Jana says it has had a "constructive dialogue" with Qualcomm. In its letter, Jana wants Qualcomm to address its "historical underperformance and improve investor perceptions of the company."
Nobody asked me, but I consider the mentality of the Jana letter to epitomize the problem with capitalism these days. Wall Street's focus is only on the stock price. It's not on the performance of the company. Jana's letter represents quintessential financial engineering suggestions. I can remember the day when intelligent companies believed that the most important duty of management was to build a solid company, and the price of the stock would take care of itself. Since the 1980s, the focus has been completely on making moves that will run up the stock. This will end badly.
Comments