Kinder Morgan gets the go-aheadThe California Public Utilities Comission today issued an order that allows the $15.2 billion management buyout of pipeline operator Kinder Morgan (KMI) to proceed. Kinder Morgan didn’t get everything it wanted in the ruling, which resulted from an ongoing fight it is having with several big oil companies, including ExxonMobil (XOM) and Valero (VLO). But […]- No conflict, no interestThat’s the joke, anyway, among firms and people with built-in conflicts of interest in their jobs. Lawyers, for example, who know everybody in town — and represent most of them. Labor organizers who have relationships with governors. And investment bankers whose own firms have buyout arms. As I reported my recent article on Kinder Morgan […]
- Kinder Morgan: a window onto private equityI have an article in the current issue of Fortune (the full text is here) about the $15.2-billion deal to take private Kinder Morgan Inc., (KMI) a natural-gas pipeline company in Houston. We put it online today. This story has lots of big names on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs (GS), which is the deal’s investment […]
- More money fuels the ethanol bubbleThe debate continues to rage about ethanol. Is it good for the environment? Maybe not. Is it good public policy to be supporting U.S. ethanol over imported products? Definitely not. Is there a ton of financing available for green-related projects? Oh yes. Now comes news Monday that the ethanol gusher continues. VeraSun Energy (VSE), one […]
- The green backlash?Some good stats out today from at outifit named Lux Research on the bubble aborning in green-tech investing. (Bubbles aren’t necessarily a bad thing, by the way, as a new book by my pal Daniel Gross argues.) Lux counts 930 energy startups in the world today, and firm president Matthew Nordan says “there’s no way […]
- Lerach firm ejected as lead counsel in fallout from Milberg Weiss indictmentOn Monday a judge ordered the removal of the nation’s most prominent class action lawyer–Bill Lerach–and his firm as lead counsel from a high-profile shareholder suit against Halliburton (HAL). Over Lerach’s strenous objections, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn of Dallas granted the request of lead plaintiff Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund to replace Lerach Coughlin […]
- Puzzle: Can you find the loophole in Bill Lerach’s sworn statement?This post feels like it needs to start with an epigram, but I’m torn between two candidates. One is “Character is destiny.” The other is the old lawyer joke that goes something like: Q. How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? A. His lips are moving. The nation’s leading class-action lawyer, Bill Lerach, […]
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