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Dewey Hopes to Resolve Bankruptcy Quickly As Dewey & LeBoeuf began its bankruptcy proceedings on Tuesday, its advisers said their aim was to speed the failed law firm through Chapter 11.
Among the chief near-term goals of Dewey advisers is reaching an agreement to recover money from some of the firm's former partners, many of whom departed earlier this year amid fear about their employer's financial health. That exodus drained Dewey of revenue and the confidence that the firm would survive.
Albert Togut, a lawyer representing the Dewey estate, said in a hearing on Tuesday afternoon in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan that the firm was working on a settlement, which could resolve a legal matter that could otherwise take years to figure out. He declined to give details after the hearing.
Still, a settlement is likely to take time. Mark C. Zauderer, a lawyer representing about 50 to 60 former Dewey partners, said in court that he and his clients had not heard what the basis of such claims would be.
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For Private Equity, Fewer Deals in Leaner Times It is not easy being a private equity firm like the Blackstone Group or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts these days. Not only do you have to worry about being dragged through the mud in a presidential election, but the business isn't the money machine it used to be, Steven M. Davidoff writes as the Deal Professor.
In the years leading up to the financial crisis, private equity dominated the takeover market, taking advantage of cheap credit and investors begging to participate. In the first half of 2007, according to Dealogic, the industry accounted for more than 18 percent of announced takeover volume in the world. It all came crashing down, and last year private equity accounted for a bit less than 7 percent of total global takeover volume, according to Dealogic.
If private equity's recovery from the financial crisis has been fitful, its future looks uncertain. One of the industry's biggest problems is that it has too much money to invest. According to Preqin, private equity firms had at the end of last year about $900 billion worth of "dry powder," or money that they raised mostly before the financial crisis and still needed to invest. At current takeover rates, this would take almost a decade.
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Dewey & LeBoeuf Files for Bankruptcy Dewey & LeBoeuf, the law firm crippled by financial miscues and partner defections, filed for bankruptcy on Monday night, punctuating the largest law firm collapse in United States history.
The filing, made in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, is the final chapter in a turbulent period for Dewey, which came apart after disappointing profits and prodigious debt forced it to slash partners' salaries. The partners, already owed millions from previous years, grew concerned over the firm's finances and their ability to get paid. A partner exodus destroyed the firm.
Dewey announced Monday that the firm planned to liquidate. It said it would ask about 90 employees to remain on staff to assist in the wind-down of its business. The firm has $315 million in liabilities, of which $225 million is owed to its banks, according to the court filings. Other creditors include the firm's landlords and former partners owed money.
"This is a very sad day for the legal profession," said Richard J. Holwell, a former federal judge in Manhattan now in private practice. "Dewey is a fabled firm with a lot of great lawyers and a demise of this magnitude is unprecedented."
P.&G. Takes Center Stage at Gupta Trial Prosecutors contend that Rajat K. Gupta told Raj Rajaratnam about two different Procter & Gamble secrets: the sale of its Folgers coffee business in 2008, and its announcement about disappointing sales growth in 2009.
FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2012
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Prosecutors Seek to Show Gupta's Close Ties to Rajaratnam If he had his druthers, Rajat K. Gupta would have been in Cambridge, Mass., on Thursday, attending his daughter's graduation from Harvard Business School. Instead, Mr. Gupta was seated at the defense table in Judge Jed S. Rakoff's courtroom in Manhattan, on trial on insider trading charges.
The government has accused Mr. Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, of passing corporate secrets to his friend and business associate Raj Rajaratnam. Mr. Rajaratnam, a former head of the Galleon Group hedge fund, is serving 11 years in prison after being convicted last year of fraud and conspiracy.
Jurors heard a range of testimony on Thursday, the fourth day of what is expected to be about a three-week trial. Prosecutors played for the jury secretly recorded telephone calls that they believe are powerful evidence of Mr. Gupta's guilt. A current Goldman director took the stand to discuss the duties of a Goldman board member. And an executive at J.M. Smucker testified about his company's acquisition of Folgers Coffee from Procter & Gamble - a deal Mr. Gupta is accused of leaking to Mr. Rajaratnam.
Prosecutors also sought to debunk one of Mr. Gupta's chief defenses: that he and Mr. Rajaratnam were not that close and, at some point, even had a falling out. The government showed the jury two e-mails suggesting differently.
Lehman to Buy Remainder of Archstone for $1.58 Billion Lehman Brothers Holdings has agreed to buy the stake it does not currently own in Archstone, a sprawling apartment company, for about $1.58 billion.
Lehman will buy the remaining 26.5 percent stake from Bank of America and Barclays, after months of negotiations over the holdings. The companies confirmed the deal on Friday.
As part of the deal, Lehman will provide some compensation to its main rival for the banks' stake, Samuel Zell's Equity Residential. Earlier this year, Lehman agreed to buy half of Bank of America and Barclays' stake for $1.3 billion, in an effort to prevent them from selling the stake to Equity Residential.
Under the terms of the latest transaction, Equity Residential will receive $150 million, which includes an $80 million breakup fee, according to a person briefed on the matter.
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Dimon Agrees to Testify, Without Committing to Specific DateWhile Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has agreed to testify before a Congressional committee in June to discuss the bank's recent multimillion dollar trading loss, he hasn't committed to a date.
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JPMorgan's Deficient Disclosures If JPMorgan had more clearly broken out its hedging activity, investors might have asked questions about what was going on at the chief investment office well before its $2 billion-plus trading loss became public.
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Questions of Fair Play Arise in Facebook's I.P.O. Process As Washington intensifies its scrutiny of the initial public offering of Facebook, the company's bankers are facing questions about whether the process - even if perfectly legal - was fair.
The concerns center on Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other banks involved in the I.P.O. that shared a negative outlook about Facebook with a select group of clients, rather than broadly with all investors.
In the days leading up to Facebook's debut, analysts at several banks ratcheted down their growth estimates for the social network. The move came after the company told them that quarterly and annual revenue would be on the softer side, said people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
As is typical in the I.P.O. process, research analysts at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other firms contacted certain clients to discuss their revised expectations, while other big investors called on the banks to get their new take. But ordinary mom-and-pop investors did not have the same access to the valuable information. Now, regulators and lawmakers are taking a closer look.
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Facebook Shares Up Even as Lawsuits Are Filed Over I.P.O. The small gain, in renewed heavy trading, came as several suits were filed on behalf of investors over the handling of the initial public offering.
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