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Disruptive Companies in Asset Management

We recently hosted an idea dinner on “Disruptive Companies in the Asset Management Industry”. The most attractive industries to disrupt are highly profitable ones, and asset management is traditionally a highly profitable industry. IMHO, the most successful disrupters in this area to date have been Vanguard (who popularized index funds) and the ETF industry. We...

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On Expert Networks, Compliance, the Drunk and the Lamppost

Expert networks have been in the news a lot for the past few weeks, due to the SEC’s attempt to look for insider trading amongst hedge funds, following on their Galleon investigation (Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon is in the photo shown). The best source of information on this topic is as usual the Integrity Research...

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Launch of Track.com, a market for independent Wall Street research

Four days ago, a team of Wall Street veterans launched Track.com, a new marketplace for independent research providers. I met with the management team today. Track.com offers independent research providers a platform to distribute their intellectual property. Buyers pay subscriptions for access to the pool of content. Similar to Value Investors Club, the general public...

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Hedge fund investment patterns/quarterly reports/investment ideas/careers

Yaser Anwar, an unusually aggressive and career-savvy senior at York University, has a mailing list with interesting information about the current status of the markets, with a focus on hedge fund investing. He sends out content about twice a month. If you want to sign up for it, contact him at yaser(at)yaseranwar.com . Despite his...

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Deal Sourcing by Corporate Development Groups

At last week’s ACG Intergrowth conference, I attended a roundtable discussion on Deal Sourcing as part of the Corporate Development track. My notes follow. To preserve confidentiality, I have labeled as “X:” the comments from all the participants. We had about 30 people in the group, almost all of whom were heads of M&A at...

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Hedge Funds Feel Tug of Internet Matchmaking

Institutional Investor reports on a range of startups trying to create platforms for investors to connect online with hedge fund managers. Members-only Web sites with names like CapIntro.com, HedgeACT.com and HedgeConnection.com promote their online offerings as an alternative to real-world meet and greets. They argue that capital introduction – the practice, traditionally performed by prime...

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Social Media, Investor Relations, and Expert Networks

Brian Solis has a lengthy post at Techcrunch on Social Media and Investor Relations. There’s a lot of material there, but I think he omits the area in social media through which the most market-moving information is flowing: expert networks....

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Liveblogging The Smart Money of Crowds: Collaborative Investing Startups

I’m liveblogging notes from tonight’s MIT Enterprise Forum event on The Smart Money of Crowds: Collaborative Investing Startups. This was not hard to organize, and I’m very happy with how the event turned out. You can see the Twitter discussion via hashtag MIT0407. Panel Biographies Roger Ehrenberg, Moderator, Managing Partner of IA Capital Partners, LLC...

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