Ouch! The jury in West Palm Beach just handed lipstick magnet, Ronald O. Perelman, a big, fat juicy award of $600M (or to us simple folk, a gazillion bucks). Perelman claimed that Morgan Stanley (Wall Street firm who cater to the uber-rich and powerful) withheld documents during a transaction.
In the transaction, Lipstick boy was to receive shares in Sunbeam in a share swap for Coleman. If you don't remember, Sunbeam was once run by 'Mr. Chainsaw' - you know, the dude who loved to cut staff (with a chainsaw) from his company's payrolls. I forget the dude's name (just joking) but, I guess he used to walk around the office building with a sheet of plastic over his suit - lest, he get blood on his fine wardrobe as he took his chainsaw to the deadwood. (Do you think some Hollywood mogul will make a horror movie with Mr. Chainsaw as the central character of the film?)
Getting back to Morgan Stanley, the judgement of $600M bucks is going to hurt a wee bit. I don't expect that the Executive Directors nor the Managing Directors will suffer when it comes to 'bonus time' (or in regular parlance - "feeding frenzy") at the end of the year. [At 'frenzy time', the only question EDs and MDs ask is "how much do you love me?" Love me alot and give me a bonus of 10X my salary. Love me a ton and give me a bonus of 100x my salary. Stick a red, hot poker stick up my bum and give me a bonus of 2x my salary.]
The people who are going to suffer are the Associates and Analysts. (In Wall Street lingo - the midnight slaves.) Since they are the 'deadwood' at many of the I-banks, they can be cast off and allowed to sink and swim with the sharks.
Do you think Morgan Stanley can 'go after' the M.D.s (who have since left the firm)? Or, I heard that M.D.s, in Wall Street lingo, means 'managing director' - not to be confused with Medical Doctor or "Mean-swinging Dick". You get the picture. I hope.
By the way, what the heck did Perelman want with Sunbeam? Stick to the knitting! Stay away from companies that are not in your backyard. Gee - you'd think that with all those Ivy-league boys and girls at Perelman's shop they would have remembered something from all their corporate strategy classes: "Play with fire and you lose your eyelashes. Play with non-core businesses and you lose your underwear." (Unless you can sue some sucker and recoup your loses.)
Anyhow, I guess Perelman and Morgan Stanley are headed back to court. The Court of Appeals. You didn't think that uber-talented and uber-rich "Morgan Stanley" would walk away from 600 gazillion bucks, did you???
(NY Times: Morgan Stanley - It's going to hurt me more than it hurts you - NOT!)
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