Carl Icahn has lifted his stake in video game maker Take-Two Interactive to 10.58 percent, scooping up the latest shares for around $11 a pop. The stock reflexively rose on the news. Interestingly, earlier in the week the activist billionaire lifted his stake in movie rental company Netflix to 9.98 percent. Does Icahn think there is some synergy, with Netflix offering rentals of Take-Two games?
So much for pay for performance. Hedge fund compensation rose, on average from a 15 percent increase to a nearly 5 percent decline compared with 2011 levels, according to a new study from HFR and Glocap, an investment management search firm. The average gain across functional roles varied widely, the study found. For example, marketing and compliance and senior investment professional roles at profitable funds experienced the largest increases. Yet, during the first three months the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index posted a gain of just 4.8 percent. The survey should not be confused with the Rich List, Alpha’s annual ranking of the 25 highest earning hedge fund managers, which usually results in the top earners making literally more than $1 billion. These are generally the founders of the largest hedge fund firms, and their earnings include their share of the fees and gains on their own capital in their funds.
TPG-Axon has called on SandRidge Energy to change several directors, change management (including the CEO) and possibly put the company up for sale. The hedge fund owns more than 4.5 percent of the oil and gas company’s stock, which it calls “a disastrous performer.” In response the company fired off its own press release asserting, in part, “The Board continues to actively work with management in taking steps to improve shareholder performance.” The $2.9 billion market cap company’s stock is up nearly 5 percent on the news.
Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors disclosed it owns 5.1 percent of Inphi, a provider of high-speed analog semiconductor solutions for the communications and computing markets. It has a roughly $240 million market cap.
The former head of the London office at Canyon Capital Advisors plans to launch a new hedge fund. Mans Larsson is reported to be launching Makuria Investment Management in the first quarter of 2013 to trade in the credit markets with a special emphasis on European distressed debt and so-called special situations.
