Here is an insider's account of the telecom industry and the true story of a telecom industry executive turned Wall Street analyst, just as the stock market bubble was beginning to burst. Thomas J. Lauria was a Wall Street analyst covering the white-hot telecom sector during the stock market bubble of 2000. 'The Fall of Telecom' revisits the telecom industry's historic and humble beginnings as part of the monopolistic Bell System and brings us into the life of a telecom industry executive turned Wall Street analyst, just as investor euphoria with technology stocks was starting to unravel. He shares many personal reflections on his time in industry and on the Street. This book will appeal to investors, business executives, former industry employees, and students of business history and the global telecom industry. It ends with a summary of valuable lessons and a Q&A discussion with the author.
The primary objective of this handbook is to create a comprehensive knowledge base on the broad and sometimes misunderstood topic of investor relations, the center of most corporate communications programs. The approach taken was to first develop a thorough understanding of Wall Street itself. Having been a Fortune 25 Investor Relations Director as well as a Sr. Equity Analyst and Equity Research Director, the perception of what is needed by the financial community is quite different than what many investor relations officers believe. Driving a "hyperactive" Investor Relations program is the ultimate aim of this text. The author believes that the insight provided herein will enable new IROs to best understand their new profession and enable existing practitioners to add additional elements to their marketing programs that will enhance shareholder understanding and value. The author's website can be viewed at www.tomlauria.com.
“A well-documented, in-depth look at the Street that names heroes and villains and pulls no punches.” —The Boston Globe Dan Reingold was a top analyst for fourteen years, chief competitor to Salomon Smith Barney’s Jack Grubman in the red-hot telecom sector. He was part of the Street and believed in it. But in this action-packed, highly personal memoir Reingold describes how his enthusiasm gave way to disgust as he learned how deeply corrupted Wall Street and much of corporate America had become during the roaring stock market bubble of the 1990s. Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst provides a front-row seat at one of the most dramatic—and ultimately tragic—periods in financial history. Reingold recounts his introduction to a world of leaks and secret deal-making; his experiences with corporate fraud; and Wall Street’s alarming penchant for lavish spending and multimillion-dollar pay packages. He spars with arch rival Grubman; fends off intense pressures from bankers and corporate CEOs; and is wooed by Morgan Stanley’s John Mack and CSFB’s Frank Quattrone. He tells of confidential deals whispered about days before their official announcement, and recalls the moment he learned that WorldCom was massively cooking its books. And he reveals his shock at being an unwitting catalyst for a series of sexually explicit e-mails that would rock Wall Street; bring Grubman to his knees; and contribute to the stepping aside of Grubman’s boss, Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill. In addition, he shows how government investigators never got to the heart of the ethical and legal transgressions of the era, leaving investors—even sophisticated professionals—cheated. Reingold’s stories range from outrageous to hilarious to simply absurd. But together they provide a sobering exposé of Wall Street: a jungle of greed and ego brimming with conflicts and inside information, and a business absurdly out of touch with the Main Street it claims to serve. “Shows us that much of what propelled the meteoric rise of the stock market in the late nineties was self-interested, sometimes criminal, hot air . . . a riveting and revealing account.” —Michael K. Powell, former chairman, FCC
The longer WorldCom Chief Audit Executive Cynthia Cooper stares at the entries in front of her, the more sinister they seem. But the CFO is badgering her to delay her team's audit of the company's books and directing others to block Cooper's efforts. Still, something in the pit of her stomach tells her to keep digging. Cooper takes readers behind the scenes on a riveting, real-time journey as she and her team work at night and behind closed doors to expose the largest fraud in corporate history. Whom can they trust? Could she lose her job? Should she fear for her physical safety? In Extraordinary Circumstances, she recounts for the first time her journey from her close family upbringing in a small Mississippi town, to working motherhood and corporate success, to the pressures of becoming a whistleblower, to being named one of Time's 2002 Persons of the Year. She also provides a rare insider's glimpse into the spectacular rise and fall of WorldCom, a telecom titan, the darling of Wall Street, and a Cinderella story for Mississippi. With remarkable candor, Cooper discusses her struggle to overcome these challenges, and how she has found healing through sharing the lessons learned with the next generation. This book reminds us all that ethical decision-making is not forged at the crossroads of major events but starts in childhood, "decision by decision and brick by brick." At a time when corporate dishonesty is dominating public attention, Extraordinary Circumstances makes it clear that the tone set at the top is critical to fostering an ethical environment in the work-place. Provocative, moving, and intensely personal, Extraordinary Circumstances is a wake-up call to corporate leaders and an intimate glimpse at a scandal that shook the business world.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
Blood on the Street is a riveting account of the Wall Street scam in which ordinary investors lost literally billions of dollars -- in many cases their life savings -- in one of the greatest deceptions ever, by the crack reporter who broke the original story. In one of the most outrageous examples of dirty dealing in the history of Wall Street, hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits were made during the booming 1990s as a result of research analysts issuing positive stock ratings on companies that kicked back investment banking business. Now, for the first time, award-winning journalist Charles Gasparino reveals the whole fascinating story of greed, arrogance, and corruption. It was Gasparino's front-page reporting in The Wall Street Journal that brought the story to national attention and spurred New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer to launch an official probe. Now, Gasparino goes behind his own headlines to tell the inside story of this spectacular swindle -- with revelations from his unprecedented access to never-before-published depositions and documents, including e-mail exchanges leading all the way up to Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill. Drawing on his research and interviews with industry insiders, Gasparino takes readers into the back rooms of Wall Street's top investment firms and captures the outsize personalities of three key players: Salomon Smith Barney's Jack Grubman, a braggart with one of the largest salaries on Wall Street; Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget, the Yale graduate who hyped his way to the top of the research pyramid; and Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker, the "Queen of the Internet," who foresaw the market catastrophe but gave in to the pressures Blood on the Street shows how regulators, like former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt, allowed the deceptive practices to fester and grow during the 1990s bubble, leaving the door open for a then- little-known attorney general from New York State to step in and make his mark by holding Wall Street accountable. Gasparino provides the first major account of Spitzer's rise to prominence, detailing how the attorney general pursued key players to build his case against Wall Street, including his shifting allegiance to the powerful New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso. A fast-paced narrative rich in sharp insights, Blood on the Street is the definitive book on the financial debacle that affected millions of Americans.
For better and for worse, few companies have been so prominently and constantly in the public eye as AT&T. Through decades of growth and dominance, followed by its 1984 breakup and a litany of well-documented troubles, the company has soldiered on, by turns thriving and hanging on for dear life.Perhaps no individual experienced as much of the roller-coaster ride as Dick Martin, an executive vice president and 30-year AT&T veteran with both a bird’s-eye view of and a crucial role in the company’s bumpy history.Tough Calls is the ultimate inside look at how AT&T tried to cope with a “perfect storm” of fierce competition, economic turmoil, and punishing media scrutiny. Mixing unflinching candor with love for the company he helped steer -- and clear respect for many of his long-time colleagues -- Martin takes you through boardroom and back room to shed unprecedented light on:* How the 1996 bungled announcement of 40,000 layoffs nearly destroyed the company* How flawed succession planning precipitated sharp declines in AT&T’s stock price* The never-ending, ugly turf battles with the “Baby Bells” brought on by the AT&T breakup* How even small interest groups can have a tremendous influence on business decisions, and how the media are largely responsible for determining what is business news on any given dayTough Calls is also a cautionary tale to be heeded by all businesses, using AT&T’s experience in the brutal telecom wars as a backdrop for new strategies in weathering unforgiving business conditions. Just a few of the lessons to be learned include:* How to avoid the most common mistakes that executives make, such as being held hostage by unrealistic expectations, waiting too long to make critical changes, and building their celebrity rather than their credibility* How to balance internal and external communications, and how and when to deal with the business media* How to improve relationships between PR executives and the “C” suite -- CEO, CFO, Chief Counsel, etc.--and how to make public relations more strategic* How to build and sustain favorable brand recognition and investor allure even in the face of bitter competition and unpredictable market conditionsAs candid and fascinating as it is constructive, Tough Calls is itself a call to attention and to arms, in preparation for the many battles that every business must eventually face, against fierce adversaries, and even within its own camp.
