1. Conrad Black
A district court judge sentenced Conrad Black yesterday to 6 and a half years in prison, a forfeiture of $6.7 million, and an insult-to-injury fine of $140,000.
The sentencing judge, Amy St. Eve, said: "I personally cannot understand how someone of your stature, at the top of the media empire, could engage in the conduct you engaged in and put everything at risk."
Her sentence seems, IMHO, rather more harsh than was warranted. I suspect she saw a chance to make an example of him, precisely because of that "stature" she was talking about.
In his heyday, Black was running the third-largest publishing company in the world. He ran it as a personal feifdom, too, and he has been convicted of, and now sentenced for, the intermingling of corporate and business funds -- i.e. for theft. I don't excuse that, of course, but I do suspect the Hon. St. Eve got carried away a bit by the fact that this was her own moment in the spotlight.
2. H&R Block
Regular readers of this blog learned on November 21 that the leadership of H&R Block has changed, due to a successful proxy contest.
The morning after a victory is time for the "what do we do now" feeling, expressed so vividly by Robert Redford in an old movie. H&R Block said this morning that it's delaying the filing of its second quarter results. The 2d quarter of Block's fiscal year ended October 31, and it had previously scheduled an analyst conference call for today at which it was to discuss the numbers.
The numbers aren't ready, and the call won't take place. As a preliminary matter, Block is now saying that the 2d quarter figures when thet are available will be worse than had previously been expected.
The market's initial reaction to Breeden's takeover last month was favorable. The stock price rose to a high of $20.48. But, probably in anticipation of bad news today, the price fell Friday and Monday.
My guess, then, (and its only a guess) is that the market has already discounted the bad news, and that the price will hold steady today.
3. EDO Corp meeting
Two proxy advisory firms recommended yesterday that stockholders in EDO cast their votes in favor of a merger with IT&T, recommended by the management.
The special stockholder's meeting for this purpose is scheduled for a week from today, Dec. 18.
Both ISS and Glass Lewis have now concluded that EDO's stockholder's are getting a fair deal from the proposed terms, $56 per share in cash.
Showing posts with label H and R Block. Show all posts
Showing posts with label H and R Block. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Shake-up at H&R Block
The tax-preparation company, H&R Block, announced yesterday that its Chairman and CEO, Mark A. Ernst, has resigned from both of those posts.
Ernst has been replaced as chief executive, on an interim basis, by Alan Bennett.
The new chairman is Richard Breeden, and that (for proxy partisans) is the story here.
Breeden has wanted Ernst out of the way for some time. Breeden, who was the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission through most of the administration of George H.W. Bush, has been keeping busy recently as the manager of a hedge fund, aptly called Breeden Partners. In that capacity, he's been a very activist stockholder in a variety of the companies in his fund's portfolio.
One of those companies, of course, is H&R Block. And Breeden's contention is that under Ernst, the company has drifted from its moorings as a tax-services company, ineffectively dabbling in other fields. He's presumably going to be a back-to-basics kind of chairman.
Breeden's unhappiness on this point appears to have preceded, but it was certainly fed by, this summer's subprime mortgage crisis, which hit H&R's mortgage lending unit especially hard.
One analyst is quoted in today's WSJ saying: "H&R Block has delayed recogizing the losses in their subprime businesses ... because they were trying to get the sale done with Cerberus."
Cerberus. That darned dog shows up everywhere, doesn't he?
But congrats to Breeden, and I hope his victory doesn't end up giving him indigestion. I may need the services of the company he's now heading ... next March or thereabouts.
I wish everyone celebrating the holiday tomorrow the best for the long weekend. You'll hear from me again here on Sunday.
Ernst has been replaced as chief executive, on an interim basis, by Alan Bennett.
The new chairman is Richard Breeden, and that (for proxy partisans) is the story here.
Breeden has wanted Ernst out of the way for some time. Breeden, who was the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission through most of the administration of George H.W. Bush, has been keeping busy recently as the manager of a hedge fund, aptly called Breeden Partners. In that capacity, he's been a very activist stockholder in a variety of the companies in his fund's portfolio.
One of those companies, of course, is H&R Block. And Breeden's contention is that under Ernst, the company has drifted from its moorings as a tax-services company, ineffectively dabbling in other fields. He's presumably going to be a back-to-basics kind of chairman.
Breeden's unhappiness on this point appears to have preceded, but it was certainly fed by, this summer's subprime mortgage crisis, which hit H&R's mortgage lending unit especially hard.
One analyst is quoted in today's WSJ saying: "H&R Block has delayed recogizing the losses in their subprime businesses ... because they were trying to get the sale done with Cerberus."
Cerberus. That darned dog shows up everywhere, doesn't he?
But congrats to Breeden, and I hope his victory doesn't end up giving him indigestion. I may need the services of the company he's now heading ... next March or thereabouts.
I wish everyone celebrating the holiday tomorrow the best for the long weekend. You'll hear from me again here on Sunday.
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