March 29, 2024

DealBook: Obama Nominates 2 Senate Aides for S.E.C. Posts

President Obama continued his shake-up of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, naming two Senate aides to senior posts at the Wall Street regulatory agency.

The nominees to the five-member agency are Kara M. Stein, a Democrat, and Michael Piwowar, a Republican. If confirmed by the Senate, they will succeed commissioners whose terms are set to expire.

The move comes just months after Mr. Obama named Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor turned Wall Street defense lawyer, to be chairwoman of the agency. In recent weeks, Ms. White has started to overhaul the staff, naming co-heads of the agency’s enforcement unit, new leaders of other major divisions and her own chief of staff. She also hired a general counsel, Anne K. Small, who rejoined the S.E.C. from the White House.

The transition period has coincided with challenges for the agency, which has fallen far behind its rule-making responsibilities. Nearly three years after Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, the overhaul of Wall Street regulation, the S.E.C. has carried out only a small fraction of the changes.

The possible arrival of Ms. Stein and Mr. Piwowar could add to some delays as they settle into the agency. Yet the nominees are hardly strangers to the S.E.C.’s business.

Ms. Stein is an aide to Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the S.E.C. Mr. Piwowar is the committee’s Republican chief economist.

In a statement late Thursday, the committee chairman, Tim Johnson, expressed support for both nominees. “I look forward to moving both their nominations forward to ensure the commission continues to operate at full strength,” said Mr. Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota.

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/s-e-c-changes-continue-as-obama-names-2-senate-aides-for-posts/?partner=rss&emc=rss

She Owns It: Up for Discussion: Can Employees Be Rehabilitated?

She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Susan Parker: Any benefits are temporary, at best.Earl Wilson/The New York Times Susan Parker: Any benefits are temporary, at best.

At a recent She Owns It business group meeting, the owners talked about the odds of rehabilitating an employee who isn’t working out. Susan Parker, who owns Bari Jay, started the discussion by explaining why she was focused on becoming better at ensuring she has the best possible employees.

In 2008, she and her sister Erica Rosenberg inherited the business — and its employees — from their father after his death. Under those circumstances, Ms. Parker explained, she did not, at least initially, have control over whether she had the right employees in the right roles.

Some of those employees had been with Bari Jay for 15 to 30 years. “You have loyalty to them,” she said. This loyalty extends even to employees who have been with the company for far shorter periods of time — to those who helped Ms. Parker and her sister during the difficult transition period. For this reason, she said, “Erica and I have really tried hard to rehabilitate people.” Ultimately, however, she said she had come to the realization: “You just can’t.”

Ms. Parker said she came to this realization — and many others — while reading “Who,” a book on hiring that her business coach recommended.

Deirdre Lord, who owns the Megawatt Hour, said she had also conducted lengthy rehabilitations throughout her career — and come to a similar conclusion. While nobody wants to be fired, she said, she has found that the person who is not working out is often relieved. “There is this sense of, ‘Oh, thank God, we can stop this charade,’” she said.

Beth Shaw, who owns YogaFit, asked a question: What do you do with an employee who is really good at the job itself but has a bad attitude? When dealing with someone who fits this description, she said, she gets tired of the defensive stance and pushback that she and other YogaFit employees confront when offering feedback or suggestions.

Ms. Lord pointed out that it sounded as if this employee was not actually good at the job.

“There has to be a cultural fit,” said Jessica Johnson, who owns Johnson Security Bureau.

“Exactly,” Ms. Lord said.

Ms. Johnson said the resistance to feedback was especially jarring given that Ms. Shaw runs a yoga company, and it was critical that yoga instructors gave feedback. “Even if that’s not your role, there’s a disconnect,” she said. “You’re going to be schizophrenic in your job.”

Alexandra Mayzler, who owns Thinking Caps Group, said her biggest struggle was over how detailed to be when describing job requirements to a new hire. For example, is it sufficient to say timeliness is essential? “To me, that means you get there five minutes early and you’re ready and you have a few minutes to prepare yourself,” Ms. Mayzler said. “For some people, it might mean that you run in on the minute, and some people think if you’re five minutes late, you’re actually on time.”

She also said that she did not want to judge employees unfairly if the problem was her own failure to be specific when explaining job requirements. She said she wondered whether rehabilitation sometimes became necessary because the employer was not clear from the start.

“One of the reasons that I rehabilitated in the past was that I thought, ‘This person’s three months into the job, they know something already,’” Ms. Shaw said. She said another reason was that as the owner of a yoga business, she always felt it was important to “try to bring out the best in people and see the good in them.” But, she added, the values of a “spiritual mission” may not be the same ones that work in business.

Ms. Parker said she had found that any benefits from rehabilitations were temporary, at best.

“That’s what most rehabilitations are, even in relationships,” Ms. Shaw said. “They will rehabilitate, and chances are in three months, most people go back to their old behavior.”

“It’s not that they’re rehabilitated, it’s that they’re performing differently,” Ms. Johnson said.

Ms. Mayzler repeated that her biggest struggle was over whether she should expect employees to share her standards, even if she had not specifically defined the ways in which they should perform their duties.

“It’s a big communication issue, and I think it’s balance,” Ms. Johnson said. “For us, timely might be being there 15 minutes before the meeting starts, but you don’t know how somebody else interprets that, and if you don’t have that discussion. …”

“But if you hire the right person, from the beginning, they should know that,” Ms. Parker said.

“Right, that’s the question,” Ms. Mayzler said.

“Yes, they should know,” Ms. Shaw agreed.

“You shouldn’t have to explain to somebody what timeliness means,” Ms. Parker said.

“I’m not just talking about timeliness, but everything,” Ms. Mayzler said.

Ms. Parker said the book “Who” had been an eye-opener for her. She said it made her realize, “If I hired the right person, I wouldn’t have to micromanage, and I wouldn’t have to explain everything.”

This discussion will continue in our next post. In the meantime, what has been your experience with attempts to rehabilitate employees?

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/up-for-discussion-can-employees-be-rehabilitated/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Ericsson to Take $1.2 Billion Charge on Writedown of Cellphone Venture

In announcing the charge of 8 billion Swedish kronor, or $1.2 billion, Ericsson told investors Thursday that the charge would reduce its earnings in the fourth quarter by a corresponding 8 billion kronor. Shares of Ericsson fell 1.8 percent to 63.15 kronor in Stockholm trading.

ST-Ericsson, created in February 2009 with ST Microelectronics, a French semiconductor maker, has generated $2.7 billion in losses since its start. On Dec. 10, ST Microelectronics said it intended to “exit” the venture after an unspecified transition period.

Ericsson said it did not plan to buy its French partner’s 50 percent stake in ST-Ericsson — a decision that could cast further doubt on the future of the business, which is based in Geneva and employs 5,090 workers.

Bengt Nordstrom, the chief executive of Northstream, a Stockholm-based industry consultant to mobile operators, said that Ericsson, based in Stockholm, could eventually shut down ST-Ericsson after trying to sell it off wholly or in parts. “That is certainly a possibility,” Mr. Nordstrom said.

At the time the venture was announced in August 2008, the two partners predicted that the new company, which combined Ericsson’s mobile platforms business and ST Microelectronic’s ST-NXP wireless businesses, would become a world leader in supplying chips and components to Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG and Sharp.

But ST-Ericsson, which attempted to exploit the value of both partners’ intellectual property and patents on components for 2G and 3G handsets and modems using Long Term Evolution or LTE technology, has never made a profit as it attempted to woo business from industry leaders in Asia and the U.S. component maker Qualcomm.

“We don’t have the kind of silicon industry in Europe that exists in the United States and Asia so this was always a difficult attempt,” Mr. Nordstrom said.

ST-Ericsson’s prospects also deteriorated, Mr. Nordstrom added, after the chief executive of Nokia, Stephen Elop, announced in February 2011 that Nokia would abandon its Symbian smartphone operating system for Microsoft’s Windows system.

ST-Ericsson had supplied components for Nokia’s Symbian handsets and had been one of the venture’s biggest customers, Mr. Nordstrom said.

One of the early pioneers in the mobile industry, Ericsson, whose researchers contributed essential patents to the GSM and 3G wireless standards, retreated from the handset business to focus on network gear. It remains the global leader but faces a challenge from Huawei, its fast-growing Chinese rival.

Ericsson completed its departure from the handset business last January, when it sold its 50 percent stake in the cellphone maker Sony Ericsson to its venture partner, Sony.

In the third quarter, Ericsson said that its profit plunged 42 percent to 2.2 billion kronor with a 600 million-kronor loss attributable to ST-Ericsson.

Ericsson said Thursday that about 5 billion kronor of the earnings charge reflected Ericsson’s new lower valuation of ST-Ericsson, while the remaining 3 billion kronor would be applied in 2013 to cover continued commitments to ST-Ericsson.

“During the process of exploring options, Ericsson will not speculate on the possible outcomes, timelines, and future strategic alternatives for ST-Ericsson assets,” the company said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/business/global/ericsson-to-take-1-2-billion-charge-on-writedown-of-cellphone-venture.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

DealBook: Path Cleared for News Corp.’s BSkyB Bid

Rupert Murdoch on June 21 at The Times C.E.O. summit in London.Pool photo by Ben GurrRupert Murdoch on June 21 at The Times C.E.O. summit in London.

British regulators confirmed on Thursday that they were ready to pave the way for News Corporation’s takeover of the pay television company BSkyB.

The government said that a long review of the deal, which the News Corporation offered to adjust in order to satisfy regulatory concerns, had “produced no new information” to change the official stance to allow the acquisition.

With that, the News Corporation is one step closer to buying the 60.9 percent of BSkyB that it does not already own, leaving the price of the takeover as the chief remaining uncertainty.

Concessions made by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to spin off Sky News, BSkyB’s popular news channel, were enough to appease the concerns of Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, who said in March that he was “minded to accept” the proposal.

Mr. Hunt, however, has submitted a few more conditions to closing the deal. These include appointing an independent director with experience in journalism to the Sky News editorial board, ensuring that BSkyB continues to cross-promote Sky News after the spin-off and appointing a trustee to monitor the News Corporation’s compliance with the rules in the transition period.

“The regulators have confirmed that the proposed undertakings are still sufficient to ensure media plurality,” Mr. Hunt said on Thursday in a statement. “I could have decided to accept the original undertakings, but a number of suggestions were made in response to the consultation.”

Given the proposed changes, Mr. Hunt extended the review period until July 8, but government backing is all but assured. Issues of media plurality have delayed the acquisition, given that the News Corporation owns the British newspapers The Times, The Sun and News of the World.

Now, Mr. Murdoch is left to haggle with BSkyB shareholders, many of whom expect a higher offer than the 700 pence a share he bid last summer, which values the 60.9 percent stake at £7.8 billion.

BSkyB responded at the time that its management would support an offer worth more than 800 pence, and some analysts think the final proposal could be well in excess of that.

Nick Bell, an analyst with Jefferies, said he thought a bid of 850 pence a share was likely, but that expectations of anything above 900 pence were unrealistic.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c4b4076a533b5605b546af14226948aa