Wall Street Meltdown Video that centers on the current credit crunch and subprime meltown, investment banks, and acquisitions.

Overview
Visa, a leading provider of credit and debit cards, plans to raise up to $10 billion in the second largest IPO in United States history. The San Francisco-based company processes more than half of all credit card transactions in the United States and has a strong global brand. Visa plans to be listed under the symbol “V,” but has not disclosed the number of shares that will be offered or the expected share price. The IPO is expected to occur near February, 2008. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are lead …

Rothschild is an over 200-year-old international investment bank that primarily provides investment banking, corporate banking, and private banking and trust services to business, governments, and individuals. The London based firm has over 2,000 employees worldwide. By utilizing advanced information and new approaches and solutions Rothschild attempts to have a competitive edge that can help clients
With 40 offices in over 30 countries, the firm has a global presence allowing Rothschild to better serve clients. The firm’s UK investment banking business was named the most active investment bank in Europe for the …

Companies face the challenge of determining whether to issue debt or equity for financing needs. Issuance of debt or equity both have advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Issuing Debt
1. Issuance of debt has a tax benefit because of the debt tax shield. The interest payments to debt owners are expensed, causing a reduction taxable income. A company with a higher tax rate thus has a higher tax benefit from debt issuance
2. Some assert that debt adds discipline to management because interest expenses cause lower left over cashflows, which makes management more …

I just finished reading Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis. Liar’s Poker is Lewis’s account of his four years (from 1984-1987) working on Wall Street for Salomon Brothers. This book is also on the Sharpe Investing Recommended Reading List. Lewis details his career from the first days of training to his later success in bond sales and trading.
The book is filled with Wall Street greed, trickery, deceit, innovation, and power struggles. I think this book is an excellent and very enjoyable read, and I would highly recommend Liar’s Poker to anyone interested in …

As private equity, hedge funds, and other alternative asset management firms seek additional capital, keeping internal operations confidential remains an important priority.
These companies rely on secrecy and limited disclosure to protect future plans, unique trading strategies, or other business practices. Because of this need to keep operations confidential, raising capital through global exchanges that are heavily regulated and require large amounts of disclosure is a less attractive option.
GSTrUE
This need to raise capital but limit disclosure is a service Goldman Sachs’s GSTrUE (GS Tradable Unregistered Equity OTC Market) intends to provide. …