Free Essay

Lehmon Brothers

In:

Submitted By shehzadsg
Words 4986
Pages 20
Lehman Brothers
Was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the US (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch), doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading (especially U.S. Treasury securities), research, investment management, private equity, and private banking.
At 1:45AM on September 15, 2008, the firm filed for bankruptcy protection following the massive exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and devaluation of its assets by credit rating agencies. Lehman's bankruptcy filing is the largest in US history, and is thought to have played a major role in the unfolding of the late-2000s global financial crisis. The following day, Barclays announced its agreement to purchase, subject to regulatory approval, Lehman's North American investment-banking and trading divisions along with its New York headquarters building. On September 20, 2008, a revised version of that agreement was approved by US Bankruptcy Court Judge James M. Peck. The next week, Nomura Holdings announced that it would acquire Lehman Brothers' franchise in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, as well as Lehman Brothers' investment banking and equities businesses in Europe and the Middle East. The deal became effective on October 13, 2008.
History
Under the Lehman family (1850–1969)
In 1844, 23-year-old Henry Lehman, the son of a cattle merchant, emigrated to the United States from Rimpar, Bavaria. He settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where he opened a dry-goods store, "H. Lehman". In 1847, following the arrival of his brother Emanuel Lehman, the firm became "H. Lehman and Bro." With the arrival of their youngest brother, Mayer Lehman, in 1850, the firm changed its name again and "Lehman Brothers" was founded.
During the 1850s, cotton was one of the most important crops in the United States. Capitalizing on cotton's high market value, the three brothers began to routinely accept raw cotton from customers as payment for merchandise, eventually beginning a second business trading in cotton. Within a few years this business grew to become the most significant part of their operation. Following Henry's death from yellow fever in 1855, the remaining brothers continued to focus on their commodities-trading/brokerage operations.
By 1858, the center of cotton trading had shifted from the South to New York City, where factors and commission houses were based. Lehman opened its first branch office in New York City's Manhattan borough at 119 Liberty Street, and 32-year-old Emanuel relocated there to run the office. In 1862, facing difficulties as a result of the Civil War, the firm teamed up with a cotton merchant named John Durr to form Lehman, Durr & Co. Following the war the company helped finance Alabama's reconstruction. The firm's headquarters were eventually moved to New York City, where it helped found the New York Cotton Exchange in 1870; Emanuel sat on the Board of Governors until 1884. The firm also dealt in the emerging market for railroad bonds and entered the financial-advisory business.
Lehman became a member of the Coffee Exchange as early as 1883 and finally the New York Stock Exchange in 1887. In 1899, it underwrote its first public offering, the preferred and common stock of the International Steam Pump Company.
Despite the offering of International Steam, the firm's real shift from being a commodities house to a house of issue did not begin until 1906. In that year, under Philip Lehman, the firm partnered with Goldman, Sachs & Co., to bring the General Cigar Co. to market, followed closely by Company. During the following two decades, almost one hundred new issues were underwritten by Lehman, many times in conjunction with Goldman, Sachs. Among these were F.W. Woolworth Company, May Department Stores Company, Gimbel Brothers, Inc., R.H. Macy & Company, The Studebaker Corporation, the B.F. Goodrich Co. and Endicott Johnson Corporation.
Following Philip Lehman's retirement in 1925, his son Robert "Bobbie" Lehman took over as head of the firm. During Bobbie's tenure, the company weathered the capital crisis of the Great Depression by focusing on venture capital while the equities market recovered.
Traditionally, a family-only partnership, in 1924 John M. Hancock became the first non-family member to join the firm, followed by Monroe C. Gut man and Paul Mazur in 1927. By 1928, the firm moved to its now famous Street location.
In the 1930s, Lehman underwrote the initial public offering of the first manufacturer, Dumont, and helped fund the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). It also helped finance the rapidly growing oil industry, including the companies Halliburton and Kerr-McGee. In the 1950s, Lehman underwrote the IPO of Digital Equipment Corporation. Later, it arranged the acquisition of Digital by Compaq.
An evolving partnership (1969–1984)
Robert Lehman died in 1969 after 44 years as the patriarch of the firm, leaving no member of the Lehman family actively involved with the partnership. Robert's death, coupled with a lack of a clear successor from within the Lehman family left a void in the company. At the same time, Lehman was facing strong headwinds amidst the difficult economic environment of the early 1970s. By 1972, the firm was facing hard times and in 1973, Pete Peterson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bell & Howell Corporation, was brought in to save the firm.
Under Peterson's leadership as Chairman and CEO, the firm acquired Abraham & Co. in 1975, and two years later merged with the venerable, but struggling, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., to form Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc., the country's fourth-largest investment bank, behind Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and First Boston. Peterson led the firm from significant operating losses to five consecutive years of record profits with a return on equity among the highest in the investment-banking industry.
By the early 1980s, hostilities between the firm's investment bankers and traders (who were driving most of the firm's profits) prompted Peterson to promote Lewis Gluck man, the firm's President, COO and former trader, to be his co-CEO in May 1983. Glucksman introduced a number of changes that had the effect of increasing tensions, which when coupled with Gluck man’s management style and a downturn in the markets, resulted in a power struggle that ousted Peterson and left Gluck man as the sole CEO.
Upset bankers, who had soured over the power struggle, left the company. Stephen A. Schwartzman, chairman of the firm's M&A committee, recalled in a February 2003 interview with Private Equity International that "Lehman Brothers had an extremely competitive internal environment, which ultimately became dysfunctional." The company suffered under the disintegration, and Gluck man was pressured into selling the firm.
Merger with American Express (1984–1994)
Shearson/American Express, an American Express-owned securities company focused on brokerage rather than investment banking, acquired Lehman in 1984, for $360 million. On May 11, the combined firms became Shearson Lehman/American Express. In 1988,Shearson Lehman/American Express and E.F. Hutton & Co. merged as Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc.
From 1983 to 1990, Peter A. Cohen was CEO and Chairman of Shearson Lehman Brothers, where he led the one billion dollar purchase of E.F. Hutton to form Shearson Lehman Hutton. During this period, Shearson Lehman was aggressive in building its leveraged finance business in the model of rival Drexel Burnham Lambert. In 1989, Shearson backed F. Ross Johnson's management team in its attempted management buyout of RJR Nabisco but were ultimately outbid by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, who was backed by Drexel.
Divestment and independence (1994–2008
In 1993, under newly appointed CEO, Harvey Golub, American Express began to divest itself of its banking and brokerage operations. It sold its retail brokerage and asset management operations to Primerica and in 1994 it spun off Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb in an initial public offering, as Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.
Despite rumors that it would be acquired again, Lehman performed quite well under Chairman and CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr.. By 2008, Fuld had been with the company for 30 years, and would be the longest-tenured CEO on Wall Street. Fuld had steered Lehman through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, a period where the firm's share price dropped to $22 USD in 1998, but he was said to have underestimated the downturn in the US housing market and its effect on Lehman's mortgage bond underwriting business. Fuld kept his job as the subprime mortgage crisis took hold, while CEOs of rivals like Stearns, Merrill, and Citigroup were forced to resign. In addition, Lehman's board of directors, which includes retired CEOs like Vodafone's Christopher Gent and IBM's John Akers were reluctant to challenge Fuld as the firm's share price spiraled lower.
Fuld had a succession of "number twos" under him, usually titled as President and Chief Operating Officer. Chris Pettit was Fuld's second-in-command for two decades until November 26, 1996, when he resigned as President and board member. Pettit lost a power struggle with his deputies (Steve Lessing, Tom Tucker, and Joseph M. Gregory) back on March 15 that year that caused him to relinquish its COO title, likely brought about after the three men found about Pettit's extramarital affairs, which violated Fuld's unwritten rules on marriage and social etiquette. Bradley Jack and Joseph M. Gregory were appointed co-COOs in 2002, but Jack was demoted to the Office of the Chairman in May 2004 and departed in June 2005 with a severance package of $80 million, making Gregory the sole COO. While Fuld was considered the "face" of Lehman brothers, Gregory was in charge of day-to-day operations and he influenced culture to drive the bottom line. Gregory was demoted on June 12, 2008 and replaced as President and COO by Bart McDade, who had been serving as head of Equities, and McDade would see Lehman through bankruptcy.
In 2001, the firm acquired the private-client services, or "PCS", business of Cowen & Co. and later, in 2003, aggressively re-entered the asset-management business, which it had exited in 1989. Beginning with $2 billion in assets under management, the firm acquired the Crossroads Group, the fixed-income division of Lincoln Capital Management and Neuberger Berman. These businesses, together with the PCS business and Lehman's private-equity business comprised the Investment Management Division, which generated approximately $3.1 billion in net revenue and almost $800 million in pretax income in 2007. Prior to going bankrupt, the firm had in excess of $275 billion in assets under management. Altogether, since going public in 1994, the firm had increased net revenues over 600% from $2.73 billion to $19.2 billion and had increased employee headcount over 230% from 8,500 to almost 28,600.
At the 2008 ALB China Law Awards, Lehman Brothers was crowned: * Deal of the Year – Debt Market Deal of the Year * Deal of the Year – Equity Market Deal of the Year
Response to September 11, 2001 attacks
On September 11, 2001, Lehman occupied three floors of One World Trade Center where one of its employees was killed in the terrorist attacks of that day. Its global headquarters in Three World Financial Center were severely damaged and rendered unusable by falling debris, displacing over 6,500 employees. The bank recovered quickly and rebuilt its presence. Trading operations moved across the Hudson River to its Jersey City, New Jersey, facilities, where an impromptu trading floor was built in a hotel and brought online less than forty-eight hours after the attacks. When stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, Lehman's sales and trading capabilities were restored.
In the ensuing months, the firm fanned out its operations across the New York City metropolitan area in over 40 temporary locations. Notably, the investment-banking division converted the first-floor lounges, restaurants, and all 665 guestrooms of the Sheraton Manhattan Hotel into office space.
The bank also experimented with flextime (to share office space) and telecommuting via virtual private networking. In October 2001, Lehman purchased a 32-story, 1,050,000-square-foot (98,000 m2) office building for a reported sum of $700 million. The building, located at 745 Seventh Avenue, had recently been completed, and not yet occupied, by rival Morgan.
With Morgan Stanley's world headquarters located only two blocks away at 1585 Broadway, in the wake of the attacks the firm was re-evaluating its office plans which would have put over 10,000 employees in the Times Square area of New York City. Lehman began moving into the new facility in January and finished in March 2002, a move that significantly boosted morale throughout the firm.
The firm was criticized for not moving back to its former headquarters in lower Manhattan. Following the attacks, only Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch, of the major firms, remained in the downtown area. Lehman, however, pointed to the facts that it was committed to stay in New York City, that the new headquarters represented an ideal circumstance where the firm was desperate to buy and Morgan Stanley was desperate to sell, that when the new building was purchased, the structural integrity of Three World Financial Center had not yet been given a clean bill of health, and that in any case, the company could not have waited until May 2002 for repairs to Three World Financial Center to conclude.
After the attacks, Lehman's management placed increased emphasis on business continuity planning. Unlike its rivals, the company was unusually concentrated for a bulge-bracket investment bank. For example, Morgan Stanley maintains a 750,000-square-foot (70,000 m2) trading-and-banking facility in Westchester County, New York. The trading floor of UBS is located in Stamford, Connecticut. Merrill Lynch's asset-management division is located in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey. Aside from its headquarters in Three World Financial Center, Lehman maintained operations-and-back office facilities in Jersey City, space that the firm considered leaving prior to 9/11. The space was not only retained, but expanded, including the construction of a backup-trading facility. In addition, telecommuting technology first rolled out in the days following the attacks to allow employees to work from home was expanded and enhanced for general use throughout the firm.

June 2003 SEC litigation
In June 2003, the company was one of ten firms which simultaneously entered into a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of the New York State Attorney General and various other securities regulators, regarding undue influence over each firm's research analysts by its investment-banking divisions. Specifically, regulators alleged that the firms had improperly associated analyst compensation with the firms' investment-banking revenues, and promised favorable, market-moving research coverage, in exchange for underwriting opportunities. The settlement, known as the “global settlement”, provided for total financial penalties of $1.4 billion, including $80 million against Lehman, and structural reforms, including a complete separation of investment banking departments from research departments, no analyst compensation, directly or indirectly, from investment-banking revenues, and the provision of free, independent, third-party, research to the firms' clients.
Collapse
Malfeasance
A March 2010 report by the court-appointed examiner indicated that Lehman executives regularly used cosmetic accounting gimmicks at the end of each quarter to make its finances appear less shaky than they really were. This practice was a type of repurchase agreement that temporarily removed securities from the company's balance sheet. However, unlike typical repurchase agreements, these deals were described by Lehman as the outright sale of securities and created "a materially misleading picture of the firm’s financial condition in late 2007 and 2008.
Subprime mortgage crisis
In August 2007 the firm closed its subprime lender, BNC Mortgage, eliminating 1,200 positions in 23 locations, and took an after-tax charge of $25 million and a $27 million reduction in goodwill. Lehman said that poor market conditions in the mortgage space "necessitated a substantial reduction in its resources and capacity in the subprime space".
In 2008, Lehman faced an unprecedented loss to the continuing subprime mortgage crisis. Lehman's loss was a result of having held on to large positions in subprime and other lower-rated mortgage tranches when securitizing the underlying mortgages; whether Lehman did this because it was simply unable to sell the lower-rated bonds, or made a conscious decision to hold them, is unclear. In any event, huge losses accrued in lower-rated mortgage-backed securities throughout 2008. In the second fiscal quarter, Lehman reported losses of $2.8 billion and was forced to sell off $6 billion in assets. In the first half of 2008 alone, Lehman stock lost 73% of its value as the credit market continued to tighten. In August 2008, Lehman reported that it intended to release 6% of its work force, 1,500 people, just ahead of its third-quarter-reporting deadline in September.
In September 2007, Joe Gregory appointed Erin Callan as CFO. On March 16, 2008, after rival Bear Stearns was taken over by JP Morgan Chase in a fire sale, market analysts suggested that Lehman would be the next major investment bank to fall. Callan fielded Lehman's first quarter conference call, where the firm posted a profit of $489 million, compared to Citigroup's $5.1 billion and Merrill Lynch's $1.97 billion losses which was Lehman’s 55th consecutive profitable quarter. The firm's stock price leapt 46 percent after that announcement.[33][45][46][47]
On June 9, 2008, Lehman Brothers announced US$2.8 billion second-quarter loss, its first since being spun off from American Express, as market volatility rendered many of its hedges ineffective during that time. Lehman also reported that it had raised a further $6 billion in capital. As a result, there was major management shakeup, when Hugh "Skip" McGee III(head of investment banking) held a meeting with senior staff to strip Fuld and his lieutenants of their authority. Consequently, Joe Gregory agreed to resign as President and COO, and afterward he told Erin Callan that she had to resign as CFO. Callan was appointed CFO of Lehman in 2008 but served only for six months, before departing after her mentor Joe Gregory was demoted. Bart McDade was named to succeed Gregory as President and COO, when several senior executives threatened to leave if he was not promoted. McDade took charge and brought back Michael Gel band and Alex Kirk, who had previously been pushed out of the firm by Gregory for not taking risks. Although Fuld remained CEO, he soon became isolated from McDade's team.
On August 22, 2008, shares in Lehman closed up 5% (16% for the week) on reports that the state-controlled Korea Development Bank was considering buying the bank. Most of those gains were quickly eroded as news came in that Korea Development Bank was "facing difficulties pleasing regulators and attracting partners for the deal." It culminated on September 9, when Lehman's shares plunged 45% to $7.79, after it was reported that the state-run South Korean firm had put talks on hold.
On September 17, 2008 Swiss Re estimated its overall net exposure to Lehman Brothers as approximately CHF 50 million.
Investor confidence continued to erode as Lehman's stock lost roughly half its value and pushed the S&P 500 down 3.4% on September 9. The Dow Jones lost 300 points the same day on investors' concerns about the security of the bank. The U.S. government did not announce any plans to assist with any possible financial crisis that emerged at Lehman.
The next day, Lehman announced a loss of $3.9 billion and its intent to sell off a majority stake in its investment-management business, which includes Neuberger Berman.The stock slid seven percent that day. Lehman, after earlier rejecting questions on the sale of the company, was reportedly searching for a buyer as its stock price dropped another 40 percent on September 11, 2008.
Just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, executives at Neuberger Berman sent e-mail memos suggesting, among other things, that the Lehman Brothers' top people forgo multi-million dollar bonuses to "send a strong message to both employees and investors that management is not shirking accountability for recent performance."
Lehman Brothers Investment Management Director George Herbert Walker IV dismissed the proposal, going so far as to actually apologize to other members of the Lehman Brothers executive committee for the idea of bonus reduction having been suggested. He wrote, "Sorry team. I am not sure what's in the water at Neuberger Berman. I'm embarrassed and I apologize.
Short-selling allegations
During hearings on the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers and bailout of AIG before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, former Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld said a host of factors including a crisis of confidence and naked short-selling attacks followed by false rumors contributed to both the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. House committee Chairman Henry Waxman said the committee received thousands of pages of internal documents from Lehman and these documents portray a company in which there was “no accountability for failure".
An article by journalist Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone contended that naked short selling contributed to the demise of both Lehman and Bear Stearns. A study by finance researchers at the University Of Oklahoma Price College Of Business studied trading in financial stocks, including Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, and found "no evidence that stock price declines were caused by naked short selling".
Bankruptcy
On Saturday, September 13, 2008, Timothy F. Geithner, then the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, called a meeting on the future of Lehman, which included the possibility of an emergency liquidation of its assets. Lehman reported that it had been in talks with Bank of America and Barclays for the company's possible sale. However, both Barclays and Bank of America ultimately declined to purchase the entire company.
The next day, Sunday, September 14, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) offered an exceptional trading session to allow market participants to offset positions in various derivatives on the condition of a Lehman bankruptcy later that day. Although the bankruptcy filing missed the deadline, many dealers honored the trades they made in the special session. Shortly before 1 am Monday morning (New York time), Lehman Brothers Holdings announced it would file for bankruptcy protection citing bank debt of $613 billion, $155 billion in bond debt, and assets worth $639 billion. It further announced that its subsidiaries would continue to operate as normal. A group of Wall Street firms agreed to provide capital and financial assistance for the bank's orderly liquidation and the Federal Reserve, in turn, agreed to a swap of lower-quality assets in exchange for loans and other assistance from the government. The morning witnessed scenes of Lehman employees removing files, items with the company logo, and other belongings from the world headquarters at 745 Seventh Avenue. The spectacle continued throughout the day and into the following day.
Later that day, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) suspended Lehman's Australian subsidiary as a market participant after clearing-houses terminated contracts with the firm. Lehman shares tumbled over 90% on September 15, 2008.The Dow Jones closed down just over 500 points on September 15, 2008, which was at the time the largest drop in a single day since the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
In the United Kingdom, the investment bank went into administration with PricewaterhouseCoopers appointed as administrators. In Japan, the Japanese branch, Lehman Brothers Japan Inc., and its holding company filed for civil reorganization on September 16, 2008, in Court. On September 17, 2008, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Lehman Brothers.
On March 16, 2011 some three years after filing for bankruptcy and following a filing in a Manhattan U.S. bankruptcy court, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc announced it would seek creditor approval of its reorganization plan by October 14 followed by a confirmation hearing to follow on November 17.
Liquidation
Barclays acquisition
On Tuesday, September 16, 2008, Barclays plc announced that they would acquire a "stripped clean" portion of Lehman for $1.75 billion, including most of Lehman's North America operations. On September 20, this transaction was approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck.
On September 20, 2008, a revised version of the deal, a $1.35 billion (£700 million) plan for Barclays to acquire the core business of Lehman (mainly its $960-million headquarters, a 38-story office building in Midtown Manhattan, with responsibility for 9,000 former employees), was approved. Manhattan court bankruptcy Judge James Peck, after a 7-hour hearing, ruled: "I have to approve this transaction because it is the only available transaction. Lehman Brothers became a victim, in effect the only true icon to fall in a tsunami that has befallen the credit markets. This is the most momentous bankruptcy hearing I've ever sat through. It can never be deemed precedent for future cases. It's hard for me to imagine a similar emergency.
Luc Despines, then a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, the creditor’s committee counsel, said: "The reason we're not objecting is really based on the lack of a viable alternative. We did not support the transaction because there had not been enough time to properly review it. In the amended agreement, Barclays would absorb $47.4 billion in securities and assume $45.5 billion in trading liabilities. Lehman's attorney Harvey R. Miller of Weil, Gotshal & Mangers, said "the purchase price for the real estate components of the deal would be $1.29 billion, including $960 million for Lehman's New York headquarters and $330 million for two New Jersey data centers. Lehman's original estimate valued its headquarters at $1.02 billion but an appraisal from CB Richard Ellis this week valued it at $900 million.]Further, Barclays will not acquire Lehman's Eagle Energy unit, but will have entities known as Lehman Brothers Canada Inc, Lehman Brothers Sudamerica, Lehman Brothers Uruguay and its Private Investment Management business for high net-worth individuals. Finally, Lehman will retain $20 billion of securities assets in Lehman Brothers Inc that are not being transferred to Barclays. Barclays acquired a potential liability of $2.5 billion to be paid as severance, if it chooses not to retain some Lehman employees beyond the guaranteed 90 days.
Sale of asset management businesses
On September 29, 2008, Lehman agreed to sell Neuberger Berman, part of its investment management business, to a pair of private-equity firms, Bain Capital Partners and Hellman & Friedman, for $2.15 billion. The transaction was expected to close in early 2009, subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, but a competing bid was entered by the firm's management, who ultimately prevailed in a bankruptcy auction on December 3, 2008. Creditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. retain a 49% common equity interest in the firm, now known as Neuberger Berman Group LLC. In Europe, the Quantitative Asset Management Business has been acquired back by its employees on November 13, 2008 and has been renamed back to TOBAM.
Financial fallout
Lehman's bankruptcy was the largest failure of an investment bank since Drexel Burnham Lambert collapsed amid fraud allegations 18 years prior. Immediately following the bankruptcy filing, an already distressed financial market began a period of extreme volatility, during which the Dow experienced its largest one day point loss, largest intra-day range (more than 1,000 points) and largest daily point gain. What followed was what many have called the “perfect storm” of economic distress factors and eventually a $700bn bailout package (Troubled Asset Relief Program) prepared by Paulson, Secretary, and approved by Congress. The Dow eventually closed at a new six-year low of 7,552.29 on November 20, followed by a further drop to 6626 by March of the next year. Durvexity spiked, due to funding issues at the major investment banks.
The fall of Lehman also had a strong effect on small private investors such as bond holders and holders of so-calledMinibonds. In Germany structured products, often based on an index, were sold mostly to private investors, elderly, retired persons, students and families. Most of those now worthless derivatives were sold by the German arm of Citigroup, the German Citibank now owned by Credit Mutuel.
Ongoing litigation
On March 11, 2010, Anton R. Valukas, a court-appointed examiner, published the results of its year-long investigation into the finances of Lehman Brothers. This report revealed that Lehman Brothers used an accounting procedure termed repo 105 to temporarily exchange $50 billion of assets into cash just before publishing its financial statements. The action could be seen to implicate both Ernst & Young, the bank's accountancy firm and Richard S. Fuld, Jr, the former CEO.This could potentially lead to Ernst & Young being found guilty of financial malpractice and Fuld facing time in prison.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in March 2011, the SEC announced that they weren't confident that they could prove that Lehman Brothers violated US laws in its accounting practices.
In October 2011 the administrators of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. lost their appeal to overturn a court order forcing them to pay £148 million into their underfunded pensions plan.
References
1. "History of the Lehman Brothers". Harvard University Library-Lehman Brothers Collection. Retrieved 2010-12-01. 2. Jump up^"Lehman folds with record $613 billion debt". Market watch. September 15, 2005. Retrieved 2008-09-15. 3. ^ Jump up to: a "Barclays announces agreement to acquire Lehman Brothers North American investment banking and capital markets businesses" (Press release). Barclays PLC. September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 4. Jump up^ "Barclay’s buys core Lehman assets". BBC News. September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 5. Jump up^ "Judge approves $1.3 billion Lehman deal". BBC News. September 20, 2008. Retrieved 2010-01-05.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Technology

...endangering us. I have chosen a few of the technologies in the 1900’s that fascinated me the most. OK so first of all the invention of the car. It is undoubtedly one of the most radical innovations of this century. A car, in its early stages, was highly expensive, only the best of the best could afford such a luxury. After the introduction of labour and the assembly-line system, affordable cars were made, leading to drastic changes to society. Personally I don’t know how I could live without a car, it just wouldn’t be possible, and I can’t even imagine what would happen to me. Airplanes. The Wright Brothers' first-ever flight of a motorized airplane in 1903, introduced the era of flying into the sky. The jet engine, the supersonic flight, fighter aircraft and space travel all are rooted in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina which was the site of the achievement of the Wright brothers. Without these airplanes we wouldn’t be able to see our families in other countries. We would have to take out ships and sail to them and personally that’s not an option I want to take. The first ever manned spaceflight. The technology of... Read...

Words: 322 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Teen Pregnancy

...there education. They thought them to look for new things to do,to go out and discover and learn as much as they could . There two sons Wilber and Orville Wright are the first to built a successful airplane. Wilber was born August 16 1867and Orville was born August 19 1871.both brothers loved any thing mechanical ,loved to tear things done and built it back up . Wilber finished highs school but was never able to get his diploma ,he was going to attend Yale,because of an accident that happens wile playing ice hockey Wilber got hit in the face with a hockey stick,even though he wasn’t heart badly he lost he’s front to. And so because of the accident Wilber withdrew from going to Yale as planned,so he spent the next few years tacking care of his mother who was ill. And as for Orville Wright he want to high school but dropped out on his junior year, to open a printing shop in 1889.Wilber and Orville had always been close to each other. The brother’s often worked as a team,they have places they started together like The West Side News Paper,The Wright cycle company but that is not all the Wright brothers have discovered. They discovers the first in the world fling machine . It all began in 1896 when the brothers could not stop thinking about fling. For the next two years or so thought and thought about fling and how they could do it ,read booked about bards,fling machines rose two years were busy with lots of researching etc... To there delight they had a...

Words: 973 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Fairytales

...A fairy tale (pronounced /ˈfeəriˌteɪl/) is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described)[1] and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending)[2] or "fairy tale romance" (though not all fairy tales end happily). Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any farfetched story or tall tale; it's used especially of any story that not only isn't true, but couldn't possibly be true. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.[3] Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed...

Words: 401 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Ledman

...Lynch (now as Subsidiary of Bank of America), Lehman Brothers and Bear Steams (sold to JPMorgan Chase) were the world top five investment banks in United States. They were the key players in the financial markets and make significant contribution to the economics. But when they failed, the consequences would also be extremely fatal. The 158 years old Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday 1:45am, September 15, 2008 (“Wikipedia: Lehman Brothers”, July 15, 2013). With a total assets of $639 billion and $619 billion in debts, Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing became the largest in history, It’s assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron (“IInvestopedia: Case Study", April 02, 2009). The collapse of the Lehman Brothers is contagious and even triggered the Global Financial Crisis. LEHMAN BROTHERS HISTORY Three brothers – Henry Lehman, Emanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman in 1850, founded Lehman Brothers. Started as a normal dry-goods store, the brothers grew the business by buying and selling cotton to planters living in and around Montgomery, Alabama ("History of Lehman Brothers", n.d). Eventually the brothers built a cotton storage warehouse together with a cotton merchant John Wesley Durr in a brief partnership form. Thereafter in 1858, an office in New York was opened to fulfill the needs of the growing sales and trades. After Civic War, Lehman Brothers who already have a strong pressure in the cotton...

Words: 2793 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Financial Crisis in India

... Lehman Brothers is no more. Merrill Lynch has gone down the Bank of America maw. AIG too could go belly up. With a doubt, these developments in America are the most shocking events to have hit global financial markets. So where did it all begin? And what does it mean for the Indian stock markets? Find out. . . What is (or was) Lehman Brothers? America's fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has filed the biggest bankruptcy petition known to mankind. The 158-year-old firm was founded by brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman, Jewish immigrants to the US from Germany, in 1850. Henry set up a general store in Alabama in 1844 and was later joined by his brothers. In 1850 they set up the merchant bank in New York after having made money in railway bonds. So what went wrong? Compiled by Rediff Business Desk Lehman Bros, which till June 2008 had not reported a quarterly loss even once, had earlier survived many an economic crises, like railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in the 1990s. Thus the collapse of the giant investment bank came as a major shock for the entire world markets that plunged after Lehman filed a Chapter 11 petition with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The $613 billion (some estimates put the size at $639 billion) bankruptcy thus throws up the question: why did the Wall Street giant go bust? Here's why. . . Why did Lehman Brothers go bankrupt...

Words: 1864 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Speech

...OUTLINE Introduction 1 About the Community 1 Current Situation 1 The Project 1 Main Benefits 2 Conclusion 2 Bibliography 3   Dear neighbours, dear friends. Have you ever thought how many things in our life we take for granted? The thing unfortunately most often taken for granted is our own health and wellbeing. Why does it take finding out that somebody close to us has heart problems or cancer to get us to appreciate that we are still healthy? Every day we are passing The Royal London Hospital, going to work, university or home. We should remember that within the walls of this hospital there are people who are much less lucky, people who think to themselves, well it's a good thing it's not excruciatingly painful for me to swallow and I can breathe without too much trouble. We should remember that someday we can find ourselves among them. We should remember that someday our friends, or our relatives, or our children can be among them. I represent the voluntary community “PlayRemedy”. We are committed to promoting the welfare of all children in the hospital. For 3 years, we have been directly working with sick children in The Royal London Hospital to bring them both fun and support. We organise special fun days on wards, arranging entertainment, games and activities. We celebrate Christmas and other holidays with these children. We try to make hospital a happier place for children. We try to make the world a better place for them. Because if our society doesn’t...

Words: 758 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

How Dreams Lead to Sucess

... will have an effect on our entire lives. To achieve success we must follow our dreams overcome obstacles and not let the fear of failure interfere with our goals. A perfect example of how a dream leads to success is the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur. They were the first innovators of flight and created the world’s first working airplane. When the brothers were young, they opened their own bike company to capitalize on the public’s new interest in bicycling. Once they earned enough money from their cycling company they wanted pursue their dreams of flying and flying machines. At first they tried to use gliders to fly, which worked but it wasn’t considered actually flying. A few years later they managed to put an engine on a plane and on December 17, 1903, they recorded the first flight. Although they had many critics, they proved all of them wrong when they flew publically in air shows. The two brothers had a dream that one day humans would take to the skies for transportation. Today most of their planes and equipment are scattered all over the country in different museums, including the Smithsonian. Wilbur and Orville Wright faced numerous hurdles that seemed impossible but they did not let challenges or failure deter them. The Wright brothers serve as an example of how hard work and dedication pays off in the end. There are many types of dreams; financial success is one, while another and more important is happiness and contentment. I have many goals that I hope will...

Words: 721 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Analysis of Unilever

...Analysis of Unilever Bangladesh: Introducing Unilever: 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. From feeding your family to keeping your home clean and fresh, our brands are part of everyday life. Life partner: With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people’s lives in so many different ways. Its brand portfolio has made us leaders in every field in which we work. It ranges from much-loved world favorites including Lipton, Knorr, Dove and Omo, to trusted local brands such as Blue Band and Suave. From comforting soups to warm a winter’s day, to sensuous soaps that make you feel fabulous, our products help people get more out of life. We’re constantly enhancing our brands to deliver more intense, rewarding product experiences. We invest €1 billion every year in cutting edge research and development, and have five laboratories around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help develop our products. Continuous development: Consumer research plays a vital role in our brands’ development. We’re constantly developing new products and developing tried and tested brands to meet changing tastes, lifestyles and expectations. And our strong roots in local markets also mean we can respond to consumers at a local level. By helping improve people’s diets and daily lives, we can help them keep healthier for longer, look good and give their children the best start in...

Words: 2715 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Welcome to Unilever

...Welcome to Unilever Family. A company that aims to help people around the world to meet their everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and wellbeing, with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life. Unilever was created in the 1890s, when William Hesketh Lever, founder of Lever Bros, introduced Sunlight Soap - revolutionary new product in Victorian England. It mission was 'to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, so that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products'. Even today, Unilever believes that success means acting with 'the highest standards of corporate behavior towards our employees, consumers, societies and world in which we live'. Unilever Pakistan started its journey in 1948 at Rahim Yar Khan town with the setting up of vegetable oil factory. From there onwards, as a company we have seen much change in the last 70 years, currently, Unilever Pakistan is known as the largest FMGC, one of the largest MNC in Pakistan, and the ‘Top FMGC employer 2012’. As a company we are accountable for: • Make a positive difference to the lives of low income consumers; • Create new opportunities for growth; • Improve the overall quality of life in Pakistan, by promoting education, nutrition, health and hygiene. It is also important to note what has not changed at Digital Business, namely our commitments to providing exceptional client service...

Words: 329 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Lessons Form Lehmans

...Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? Steven Figueroa, Adrian Bland, Victoria Fabuluje, Amy Ramkey, Carmen M. Ortiz MGT/521 03/10/14 CHRISTINE GNIEDZIEJKA Lessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? 2. What was the culture at Lehman Brothers like? How did this culture contribute to the company's downfall? Anyone knows that rewarding bad or illegal behavior can lead to the making of a person who is irresponsible and reckless. This is a general description of the type of employees involved in the Lehman Brothers company culture. The Lehman Brothers culture was out of control and a blind eye was turned to any high risk deals and or illegal modifications done to the company balance sheet. Many failed or wrong decisions made by management often went without consequence. In fact, individuals making any high risk or questionable deals were treated like superstars or moneymakers rather than irresponsible or uncalculated decision makers. This type of reward system can only draw the attention of the greedy and crooked minded. The type of culture created was a recipe of disaster for the Lehman Brothers company. There were some employees that did not agree with many of the choices made by upper management. But, when they attempted to voice their opinion or concerns they were ignored and overruled leaving them no choice but to follow suit. By ignoring any standards, ethics or controls to guide the Lehman Brothers culture the employees were left to express their...

Words: 1151 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Band of Brothers

...Krysta Desper Mr. Connors U.S. History I CPS 10 C 17 January 2013 Band of Brothers In the summer of 1942, young men in Army training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, are given an opportunity to be part of a unique unit of paratroopers. This unit offers $50 dollars a month extra for hazardous duty pay, which draws a lot of the volunteers. These men begin a very rigorous training regimen under Captain Sobel, whom most of the men come to hate. Their training includes basic infantry skills - use and maintenance of various weapons, map reading, and communications. They also practice jumping with parachutes, beginning with towers of varying heights, then to the actual jump from an airplane. The hardest part of their training is a run they must make, up to the top of Mount Currahee, which is an Indian name that means We Stand Alone Together. After several long months of this training, the men of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, are shipped to Uppottery, England, where they continue their training. They are being prepared for the greatest military maneuver ever undertaken; the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The 506 is to parachute behind the German lines and work their way back towards the beach, to meet the Allies there, and hopefully cut off German supply lines to the front in the process. On June 6, 1944, the invasion comes, after having been postponed for bad weather. The drops do not go well, due to anti-aircraft fire and low visibility, but as the men hit the ground, they...

Words: 1570 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Beowulf

...Carmen Paulino EN 101- “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Writing prompt #3  As children we are all taught that our prince charming will come for us in a horse carriage with white horses, but is this true? Or is this just a way of looking forward to life? We are taught to value love and that love will come to us but does it come to everyone? We have come to believe in love but does it even exist? In the fairytale “Cinderella”, Cinderella, being a filthy maid who has suffered a lot and still manages to have hope in a better tomorrow, is one of the dominant gender roles which surface in the fairytale. The Prince is the other dominant gender role who is enchanted by Cinderella’s beauty and falls in love with her in a manner of “love at first sight”. He falls in love with her and searches to find her after she is gone. He didn’t care what family Cinderella came from or the live she has had, he wanted her. Cinderella and the Prince depict an idealization of love in just the plain idea that love actually exists and will eventually come to us. Their story tells us that regardless of anything love will overcome every obstacle like their love did with Cinderella’s stepsisters and mother. Also, the idea that love is blind and that looks nor way of life matters to two people who are in love. The prince didn’t care that Cinderella was a maid or that her clothes was dirty when he found her. It also makes us idealize that at some point in life our perfect match will come and we...

Words: 399 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Lehman Brothers Collapse

...------------------------------------------------- Lehman Brothers Collapse ------------------------------------------------- Lehman Brothers Collapse Executive Summary The following report discusses and analyzes the events leading up to the failure of Lehman Brothers as well as outcomes and repercussions of one of the largest bankruptcy cases to date. The first part of this paper describes the primary factors that contributed to the ultimate demise of Lehman Brothers. The main factors that lead to the crisis include, but are not limited to; the misrepresentation of financial statements, a complete lack of internal control, accounting as well as management collusion, managerial fraud, increased moral hazard, and the overpayment of executives within the firm. Misrepresentation of the financial statements and the misuse of accounting practices was the main reason for the Collapse of Lehman Brothers. It was said that upper management violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act through the use of questionable and unethical accounting practices, more specifically through the use of Repo 105 transactions. The second part of this paper addresses the underlying causes and issues relative to the study of financial ethics. This paper also addresses those who were involved as well as affected by the events that took place in the Lehman Brothers scandal. After evaluating the reasons for Lehman Brothers failure, the report discusses possible courses of action to take in order...

Words: 3830 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

My Drama

...Part 1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story was adapted by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David Hand was the supervising director. That was the ending scene of the movie that the prince is giving Snow White the “Kiss of True a Love” for waking up Snow White. This is because Snow White has ate the poisoned apple and the Prince was in ordered to kiss Snow White to revive her. The Prince succeed. Part 2 A week later and now, they are having their leisure on the beach. Unfortunately,the witch is finding some herb at seaside.because she want to recover her beautiful look,but negligent witch saw Snow White. She get very fury. Part 3 After witch ask the magic mirror The face appear on the mirror is snow white. Then, the witch start planing a plane to kill snow white. Finally, the witch get an idea which is make a call to her best friend that is joker. Part 4 Joker get a call from witch. Part 5 Snow white and prince hand in hand to take a walk at the small town, from their action could feel very romantic. Part 6 Now joker appear at the town, he purposely closing with snow white and hiding at the back of...

Words: 476 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Postmodernism

...“Postmodernism is a way of thinking that is reflected both in the ways texts are composed and in their exploration of challenging ideas.” Everything that is around us makes up our world and our life. It is reality, until someone asks, “Are we the players or the puppets of our lives? Or are we both?” and it is such questioning of assumed certainty that characterizes postmodernism. The Matrix is a film directed by the Wachowski Brothers in 1999 portraying the rebellion of a group of people against an artificial reality that has imprisoned their mind while A Beautiful Mind directed by Ron Howard is a 2001 film that describes a man’s journey to accept the real world and ignore the imaginary one he created in his mind. Despite their contrasting nature, both texts are able to reflect postmodernist understanding through their composition and their exploration of the challenging idea of relative truth. Through this, it demonstrates that postmodernism is a way of thinking portrayed in the forms, features and structures of texts. The life that we live today is what we consider to be reality, but this is a relative truth for what proof is there that our world is real or fake? Such a concept is emphasized upon by the Wachowskis in the Matrix in which it presents a portrayal of the possibility of our world being in fact, a simulation. During the film, references are made to external sources such as Jean Baudrillard’s book of Simulcra and Simulation and Morpheus, the Greek God of Dreams in...

Words: 856 - Pages: 4