Financial life in a big town

The phone call on Christmas Eve 2007 was like all the others. Gil Cornblum, a respected Toronto lawyer, told his law school buddy, an unemployed consultant named Stanko Grmovsek, that a corporate merger was about to take place — and to start buying stock.

The old friends had turned a profit that way dozens of times already, using confidential information garnered on deals by Cornblum to invest in companies ahead of major market moving news like mergers and acquisitions.

The merger in question was hardly high-profile — a U.S. manufacturer of construction equipment, Terex Corp, was buying ASV Inc, which designed and made track machines — but it led the duo to their biggest take ever, a nearly US$1 million pay day.

It was also big enough to alert authorities to Grmovsek’s and Cornblum’s audacious 46-deal, 14-year insider trading scheme — Canada’s largest ever. Over that span, they netted more than $9 million, according to Canada’s securities regulator.

The scheme came to light less than two weeks after the biggest hedge fund insider trading case in history, involving the Galleon Group as well as executives at several blue chip U.S. firms.

The Canadian case may have brought in less lucre, but the details — laid out in court documents and legal filings from the Ontario Securities Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. District Court — read like a paperback detective novel on white collar crime.

GUILTY

On Tuesday, Grmovsek, 40, pleaded guilty to criminal charges; one day earlier, Cornblum, his closest friend and best man at his wedding, jumped to his death from a Toronto highway bridge. Both men had been cooperating with authorities in the U .S. and Canada.

The suicide came at the end of a long battle with depression, Cornblum’s wife Marilyn told the Globe and Mail newspaper. According to local media, he had unsuccessfully attempted suicide twice before during a months-long investigation involving law firm secrets and corporate mergers across the United States and Canada.

The pair hatched the scheme during Cornblum’s ‘articling year’ at a Toronto law firm from 1994 to 1995, U.S. prosecutors said. During that year, Cornblum provided Grmovsek with information on at least two mergers involving Canadian companies.

By 1999 both men were able to bring in about C$600,000 each from a brokerage account in the Bahamas which they used to purchase homes in swank Toronto neighborhoods.

But after cashing in on more than 40 blockbuster deals involving companies with names like Staples, ING Groep, and Alcoa Inc, and lesser-known financings and resource restatements by small mining companies, authorities investigated.

The case is both stunning in its simplicity and comical in its complexity, with the men growing increasingly paranoid as the years went by.

Friends and associates describe the two, but especially Cornblum, as respected and highly intelligent.

“I mean, who would have expected this?” said one person who knew Cornblum as a teenager in the late 1980s, describing him as a nice fellow who tended to keep to himself and was aloof to a degree. “He was a really bright guy, into the arts more than the sciences.” 

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ConocoPhillips reported a 71 percent decline in third-quarter profit on Wednesday as weak demand for fuel hurt its refining business and oil prices fell from a year earlier, but the results exceeded Wall Street estimates.

The global recession has taken a serious toll on demand for both natural gas and crude oil. And fuel inventories like diesel remain high, hurting refining margins.

“Although we operated well, we were adversely impacted by low North American natural gas prices and worldwide refining margins,” Conoco Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said in a statement.

Natural gas prices were depressed in the quarter as the slowdown in demand also caused those supplies to swell to all-time highs.

“We know the earnings came down because of the gas prices,” said Fred Burke, president of Johnston Lemon Asset Management. “That’s been known. You’ve got to starting looking at when the natural gas element and refining margins will turn around.”

Conoco, the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported a profit of $1.5 billion, or $1.00 per share, down from $5.2 billion, or $3.39 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 94 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Production from the company’s exploration and production arm, excluding its 20 percent stake in Lukoil, averaged 1.79 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the quarter, up from 1 payday advance lender.75 million BOE a year earlier, but below 1.87 million BOE in the prior quarter.

Revenue fell sharply to $40 billion from $70 billion a year earlier, but was higher than the $35 billion that analysts had expected.

Investors and analysts are eagerly awaiting details of Conoco’s planned $10 billion asset sale. The company announced the plan, aimed at reducing debt, on October 7, but provided no specifics.

Analysts have since speculated assets that may go on the block include the company’s North American natural gas operations and part of its 20 percent stake in Russian oil major Lukoil.

Looking ahead, Conoco said it expected fourth-quarter cash from operations to continue to improve, based on current commodity prices and margins.

In addition, the Houston-based company expects the liquidation of inventory built during the year in response to market conditions to benefit fourth-quarter cash flow by about $1.5 billion and earnings by $150 million.

Conoco shares were down 1 percent at $50.39 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading. That decline was in line with a drop in the Chicago Board Options Exchange index of oil companies .OIX.

(Reporting by Anna Driver, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Microsoft Corp.’s stock soared early Friday after the software giant reported quarterly sales and profit that fell from year-ago results but easily beat Wall Street’s forecasts.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) rose more than 10% in early trading. It surged as high as $29.35 at the open, hitting its highest level, on an intraday basis, since June 13, 2008.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said its first-quarter net income fell 18% to $3.6 billion, or 40 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 30. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 32 cents per share.

Sales fell 14% to $12.9 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $12.3 billion. It was the third consecutive quarter in which sales fell from year-ago levels. In April Microsoft reported that sales fell on a year-over-year basis for the first time in the company’s 23-year history as a public company.

"We are very pleased with our performance this quarter and particularly by the strong consumer demand for Windows," said Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell in a statement. "We also maintained our cost discipline, which allowed us to drive strong earnings performance despite continued tough overall economic conditions."

Some analysts said cost-cutting contributed to better-than-expected results, but it’s too soon to declare Microsoft’s recent struggles over.

"Microsoft did a little deck cleaning before the start of its fiscal year," said Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee group. "They may have beat expectations, but if I looked at this just to analyze the income statement, Microsoft still had a tough quarter."

Windows 7 expected to be a hit. The earnings announcement topped off a high-profile week for Microsoft, in which it unveiled its new operating system, Windows 7.

Microsoft has been hurt in recent quarters by slumping demand for PCs. But many signs point to a rebound in computer sales, including this week’s Windows 7 launch. Though analysts don’t expect the new operating system to boost PC sales significantly in 2009, a pickup in sales is anticipated for 2010.

Microsoft said PC sales were better than expected in the last quarter, as sales ticked up by between 0% and 2%. The company said businesses will slowly start to buy new computers starting next year and into 2011.

Sales of Windows fell 38.8% in the quarter and profits from the operating system division were sliced in half. That was mostly due to a deferral of $1.5 billion in revenue from Vista sales to provide customers with upgrade coupons for Windows 7.

The company said Windows sales set an all-time record in September — an encouraging sign for the company and for the success of Windows 7. Microsoft said it will realize $1.7 billion of Windows 7 revenue in the current quarter — $1.5 billion from last quarter and $200 million from the previous quarter.

"What they really did was ensure that in this [current] quarter, that division will have very nice looking results, since they are pulling in deferred results from last quarter," said Howe. "So the [current] quarter may look much better as a result."

Cost-cutting drives profits higher: Other divisions posted healthy profit increases, largely as a result of cost-cutting.

In January, Microsoft announced its first mass layoffs in its 34-year history in an effort to bolster its bottom line. The company slashed 5,000 positions, a move that is expected to be completed by mid-2010.

The company’s headcount was down 4% in the quarter from a year ago — the largest yearly staffing decline in the company’s history.

Revenue from its entertainment and devices division, which includes the Xbox 360 and the new Zune HD, was unchanged from last year, but profit nearly doubled. The company’s server unit also had flat revenue, but profits rose 23%.

The company still failed to turn a profit in its online services business though. That division, which includes MSN, lost $480 million in the quarter. Sales in the division were down 6% from the same quarter a year earlier. The company said search advertising revenue continued to decline, but the industry is showing signs of stabilization.

Microsoft unveiled Bing, its new search engine, in June and agreed to an advertising revenue-sharing partnership with Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) that will begin in 2010. Bing’s launch has been considered a success so far, but the company still trails industry leader Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) in the online advertising market.  

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When Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev’sOAO National Reserve Bank seized collateral offered against a loan from a cash-strapped borrower, a health quarantine was slapped on the security: 40,450 pigs.

“We had a court decision to take away the collateral, which is the pigs,” Lebedev, 49, said in an interview in Moscow. The borrower, a farm near Samara on the Volga river, agreed “with the local authorities to establish a quarantine” against African swine fever. The former KGB officer is still waiting to collect the pigs offered against a loan of 100 million rubles (3.5 million). A kilogram of live pig costs an average of 78.4 rubles, the National Meat Association says.

Russian lenders are seeking to recoup losses by accepting a range of collateral, including stakes in Wild Orchid, a lingerie retailer, and food store Mosmart. The banks have been hit by a surge in non-performing loans, which Moody’s Investors Service estimates may rise to 20 percent of the total by year-end. The bad debt threatens to stall bank lending and may jeopardize a recovery in Russia’s economy, which grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter from the second, the Economy Ministry says.

“It is not a viable strategy for a bank because banks aren’t doing their core business there,” Eugene Tarzimanov, assistant vice president and banking analyst at Moody’s in Moscow, said. “They could be stuck with those assets for a number of years.”

Strange Assets

Russian banks are characterized by “very high risk on a global comparison,” Standard & Poor’s said in a Sept. 28 report. The share of “problem loans” may jump to $110 billion by year-end and account for 25 percent of total lending by the end of 2010, compared with 11 percent in the middle of this year, Moody’s estimates.

“We have no idea how to build roads, milk cows or pour metal,” said Vladimir Tatarchuk, co-head of corporate finance at Alfa Bank, told reporters in Moscow on Oct. 23. “We’re finance professionals, that’s what we do. We have no plans to develop other businesses. If we have an opportunity to sell immediately” assets taken as collateral, “we’ll do it, even if we lose some potential upside just so we can recover our money.”

Lebedev says loans secured with “strange assets” make up 5 percent of his bank’s total portfolio and as much as 20 percent of loan books at the country’s biggest state banks.

The banks are resorting to the “strange” collateral as their only alternative to cash as companies struggle to keep up with payments. The state-run banks, which include Russia’s two biggest lenders, OAO Sberbank and VTB Group, have “less leeway” to pressure borrowers to service debt, said Tarzimanov.

“They are obviously controlled by the government, and they have a social mandate and fewer options when there is a difficult situation,” he said.

Lingerie, Liquor

The list of unorthodox collateral filling up banks’ balance sheets is long. Sberbank received a holding of 50 percent plus one share in Wild Orchid. Russia’s biggest lingerie retailer pledged the stake as it seeks to restructure 1.6 billion rubles of debt owed to Sberbank, Anton Sergeyev, a spokesman at Wild Orchid, said by phone.

Russia’s largest lender also owns more than 50 percent of food retailer Mosmart, according to Vitaly Podolski, its chief executive officer.

VTB has taken majority stakes in 11 alcohol producers as payment for debt and became a majority shareholder in two developers, including a project to overhaul the Dynamo soccer stadium in Moscow.

As government-controlled banks’ balance sheets swell with non-financial assets, the lenders may be forced to rethink their approach to the terms under which they provide credit.

‘Burdened’

“State banks are burdened with social responsibility to a greater extent than” their private counterparts, Zaali Tsanava, director for collecting overdue corporate debt at Moscow-based Alfa Bank, said. “But the situation is developing in such a way that state banks will have to review their policies and perhaps adopt a more stringent approach” because “even they can’t afford to give away money.”

The banks’ books are filling up with risky assets as their capital buffers dwindle. Russia has stress-tested all its banks and a number of the 100 biggest lenders won’t fulfill capital adequacy requirements, central bank First Deputy Chairman Gennady Melikyan said on Oct. 21. Capital shortages may appear within six months, he added.

Banks and other companies may struggle to sell debt to consolidate their balance sheets next year as investors opt to buy government bonds instead, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The government plans to sell as much as $18 billion in debt in 2010 to plug an estimated deficit of 6.8 percent of gross domestic product. The economy may shrink 7.5 percent this year, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Oct. 11.

‘Flush Out’

While initial and secondary public offerings by banks in which the state has holdings are possible, they are only likely to happen after “non-performing loans flush out of their system and stabilize,” said Steven Meehan, UBS AG’s chief executive officer for Russia in an interview at a conference in Moscow.

The banking industry may face more volatility as it seeks to dispose of the collateral it seized, said Svetlana Kovalskaya, an analyst at Moscow-based investment bank Aton.

“The risks will increase if the economic recovery drags on and asset prices don’t return to pre-crisis levels,” she said.

Meantime, Lebedev is still waiting to collect the pigs, which he plans to take to a slaughterhouse or another farm.

“One of the big risks is how do you protect your investment against people who don’t want to pay you back anything,” he said. “But you don’t sit and wait until the economy switches on again. You do something about it.”

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Europe’s manufacturing expanded for the first time in 17 months and services industries grew at a faster pace in October as evidence mounted that the global economy is pulling out of the recession.

An index of manufacturing rose to 50.7 this month from 49.3 in September and a services gauge increased to 52.3 from 50.9, London-based Markit Economics said today. Both indexes topped economist forecasts in separate Bloomberg News surveys, and the factory gauge climbed above 50, which indicates expansion, for the first time since May 2008. German business confidence rose to a 13-month high, a separate report showed.

European companies are stepping up output to meet reviving orders after governments around the world spent $2 trillion in stimulus measures to fight the worst recession in at least six decades. The International Monetary Fund said on Oct. 1 that the global economy will expand at a faster pace than previously expected in 2010. Still, the euro’s ascent against the dollar may curb the recovery in Europe.

“The second half of the year will be relatively strong,” said Juergen Michels, chief euro-area economist at Citigroup in London. “Looking ahead, there are a lot of reasons for momentum to weaken partly because of a stonger euro.”

The world economy will shrink 1.1 percent this year, less than the 1.4 percent projected in July, the Washington-based IMF forecast. In 2010, the economy may expand 3.1 percent instead of a previously projected 2.5 percent, the fund said. In the euro region, the economy probably returned to growth in the third quarter, the European Commission forecast last month.

Composite Index

A composite index of manufacturing and services industries in the euro-area economy rose to 53 from 51.1 in September, Markit said in today’s report. That was the highest since December 2007 and above the 51.6 that economists had projected in a Bloomberg survey.

Adding to signs of global recovery, German business sentiment improved to the highest since September 2008 this month, the Ifo institute in Munich said today, citing a survey of 7,000 executives.

Confidence in the world economy rose for a third straight month in October, a Bloomberg survey of users on six continents showed earlier this month. In the U.S., industrial output increased more than expected in September and China’s manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in 17 months.

Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen AG, the biggest overseas carmaker in China, sold 150,000 cars last month, a monthly record, as sales for the first nine months surged 37 percent. Volkswagen is investing 4 billion euros ($6 billion) to expand capacity in China through 2011.

‘Steam Engine’

“China is the steam engine of the world economy,” Volkswagen sales chief Detlef Wittig said in a Sept. 25 interview in Frankfurt. “The lust for mobility there seems almost bottomless. We’re very well positioned there and will keep investing to secure our share of the market.”

Hermes International SCA Chief Executive Officer Patrick Thomas said on Oct. 8 that luxury-goods brand sales are “booming” in China and elsewhere in Asia, while the U.S. market has turned “slightly positive.”

The European Central Bank has cut its key rate to a record low of 1 percent and started buying as much as 60 billion euros of covered bonds to stimulate bank lending and boost investments and consumption. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Oct. 9 that it is “not the time to exit yet” with the economy expected to show a “rather uneven” recovery.

Annual Gains

The euro has appreciated around 7.5 percent against the dollar over the past five months, bringing annual gains to 6.9 percent. Dublin-based C&C Group Plc, the maker of Magners cider, on Oct. 8 reported a drop in first-half profit and said trading conditions have become “more challenging.”

In the year’s first seven months, euro-area exports to the U.S., the region’s second-largest trading partner, dropped 20 percent from a year earlier, data showed on Oct. 16. Shipments to the U.K. fell 26 percent and exports to China dropped 4 percent in that period.

“Exchange-rate movements make policy makers sweat,” said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group in London in an e-mailed statement. “The euro is already at historically strong levels and will start hitting the recovery at its most fragile juncture, six to nine months from now.”

Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, had a “tough” year on slumping orders, Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said on Sept. 29. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, said on Sept. 16 that markets for metal in the U.S. and Europe won’t “normalize” next year and Chinese growth will slow.

Euro-area unemployment rose to 9.6 percent in August, the highest in more than a decade, and the IMF last week forecast it will reach 11.7 percent next year, higher than in the U.S. or the U.K. While there are “encouraging signs” of a recovery, the world economy remains fragile and labor markets are yet to improve, the Group of Seven ministers and central bankers said on Oct. 3.

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Boeing Co on Wednesday posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on costs related to its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner program, but the world’s second-largest planemaker reaffirmed that the aircraft is on track to fly this year.

The loss, combined with a lowered 2009 earnings outlook, sent shares down in early trading, although most of the details in the earnings statement had been previously publicized.

“The surprise was they reiterated the (787) schedule,” said Alex Hamilton, senior managing director at Jesup & Lamont.

“I always look at these as opportunities to kind of reset the bar,” Hamilton said. “I think there’s a lot of skepticism growing on the street about their delivery schedule.”

Chicago-based Boeing and rival Airbus have been hit hard this year as carriers and cargo operators grapple with the global recession and credit crisis. Meanwhile, Boeing’s defense unit struggles with sweeping government budget cuts.

Boeing said its revenue was $16.7 billion, up 9 percent from the year-ago period, which was impacted by a labor strike, but still far short of $17.16 billion that analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“There is no doubt that both our commercial and defense businesses continue to face challenging times right now,” Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said on a conference call with analysts and reporters.

Shares of Boeing, a Dow component, were down 1.18 percent at $51.28 at midday on the New York Stock Exchange.

DREAMLINER ON TRACK

Boeing has grappled this year with delays to the Dreamliner program no fax needed payday loans. The Dreamliner is Boeing’s upcoming aircraft that features revolutionary composite materials and construction methods. The plane is two years behind schedule, and some industry watchers say it could be delayed further.

Boeing said on Wednesday the plane would fly this year with first delivery set for the fourth quarter of 2010. The company has a record 840 firm orders for Dreamliners from 55 customers.

The company previously said it would reclassify to research and development costs incurred through July for the first three 787 flight-test planes. Those costs amounted to $2.46 per share. Boeing reported an additional cost of 14 cents per share related to spending on those planes for August and September.

Earlier this month, Boeing said it would delay the first flight and delivery of its 747-8 Freighter and take a 99-cent-per-share third-quarter charge because of high production costs and tough market conditions.

To reflect the 787 and 747 impacts, earnings guidance for 2009 has been changed to a range of $1.35 to $1.55 per share, from $4.70 to $5.00 previously.

“The 787 cost reclassification and the 747 charge for increased costs and difficult market conditions clearly overshadowed what continues to be otherwise solid performance across our commercial production programs and defense business,” McNerney said in a statement. 

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DuPont posted an 11 percent jump in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, beating Wall Street estimates, but narrowed its earnings outlook for the year.

Net income rose to $409 million, or 45 cents per share, from $367 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected 33 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 18 percent to $5.96 billion from $7.29 billion. Analysts expected $6.14 billion.

For the full year, the company now expects earnings of $1.95 to $2.05 per share, compared with a previous estimate of $1.70 to $2.10.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, is in talks to take over the Chicago Board Options Exchange in a deal that would value the largest U.S. options market at up to $5 billion, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

“Acting through intermediaries, officials at the exchanges have held informal discussions over the past month about a combination,” but no formal bid is on the table, Crain’s cited sources in a report on Sunday.

Further talks are on hold until after Wednesday, the report said. A deal of that size would mean a big payday for CBOE members, with each CBOE seat valued at about $4 million, about 50 percent more than they fetch today, the report said.

The $5 billion price tag would value CBOE at about 20 times its expected annual earnings after it converts to a shares-based private company from a member-owned exchange, the report said.

(Reporting by Franklin Paul; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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The receiver overseeing the assets of accused swindler Allen Stanford has sued two former Stanford Capital Management employees, seeking the return of $11 million in investor funds, court documents showed.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Dallas federal court, accuses Stanford and his co-defendants in an alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme of transferring the funds of defrauded investors to Christopher Aitken and Stephen Thacker to hide it from creditors.

Aitken and Thacker, who received the funds when they joined the firm in November of 2008, were employed for only three months and left “no indication that they provided any meaningful services,” the lawsuit said.

Aitken received $8.7 million and Thacker $2.6 million as a partial payment for “personal goodwill” or the “personal relationships (they) have developed and maintained with clients,” the suit said.

Ralph Janvey, the receiver in the case, says the men have no legitimate claim to the funds, which must be returned to help make victims of the fraud whole.

Lawyers for Aitken and Thacker could not be located immediately for comment. Stanford’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

Janvey asked the judge to seize the funds and hold them in a trust while his investigation is under way.

Stanford, 59, and his former top aides James Davis and Laura Pendergest-Holt are accused of selling fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by Stanford’s offshore bank, and of bribing regulators and accountants in Antigua to ignore the alleged wrongdoing.

Davis, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief financial officer, has pleaded guilty to his role in the alleged scheme. Stanford and Pendergest-Holt, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief investment officer, have pleaded not guilty.

Three others were also charged and pleaded not guilty.

Stanford, whose fortune was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008, is jailed in Houston awaiting trial.

The case is Janvey v. Aitken, Case No. 09-1946, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

(Reporting by Gina Keating)

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News and financial data provider Thomson Reuters Corp has agreed to buy privately held Breakingviews, accelerating its push into business news commentary.

The Breakingviews board has recommended that shareholders accept the offer, Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday, adding that the transaction should close within eight weeks.

The price was not disclosed. Media blog PaidContent.org put it at $18 million, mostly in cash.

The decision to buy Breakingviews pushes Reuters News further into the world of commenting on business and financial news.

That arena includes players such as Lex, the commentary service run by Pearson Plc’s Financial Times newspaper, and Heard on the Street, part of News Corp’s Wall Street Journal.

Breakingviews Chairman Hugo Dixon will run the commentary service, which will operate separately from Reuters’ news reporting.

Thomson Reuters said it was talking to Jonathan Ford, who was hired last year to start the Reuters commentary service, about taking on other roles at Thomson Reuters. Dixon and Ford founded Breakingviews in 1999. Ford left in 2007.

Reuters decided to buy Breakingviews even after starting its own service because of the attractive price and the opportunity to accelerate the company’s push into commentary, Reuters Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger said.

Reuters employs about 20 people in its commentary service, and Breakingviews has about 17, Schlesinger said.

Asked whether there would be layoffs as a result of the deal, Schlesinger said no decision had been made.

“There may be a few people who end up leaving,” he said. “But the point of the deal is not to have a small team.”

Breakingviews distributes its columns to about 400 clients such as financial institutions, and reaches about 15,000 users, said Rob Cox, its U.S. editor.

It also distributes its articles in newspapers such as The New York Times, and Thomson Reuters said it expected to develop syndication relationships with other papers.

Thomson Reuters premium clients will have access to all the columns.

Breakingviews’ 40 shareholders include Dow Jones, which previously ran Breakingviews columns in The Wall Street Journal, and Roland Rudd, senior partner at public relations firm Finsbury, according to the Breakingviews website. 

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