JPMorgan is on the hunt; private equity's data culture clash; Symphony's plan to win over the buy side
Hi readers,
One word caught our eye this week: "aggressive."
As in, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon saying the firm is going to be "much more aggressive in acquisitions across the board." So what else could the biggest U.S. bank be looking to add, exactly? Well, there were some clues. Buying another deposit-taking bank is a no-no for JPMorgan. Sheer scale doesn't exactly appear to be the goal, and Dimon said the bank will be "open-minded" and "creative."
And with all the deals already going on with fintechs and newer players as targets - Intuit said it would buy Credit Karma just days after Morgan Stanley revealed plans to buy E-Trade - Dan DeFrancesco laid out 7 other buzzy fintechs that could be looking like a good buy for whoever is on the hunt.
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A culture clash is holding private equity back from using data to do deals - here's how firms can overcome the human roadblock
To understand why the use of data in the investment process is only in its early stages in the private-equity industry, look no further than conversations at a massive industry gathering this week. Casey Sullivan was part of the crowd of thousands at SuperReturn in Berlin. He chatted with insiders about the challenges of getting getting investment professionals and data scientists to work together - as one put it, "EQ is more important than IQ" when it comes to collaboration.
Citadel, BlackRock, and D1 Capital are racking up hundreds of millions in gains as coronavirus fears tank airlines, cruises, and movie-theater stocks
While we were unpacking all the M&A action, coronavirus fears were also dominating headlines and tanking the markets this week. But as Bradley Saacks writes, there are some asset managers making money off of the chaos. BlackRock, Citadel, D1 Capital, and Adelphi Capital are all racking up big gains on short positions in airlines, cruise companies, movie theaters, and malls - companies that were directly impacted by the unfolding public health crisis.
Symphony's CEO is plotting a big strategy shift as the messaging startup struggles to lure hedge-fund clients
Messaging startup Symphony, which has raised $460 million from some of the biggest firms on Wall Street en route to a $1.4 billion valuation, is adding a referral program allowing customers to sign their own clients up to the platform for free.
The plan, as explained by Symphony CEO David Gurle in an exclusive interview with Dan DeFrancesco, will be rolled out in the coming months and is meant to entice more buy-side firms, long a sore spot of the firm, as it looks to gain traction helping facilitate complicated financial trades.
Bank of America is shaking up its global markets division and poached a Goldman Sachs exec to fill a key new role
Alex Morrell reported all the details - plus we've already updated our equities and FICC org charts to help you map out the new power structure. And the Goldman partner exit means we've also got another name to add to Dakin Campbell's running list - you can check that out here.
We got a look at billionaire investor Seth Klarman's super-rare book. Here are the predictions he nailed, and where he missed.
Klarman's book "Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor," is something of a (very expensive) cult classic. It's out of print, and first editions of the book sell online for thousands of dollars. Bradley took a read of the 1991 text, and while some of its proclamations don't exactly stand the test of time (indexing, as it turned out, wasn't just a fad), others hold up just fine.
That's it from me! A round of of fintech news and must-know people moves below, if you need to catch up with everything we published this week. As always, my line is open at mmazzilli@businessinsider.com.
Enjoy the weekend,
Meredith
People moves
- Barclays has hired an ex-Goldman Sachs partner to bolster its sales and trading unit and grab market share from US rivals
- The COO of billionaire Steve Tananbaum's GoldenTree Asset Management is out after 15 years at the firm, sources say
- Eileen Murray, Bridgewater's departing co-CEO, explains why sponsorships, not mentorships, are the best way to help people succeed.
Fintech and proptech
- Google Cloud opens new 'Silicon Slopes' facility to help it chip away at Microsoft and Amazon's cloud dominance - and PayPal is an early customer
- DailyPay, the payday advance startup used by Berkshire Hathaway and Six Flags, is launching a savings product to help customers break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle
- Intuit is set to buy Credit Karma for $7.1 billion - here's what the TurboTax owner has to gain from the buzzy startup known for its free credit scores
- 5 startup founders explain how they reimagined an old-school industry to break into the buzzy construction-tech scene