http://hypoventurecapital-headlines.com/?p=67
NEW YORK: The $50 million bounty on Osama bin Laden’s head should go to the victims’ of his murderous plot, federal lawmakers said Sunday. Two New York Congressmen said they would draft legislation to give any unclaimed reward money to organisations that aid 9/11 first responders, families and survivors. “If the bounty isn’t paid, Osama bin Laden’s victims should get it,” said Republican Anthony Weiner. America’s intelligence network – rather than tipsters – appears to have gathered the information that led to bin Laden’s death, so no one may qualify to receive the bounty, said Republican Jerrold Nadler. Ground Zero construction veteran and advocate John Feal said 9/11 rescuers still carried the scars of that day, and could use the funds. “If it was up to me it would be called the ‘No Responder Left Behind Act’ because my attitude now is we will not leave anybody behind who is affected by 9/11,” Feal said. His FealGood Foundation helped pay for funerals of five Ground Zero responders and workers in just the past two months, he said. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice programme offered an initial $25 million reward for bin Laden. The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association contributed $2 million more, and Congress bumped the pot up to $50 million in 2004. Less lucrative rewards have worked in other high-profile cases, including the capture of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted of masterminding the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Centre that killed six people and wounded more than 1,000. ap
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Pacquiao, Mosley weigh in for WBO title fight
http://hypoventurecapital-headlines.com/?p=23
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino congressman who holds two world titles, puts his World Boxing Organization title on the line when he meets Shane Mosley in a welterweight bout on Saturday.
Pacquiao and challenger Mosley weighed in Friday for their title fight in front of a standing-room only crowd of about 6,500 at the MGM Grand Garden arena.
Pacquiao, who is a 6-1 favorite, tipped the scales at 145 pounds and American Mosley was 147 pounds.
The 32-year-old Pacquiao stripped off his red and blue track suit and stepped onto the scale wearing just his shorts and white socks as a roar went up from the mostly Filipino crowd.
“I believe Shane Mosley is a good fighter and he trained his hardest for this fight so I have had to train even harder,” said Pacquiao, who is also the WBC super welterweight champion.
The two boxers shook hands and embraced but the congeniality ends here as they make final preparations for Saturday contest.
The 39-year-old Mosley is hoping to dethrone Pacquiao who is making the second defense of his WBO title he won by beating Miguel Cotto in the same arena in November 2009.
Mosley, who arrived wearing a light blue track suit, said he could hear the roar of Pacquiao’s supporters back stage.
“There are a lot of fans here and I hear a lot of Manny’s fans. It will be a big task tomorrow when I fight Manny,” said Mosley, who is the only boxer to beat Oscar de la Hoya twice.
Pacquiao fans started lining up outside the front doors of the arena eight hours before Friday’s weigh-in to get a glimpse of their boxing hero.
They came draped in Filipino flags and wearing yellow which is the color Pacquiao has asked them to wear on Saturday. Tickets were sold out five weeks in advanced for the fight. Many who were there didn’t have tickets to the fight so this was their only chance to see Pacquiao in person.
By noon the crowd outside the front entrance to the Grand Garden had swelled to thousands and security had trouble at times keeping the walk ways clear and making sure no bottles got inside the arena. It was mainly a festive mood — lots of alcohol but in plastic cups — and no major incidents.
Thousands more who showed up too late were turned away and couldn’t get in for the main event weigh-in which lasted only about 10 minutes.
Americo Canque flew in from Manila to see the fight. This is the fourth time he has traveled to the United States to see the Sarangani congressman fight.
“I think Manny will knock him out in seven rounds,” said the 55-year-old electrician. “Manny has too much speed he is very strong. Mosley has the experience but he is too old.”
Canque said the entire country of 96 million will come to a standstill when the fight happens.
“He is more popular than our president,” Canque said.
Rose Regino was first in line Friday and part of a group of about 20 Pacquiao fans that showed up at 7 in the morning.
“Manny is going to fight like Bruce Lee,” said the 40-year-old banker, who lives in Las Vegas. “We are so excited.”
Las Vegas’ Keo Moya is pulling for Mosley to win but he was definitely in the minority.
The 10-year-old from Las Vegas said the longer the fight goes, the better it is for Pacquiao.
“If Mosley has a chance, it is in the first three rounds,” Moya said. “He is older so he needs to attack first. If that doesn’t happen then Pacquiao will win.”
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, says this week he wants the Filipino southpaw to force the action enough to throw Mosley off his guard.
“Most older fighters go forward well but they can’t go backwards in the ring,” Roach said. “They can be aggressive but if you can get them on their heels and they are kind of lost. The legs don’t get them out the way like they used to.”
Roach insists this has been one of their best training camps ever for a title fight. He is hoping “Pac-Man” can do something no other boxer has ever been able to achieve and deliver the first knockout of Mosley in his 18-year career.
Mosley has rarely even been knocked down in a career that has seen him win four world titles.
Roach said one of the keys to beating Mosley is for Pacquiao to keep throwing punches at the end of exchanges instead of resisting the temptation to clinch.
“Shane likes to hit and grab. When he grabs he is reaching for you and that leaves him open for a punch,” Roach said. “We worked on that a lot.
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Up close and personal with Symantec Corp, Mark Bregman
http://hypoventurecapital-headlines.com/?p=16The executive vice-president and chief technology offi cer of Symantec Corp shoulders the challenging responsibilities of guiding investments in advanced research and development.
AS executive vice-president and chief technology officer at Nasdaq-listed Symantec Corp, Mark Bregman shoulders the challenging responsibilities of guiding investments in advanced research and the company’s development centres in India and China.
He is also responsible for the Symantec Research Labs, Symantec Security Response as well as shared and emerging technologies, architecture and standards, localisation and secure coding, and developing the technology strategy for the multinational information technology security vendor, which is ranked 353 on the Fortune 500 list.
Still, had it not been for an impulsive decision to step inside the doors of the IBM Research centre in New York City 27 years ago, Bregman might have found his life calling in the hallowed halls of academia today instead of being at the global forefront of cutting-edge information security, storage and systems management solutions.
A life changing moment
“As a young boy, I never thought about a career in IT (information technology). I always wanted to be a scientist,” recalls the 54-year-old Bregman, who holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard College and a master’s degree and doctorate in physics from Columbia University.
After completing his doctorate, Bregman harboured ambitions of doing research and becoming a professor at an American university.
At that time, he was working in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York City.
“The laboratory was very close to the IBM Research centre, and I would see it everyday while driving home. So, one day, I thought I should stop there and ask about job opportunities.”
Bregman filled in a job application form, which was obtained from the front desk receptionist, and two weeks later, he received a phone call from the director of the physical sciences department at the IBM Research centre.
“He asked me to join him for lunch the following week. I was thinking I am a graduate student. Free lunch? Are you kidding? I’ll go anywhere for a free lunch,” he quips.
It turned out that his doctorate work in experimental high energy physics had caught the attention of IBM Research.
“At that time, their experiments in measuring the mass of the neutrino was very closely related to my doctorate work.”
IBM Research offered him a salary which Bregman says was “much more than what an assistant professor would get in most universities.”
Still, he had not given up on his dream of being a university professor.
“I was planning on staying with IBM Research for only a few years, and after that, move on to a university.”
However, IBM Research turned out to be a snare that was too fascinating for Bregman to leave for the next 16 years.
“I found so many interesting things happening. You would sit down at the cafeteria and get introduced to people like Robert Dennard he invented dynamic random access memory or RAM. And after some years in research, I realised that some business issues were perhaps more challenging then scientific problems. I also became very interested in the problem of innovation how does a big company like IBM continue to innovate?”
Driving the innovation process
Bregman is mainly driven by coming up with ways to improve the process of turning innovative ideas into successful products.
“Lots of people, engineers and universities have good ideas and inventions but most of them have no impact in the marketplace. This is the challenge for innovation.”
This was among the reasons behind the set-up of the Symantec Incubator division three years ago.
The start-up style Incubator division allows engineers the freedom of working on new projects, outside the company’s traditional product development processes.
Bregman says many ideas from the Incubator division were better than the ones the company paid consultants to provide.
“My role is to look beyond the next product, and help to set the direction for the company’s technology and investments. So I always challenge our engineering teams Look, if these are the trends for the next three to five years, what are we going to do about them?”
He says Symantec has to constantly innovate in helping its customers to secure and manage information.
“We cannot be effective in defending against malicious attacks if we just wait for the next attack. We have to stay ahead of the attackers.”
Being candid and upfront
For Bregman, the story behind his second marriage is a good example of his personal values.
“About eight years ago, I was divorced, and had moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, California. My youngest brother and sister-in-law were often staying in my apartment as they had started a new tech business with clients in the Silicon Valley. One night during dinner, they brought a woman who was their old friend, and she looked me in the eye and told me, “According to your father, I am his next daughter-in-law.” So later, we went out on a few dates and found that we actually liked each other. She is my wife now,” he recalls with a laugh.
Among his core values in business management is openness.
“For example, I am told that certain information is too sensitive to share with other employees. My view is, we should share the information. If the employees violate our trust, they should not be in the company anymore.”
Bregman also believes in promoting employees within the company rather than looking outside to fill vacant positions.
“I have a positive view of human nature. My experience has been, when you set high expectations for people, whether it is trust or performance, most people will rise to your expectations.”
Meanwhile, he does not consider himself to be a workaholic although he puts in between 70 and 80 hours of work a week.
“I get to work by 7.30am and I come home by 7pm. Then again, I also work at home and during half the weekends. So, well, I don’t go sailing very much anymore.”
Life as a global citizen
His work entails plenty of travelling, and Bregman considers himself extremely fortunate to be able to combine one of his passions with work.
He recalls visiting the Asian region 20 times last year.
The only continent he has not visited is Antarctica, he chuckles.
“Having such a global experience is definitely among the highlights in my life. I have colleagues and friends all over the world,” muses Bregman, who lived in England for five years as a young boy.
“When I was eight years old, my family moved to London because my father, who was in the advertising business, got a job there. So I was an English schoolboy, and wore short pants, a tie and knee socks, and played rugby, cricket and soccer. Also, I spent a year working at a laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland as a graduate student. And when I was with IBM, I ran a semiconductor plant in Japan for almost four years near Kyoto.”
At the time of this interview, Kuala Lumpur was the third stop for Bregman, after Indonesia and China, in a whirlwind week.
He relishes being exposed to different cultures and societies.
“I find it really rewarding,” says Bregman, who recommends a book entitled “The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home” authored by Pico Iyer.
“He talks about the same experiences I have and being a global soul.”
He is also fortunate that his wife, who works for Intel Corp, understands the need for frequent business travel.
AS executive vice-president and chief technology officer at Nasdaq-listed Symantec Corp, Mark Bregman shoulders the challenging responsibilities of guiding investments in advanced research and the company’s development centres in India and China.
He is also responsible for the Symantec Research Labs, Symantec Security Response as well as shared and emerging technologies, architecture and standards, localisation and secure coding, and developing the technology strategy for the multinational information technology security vendor, which is ranked 353 on the Fortune 500 list.
Still, had it not been for an impulsive decision to step inside the doors of the IBM Research centre in New York City 27 years ago, Bregman might have found his life calling in the hallowed halls of academia today instead of being at the global forefront of cutting-edge information security, storage and systems management solutions.
A life changing moment
“As a young boy, I never thought about a career in IT (information technology). I always wanted to be a scientist,” recalls the 54-year-old Bregman, who holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard College and a master’s degree and doctorate in physics from Columbia University.
After completing his doctorate, Bregman harboured ambitions of doing research and becoming a professor at an American university.
At that time, he was working in a laboratory at Columbia University, New York City.
“The laboratory was very close to the IBM Research centre, and I would see it everyday while driving home. So, one day, I thought I should stop there and ask about job opportunities.”
Bregman filled in a job application form, which was obtained from the front desk receptionist, and two weeks later, he received a phone call from the director of the physical sciences department at the IBM Research centre.
“He asked me to join him for lunch the following week. I was thinking I am a graduate student. Free lunch? Are you kidding? I’ll go anywhere for a free lunch,” he quips.
It turned out that his doctorate work in experimental high energy physics had caught the attention of IBM Research.
“At that time, their experiments in measuring the mass of the neutrino was very closely related to my doctorate work.”
IBM Research offered him a salary which Bregman says was “much more than what an assistant professor would get in most universities.”
Still, he had not given up on his dream of being a university professor.
“I was planning on staying with IBM Research for only a few years, and after that, move on to a university.”
However, IBM Research turned out to be a snare that was too fascinating for Bregman to leave for the next 16 years.
“I found so many interesting things happening. You would sit down at the cafeteria and get introduced to people like Robert Dennard he invented dynamic random access memory or RAM. And after some years in research, I realised that some business issues were perhaps more challenging then scientific problems. I also became very interested in the problem of innovation how does a big company like IBM continue to innovate?”
Driving the innovation process
Bregman is mainly driven by coming up with ways to improve the process of turning innovative ideas into successful products.
“Lots of people, engineers and universities have good ideas and inventions but most of them have no impact in the marketplace. This is the challenge for innovation.”
This was among the reasons behind the set-up of the Symantec Incubator division three years ago.
The start-up style Incubator division allows engineers the freedom of working on new projects, outside the company’s traditional product development processes.
Bregman says many ideas from the Incubator division were better than the ones the company paid consultants to provide.
“My role is to look beyond the next product, and help to set the direction for the company’s technology and investments. So I always challenge our engineering teams Look, if these are the trends for the next three to five years, what are we going to do about them?”
He says Symantec has to constantly innovate in helping its customers to secure and manage information.
“We cannot be effective in defending against malicious attacks if we just wait for the next attack. We have to stay ahead of the attackers.”
Being candid and upfront
For Bregman, the story behind his second marriage is a good example of his personal values.
“About eight years ago, I was divorced, and had moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, California. My youngest brother and sister-in-law were often staying in my apartment as they had started a new tech business with clients in the Silicon Valley. One night during dinner, they brought a woman who was their old friend, and she looked me in the eye and told me, “According to your father, I am his next daughter-in-law.” So later, we went out on a few dates and found that we actually liked each other. She is my wife now,” he recalls with a laugh.
Among his core values in business management is openness.
“For example, I am told that certain information is too sensitive to share with other employees. My view is, we should share the information. If the employees violate our trust, they should not be in the company anymore.”
Bregman also believes in promoting employees within the company rather than looking outside to fill vacant positions.
“I have a positive view of human nature. My experience has been, when you set high expectations for people, whether it is trust or performance, most people will rise to your expectations.”
Meanwhile, he does not consider himself to be a workaholic although he puts in between 70 and 80 hours of work a week.
“I get to work by 7.30am and I come home by 7pm. Then again, I also work at home and during half the weekends. So, well, I don’t go sailing very much anymore.”
Life as a global citizen
His work entails plenty of travelling, and Bregman considers himself extremely fortunate to be able to combine one of his passions with work.
He recalls visiting the Asian region 20 times last year.
The only continent he has not visited is Antarctica, he chuckles.
“Having such a global experience is definitely among the highlights in my life. I have colleagues and friends all over the world,” muses Bregman, who lived in England for five years as a young boy.
“When I was eight years old, my family moved to London because my father, who was in the advertising business, got a job there. So I was an English schoolboy, and wore short pants, a tie and knee socks, and played rugby, cricket and soccer. Also, I spent a year working at a laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland as a graduate student. And when I was with IBM, I ran a semiconductor plant in Japan for almost four years near Kyoto.”
At the time of this interview, Kuala Lumpur was the third stop for Bregman, after Indonesia and China, in a whirlwind week.
He relishes being exposed to different cultures and societies.
“I find it really rewarding,” says Bregman, who recommends a book entitled “The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home” authored by Pico Iyer.
“He talks about the same experiences I have and being a global soul.”
He is also fortunate that his wife, who works for Intel Corp, understands the need for frequent business travel.
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Why China Is Hoarding Rare Earths
http://hypoventurecapital-headlines.com/?p=14
Watch out! China continues its hoarding of rare-earth metals — a substance vital to the manufacturing of high-tech products, from flat-screen TVs, laptops and mobile phones, to batteries for electric cars and solar panels.
Is China establishing itself as the next Saudi Arabia for technology manufacturing, complete with an OPEC-style embargo? And what could this mean for America’s continued technology sector primacy and the prices our consumers pay for technology products?
No need to hit the panic button just yet. With the initial fear-driven headlines on this topic come and gone, it’s time to revisit one of Chairman …
Watch out! China continues its hoarding of rare-earth metals — a substance vital to the manufacturing of high-tech products, from flat-screen TVs, laptops and mobile phones, to batteries for electric cars and solar panels.
Is China establishing itself as the next Saudi Arabia for technology manufacturing, complete with an OPEC-style embargo? And what could this mean for America’s continued technology sector primacy and the prices our consumers pay for technology products?
No need to hit the panic button just yet. With the initial fear-driven headlines on this topic come and gone, it’s time to revisit one of Chairman …
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Obama Is Against Technology Breakthroughs In India & China
http://hypoventure-capital.com/
This post was added on 8 May 2011, 14:39 by Kaustubh Katdare who has contributed 409 posts to this blog.
Other VoiCE posts by Kaustubh Katdare
This post was added on 8 May 2011, 14:39 by Kaustubh Katdare who has contributed 409 posts to this blog.
Other VoiCE posts by Kaustubh Katdare
Obama Is Against Technology, BRreakingthroughs In India and China
US President Obama, at Allison Transmission Headquarters in Indiana, said that he doesn’t want next technological breakthroughs happening in rapidly developing countries like India & China. He said that America should retain its lead in the global race for clean teach innovation and green energy. Obama spoke to the employees of Allison Transmission and said that environment friendly energy production and consumption are the way to future. Talking about the job creation potential in clean energy related developments, Obama said that USA is in direct competition with countries like Japan, China & Germany and maintaining lead in technology is going to spur many new jobs for Americans.
Obama further said that he wanted all green & clean energy jobs to be made in Indiana, with American workers and with American knowledge. Talking about the economy, Obama commented that US will always have plenty of jobs in the services sector because US economy is a matured economy; however, America’ economy is always going to rely on their ability of outstanding manufacturing – where America produces stuff in America and not just buy it overseas and sell it elsewhere in the world.
Obama has set a target of reducing the oil imports to a third by the middle of the next decade and his administration is working on transition to newer technologies. “This is going to make a great difference in the long term”, he said.
My opinion: Clean energy is a global requirement and India or China coming up with a breakthrough in clean energy doesn’t make only these countries ‘greener’. A technological breakthrough may occur anywhere in the world and at least for the clean energy, we need to think like ‘Global Citizens’. It’s not a race between countries; rather a race for our own existence against ourselves. Your take?
US President Obama, at Allison Transmission Headquarters in Indiana, said that he doesn’t want next technological breakthroughs happening in rapidly developing countries like India & China. He said that America should retain its lead in the global race for clean teach innovation and green energy. Obama spoke to the employees of Allison Transmission and said that environment friendly energy production and consumption are the way to future. Talking about the job creation potential in clean energy related developments, Obama said that USA is in direct competition with countries like Japan, China & Germany and maintaining lead in technology is going to spur many new jobs for Americans.
Obama further said that he wanted all green & clean energy jobs to be made in Indiana, with American workers and with American knowledge. Talking about the economy, Obama commented that US will always have plenty of jobs in the services sector because US economy is a matured economy; however, America’ economy is always going to rely on their ability of outstanding manufacturing – where America produces stuff in America and not just buy it overseas and sell it elsewhere in the world.Obama has set a target of reducing the oil imports to a third by the middle of the next decade and his administration is working on transition to newer technologies. “This is going to make a great difference in the long term”, he said.
My opinion: Clean energy is a global requirement and India or China coming up with a breakthrough in clean energy doesn’t make only these countries ‘greener’. A technological breakthrough may occur anywhere in the world and at least for the clean energy, we need to think like ‘Global Citizens’. It’s not a race between countries; rather a race for our own existence against ourselves. Your take?
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Latest smartphone market share numbers: Apple is flat, Google going strong
http://hypoventure-capital.com/?p=47
Mobile analytics firm comScore released its latest quarterly numbers for smartphones, and there are some telling changes in the mobile space. Apple’s iOS market share numbers have remained largely unchanged, with only 0.5 percent growth in the quarter ending March 2011.
Google’s Android continues to grab market share with a 6 percent growth over the same period. Google’s growth corresponds closely with the drop in share by RIM, a significant 4.5 percent. The big drop by RIM has Apple’s iOS getting close to overtake the BlackBerry. Android keeps growing while other platforms are remaining relatively flat or declining in market share.
On the OEM front, the new statistics show the only handset maker in the top five to show growth in share is Apple, likely due to the release of the iPhone 4 with Verizon. Even with this significant event, Apple’s market share grew only 1.1 percent. Apple was the leader in growth, however, with other firms remaining flat or showing slight declines. The top five OEMs in market share were Samsung, LG, Motorola, RIM and Apple. The top three are OEMs using Android, indicating it is still the platform garnering the most sales to consumers 13+ as surveyed.
Mobile analytics firm comScore released its latest quarterly numbers for smartphones, and there are some telling changes in the mobile space. Apple’s iOS market share numbers have remained largely unchanged, with only 0.5 percent growth in the quarter ending March 2011.
Google’s Android continues to grab market share with a 6 percent growth over the same period. Google’s growth corresponds closely with the drop in share by RIM, a significant 4.5 percent. The big drop by RIM has Apple’s iOS getting close to overtake the BlackBerry. Android keeps growing while other platforms are remaining relatively flat or declining in market share.
On the OEM front, the new statistics show the only handset maker in the top five to show growth in share is Apple, likely due to the release of the iPhone 4 with Verizon. Even with this significant event, Apple’s market share grew only 1.1 percent. Apple was the leader in growth, however, with other firms remaining flat or showing slight declines. The top five OEMs in market share were Samsung, LG, Motorola, RIM and Apple. The top three are OEMs using Android, indicating it is still the platform garnering the most sales to consumers 13+ as surveyed.
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: UPDATE 2-Investment banking drags down Stifel Financial Q1
http://hypoventure-capital.com/?p=43
* Q1 adj EPS $0.52 vs est. $0.61
* Institutional group rev falls 23.5 pct sequentially
* Investment banking rev fall 57 pct sequentially (Adds details, CEO quote from conference call, share history)
May 9 (Reuters) – Stifel Financial Corp posted a disappointing first-quarter profit as lower advisory fees hurt its investment banking revenue.
Stifel, which bought struggling Thomas Weisel Partners Group for about $318.2 million in stock last year, said revenue from its institutional group, including its investment banking business, fell 23.5 percent sequentially.
Pre-tax profit for the division fell 51 percent from the fourth quarter.
“Consistent with industry trends, our investment banking results in the quarter were separately lower, primarily impacted by a decline in advisory and municipal underwriting activity,” Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski said on a conference call.
Investment banking revenues fell 57 percent from the fourth quarter to $35.1 million.
The St Louis-based regional brokerage firm reported a net income of $31.4 million, or 50 cents a share, compared with a net income of $23.7 million, or 45 cents a share, a year ago.
The company, which bought 56 Midwestern retail branches with more than 300 advisers from UBS Financial Services in 2009 , earned 52 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $366.6 million.
Analysts on average expected Stifel to earn 61 cents a share, excluding items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total assets increased 41 percent to $4.5 billion as of March 31.
Stifel reported quarterly merger-related expenses of $1.5 million related to the Weisel acquisition.
Shares of Stifel closed at $43.01 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have shed 10 percent since the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results in February.
* Q1 adj EPS $0.52 vs est. $0.61
* Institutional group rev falls 23.5 pct sequentially
* Investment banking rev fall 57 pct sequentially (Adds details, CEO quote from conference call, share history)
May 9 (Reuters) – Stifel Financial Corp posted a disappointing first-quarter profit as lower advisory fees hurt its investment banking revenue.
Stifel, which bought struggling Thomas Weisel Partners Group for about $318.2 million in stock last year, said revenue from its institutional group, including its investment banking business, fell 23.5 percent sequentially.
Pre-tax profit for the division fell 51 percent from the fourth quarter.
“Consistent with industry trends, our investment banking results in the quarter were separately lower, primarily impacted by a decline in advisory and municipal underwriting activity,” Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski said on a conference call.
Investment banking revenues fell 57 percent from the fourth quarter to $35.1 million.
The St Louis-based regional brokerage firm reported a net income of $31.4 million, or 50 cents a share, compared with a net income of $23.7 million, or 45 cents a share, a year ago.
The company, which bought 56 Midwestern retail branches with more than 300 advisers from UBS Financial Services in 2009 , earned 52 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $366.6 million.
Analysts on average expected Stifel to earn 61 cents a share, excluding items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total assets increased 41 percent to $4.5 billion as of March 31.
Stifel reported quarterly merger-related expenses of $1.5 million related to the Weisel acquisition.
Shares of Stifel closed at $43.01 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have shed 10 percent since the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results in February.
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