DealBook: Huntsman Gets Personal in Apollo Lawsuit.In an expected move, Huntsman on Monday sued its now-reluctant acquirer’s parent, Apollo Management, and two of the private equity firm’s founders, accusing them of tortiously interfering in the $10.6 billion merger of the two chemical makers.
Added Huntsman Corp. contracts to the site where you can find the Huntsman-Basell Merger Agreement as well as the Huntsman-Hexion Merger Agreement.
New York Times: Judge Says Countrywide Officers Must Face Suit by Shareholders. Directors and officers of Countrywide Financial, the beleaguered mortgage lender, must answer shareholder accusations of insider trading and an overall failure to monitor lending practices that led to the company’s collapse, a federal judge in California has ruled.
I’ve added Countrywide Financial Corp. contracts to the website, including the Investment Agreement between Countrywide Financial Corp. and Bank of America.
GigaOM: RackSpace IPO Filing Hints at Expansion Plans. Data center and hosting provider RackSpace Inc., has filed to raise up to $400 million in an initial public offering. Its financials seem generally sound (unlike many tech companies it’s actually profitable), although profits did drop by 10 percent in the last year.
I’ve added Rackspace Inc. contracts. Rackspace had included several employment agreements and economic development agreements in its filings.
San Francisco Business Times: RedEnvelope Files for Bankruptcy Protection, Agrees to Asset Sale. Online gift seller RedEnvelope Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 17. The San Francisco company (NASDAQ: REDE) detailed the move in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.
Even though I’ve never shopped at RedEnvelope, I recently received one of their catalogs with the following note: “Postmaster: Please deliver APril 16-18.” Talk about timing. I’ve updated the RedEnvelope Inc. contracts page where you can find the Asset Purchase Agreement between Creative Catalogs Corporation and RedEnvelope Inc.
Other new content includes ArcSight Inc. contracts.
Sure, old news. I just updated the Audible Inc. contracts page, presumably for the last time. The latest additions include the Merger Agreement Between Amazon.com and Audible Inc., as well as other agreements between Audible and Apple Computer. I found the Digital Download Sales Agreement between Apple and Audible to be particularly humorous. Exhibit D to that Agreement is a screen shot showing Audible products in the iTunes store. Presumably someone at Apple used Microsoft Photo Editor on a PC to add “Apple Confidential” and “Do Not Distribute” to that screen shot. They don’t have Macs with Photoshop at Apple?
CNNMoney.com: JPMorgan Chase Makes $1B-Plus on Visa IPO. Thanks to its stake in Visa’s initial public offering this week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has enough money to pay for its Bear Stearns purchase and still have about a billion dollars left over.
I’ve added Visa Inc. contracts to the site. I’ve also added ViewSonic Corp. contracts, even though their IPO got pulled.
Really. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. purchased Emeril Lagasse’s business of licensing, marketing, distributing and selling products and services related to Lagasse and his persona, except for his restaurant business. I’ve just added the Asset Purchase Agreement between Martha and Emeril.
Current Media contracts, from the company founded by Al Gore, Jr. He’s also the Executive Chairman and Director.
When West Virginia University sued Coach Richard Rodrigez, it was kind enough to attach copies of his employment agreement. Take a glance at the types of incentives that some universities pay to head football coaches.
If you are tabulating the results, that’s $30,000 for academic-related incentives and $385,000 for winning football games and putting fans in the seats. The sad part of these incentives is that the academic targets are so low while the athletic targets are so high. 2.65 GPA? That’s like giving a $10,000 incentive to finish 7-6.
MarketWatch: RiskMetrics Soars in Stock-Market Debut. In markets, like comedy, timing is all-important. So it was highly fortuitous for RiskMetrics Group Inc., a provider of risk-management and corporate-governance products and research, to make its stock-market debut one day after Societe Generale, France’s second-largest bank, stunned the financial world with the revelation of its $7.1 billion trading loss at the hands of a single rogue employee.
I’m not a believer in rogue traders. If an employee managed a series of trades that netted $7.1 billion, no one will be calling that person a rogue trader. The lesson is that you are only a rogue trader if you bet incorrectly. Funny how we don’t apply that derogatory term to other professions, even when they stumble as badly or worse. We don’t talk about a rogue politician that has led our country into war that has resulted in a $488 billion loss. Anyways, RiskMetrics Group Inc. contracts are online.