* Firm is leading drive for shake-up at BlackBerry maker* RIM not available immediately for commentTORONTO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Jaguar Financial , a
Research In Motion investor agitating for a shake-up,
said two independent RIM directors canceled meetings called
this week to discuss complaints about the BlackBerry maker.Jaguar, a Canadian merchant bank that targets
underperforming companies, wants RIM to hire a chief executive
to replace Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. It also wants RIM
to consider putting itself up for sale, either as a whole or in
parts.Jaguar Chief Executive Vic Alboini said on Tuesday meetings
with directors David Kerr and John Richardson were canceled by
RIM’s counsel.”This incident clearly demonstrates the control that
management has over the independent directors,” said Alboini.The current co-CEOs have presided over a steady decline in
the BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market and have failed
to keep pace with innovations by Apple and others,
Alboini and other critics say. Balsillie and Lazaridis, who
share the role of chairman, exert too much power over the
board, they say.Jaguar says shareholders representing 8 percent of RIM’s
stock back its demands, and investment bankers say that figure
could grow if RIM fails to address their concerns.Shares of RIM were down more than 2 percent at $22.93 in
Nasdaq trade on Tuesday, as the BlackBerry maker launched a
three-day developers conference in San Francisco.At the event, RIM said it would soon launch a new operating
system to power both its smartphones and the PlayBook tablet
computer.
By Ross KerberOct 17 (Reuters) - Fallen stock indexes are expected weigh
on the third-quarter earnings of big U.S. asset managers,
showing how market turmoil can affect a broad swath of
financial companies.The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 14 percent
during the quarter, finishing at 1,131.42, on growing concerns
about Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. economic and political
outlook.The index has come back a bit since then, but the drop cut
into asset managers’ share prices and led some analysts to
reduce their earnings estimates for big managers like BlackRock
Inc and Legg Mason , knowing that lower markets
will leave them with fewer assets under management against
which to charge fees.”These businesses can’t drop their expenses fast enough to
offset the sharp declines in revenue,” said KBW analyst Robert
Lee. He said he was not predicting the companies would turn to
layoffs soon, even though personnel are usually a company’s
highest expense.In a research note last week Lee lowered his estimates for
how much the group would earn by 6 percent on average from
estimates he issued in early September.Another analyst, Craig Siegenthaler of Credit Suisse, said
in a recent note to investors that market uncertainties have
had another effect, “de-risking,” such as driving money away
from the equity funds that traditionally were among the
companies’ most profitable products.Data from Chicago research company Morningstar bears out
that idea. Investors withdrew a net of $45.7 billion from
long-term mutual funds in the quarter, with U.S. stock funds
accounting for nearly all the outflow. On the other hand,
low-cost exchange traded funds took in an estimated $19.7
billion in the quarter, Morningstar said.SEASON STARTS OCT. 19An earnings report from the largest asset manager,
BlackRock Inc , will start the season on Oct. 19,
followed by T. Rowe Price Group on Oct. 25 and
Franklin Resources Inc on Oct. 27.A hint of what is to come came Oct. 13 when JPMorgan Chase
& Co issued third-quarter earnings that included its
own asset-management unit. There, net income of $385 million
was down 8 percent from the same period a year ago and down 12
percent from the second quarter of 2011.”This is a business that was clearly … affected by
volatile markets this quarter,” said Doug Braunstein,
JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, on a conference call with
analysts. Though revenue of $2.3 billion was up 7 percent from
a year ago, it fell 9 percent from the second quarter.The asset-management business, Braunstein continued, is one
in which “we would expect to see continued pressure on revenue
in the fourth quarter if the current market conditions
persist.”
A UBS spokesman said Fabre’s contract with the bank ended on
Aug. 31. During his time with UBS, Fabre was a senior member of
the healthcare coverage team reporting to the head of the
business, Doug McCutcheon.In a 19-year career, Fabre has worked on mergers and
acquisitions and capital raisings worth around $90 billion for
clients including Sanofi Aventis , Smith & Nephew
and Siemens , Blackstone said.
