Is this the same Pink?
Pink's footsteps in the sand lead me to him - Part I Barrister_For_The_People Sep 7 1998 12:56AM EDT
Pink, you fink, I told you your footsteps would lead me to you. INMO, You are Sebastian Hoppe AND Daniel Seth Loeb, you twits.
For the rest of those looking at the board, here is why I think Pink is both Sebastian Hoppe and Dan Loeb:
As many of you know, I developed a profile on Pink. Here it is again:
My Msg2763
Here are a few guesses. I bet they are pretty close.
1. Your are the number two Mr Pink in a succession. The first Pink was an older guy that you probably replaced or maybe work for or with.
2. You are probably between the ages of 36 and 44
3. You probably went to UC Berkley
4. You were probably a classmate or met Mark Roberts of Off the Wall Street fame while you were at Berkley. You subscribe to his newsletter.
5. You are a parent
6. You live on the northeast coast, probably around New York City
7. You have a sister who is a diabetic
8. Either you are Dan Loeb or you work with him of for him
9. Your college education was probably in finance, or something similar.
10. You once had a job in arbitrage.
11. You play Polo or at least attend Polo matches
12. You may manage or co-manage a hedge fund. It is closed to outside investors, has or had a 2 million dollar buy in and its investors include a number of Eurpoeans.
13. You have others in your office that run interference for you on the various boards you post to.
The profile was gleaned from Pink's posts on his SI board. Now, here is what I have gleaned from Pink's posts and other sources.
First, lets start with Pink's Picks. As many of you have read the infamous article about Pink, here is what it said about Pink's picks and Loeb's"
"Mr. Loeb, in an e-mail response to several messages, said, Third Point does not comment on the existence of its short positions and does not comment on negative stories about companies." He didn't respond to the question of whether he is "Mr. Pink" in his e-mail, and said he didn't have time to respond to questions in an earlier, brief telephone conversation from his office.
Mr. Loeb's firm has certainly put its money where "Mr. Pink's" mouth is: Of a sampling of 18 stocks offered as "picks" by "Mr. Pink," 14 showed up as Third Point holdings on March 31, according to Third Point regulatory filings collected by Technimetrics Inc. Third Point's top four holdings -- Summit Holding Southeast Inc., Independence Community Bank Corp., First Sierra Financial Inc. and Solutia Inc. -- are stocks that have been strongly recommended by "Mr. Pink."
Second, lets see what Pink said when he thought he had been caught:
To All: Adieu from Mr. Pink
Mr. Pink is concerned that although Z-man and John Chew have the wrong guy, they are getting close to identifying who Mr. Pink really is. There is a certain Dan Loeb, a savvy hedge fund operator acquainted with affiliates of Mr. Pink. Evidently this Dan Loeb posted The Ha'aretz article on ACRT's CEO on the Motley Fool thread under the name the Crim Reaper. This is an article that Mr. Pink uncovered several days earlier and posted on the ACRT thread. Evidently, Mr. John Chew and the Z-Man, Michael Zarour, traced the Crim Reaper to Mr. Loeb by his email address and assumed that since Mr. Pink posted the article on SI, Mr. Loeb and Mr. Pink were one and the same.
Nevertheless, even a blind squirrel finds a nut (not to say Mr. Pink is a nut, although some might say so) and Mr. Pink does value His privacy and would prefer not to be unsheathed. Accordingly, effective immediately, Mr. Pink is going on cyber holiday and unfortunately will be unable to share His wisdom on this or any other threads until further notice.
Third, let's see what Pink said in a touching letter to one of his victims:
From: Mr. Pink
Sunday, Aug 30 1998 10:02PM ET
Reply # of 2645
Dear Mr. Lo Bianco:
Trust Mr. Pink He has taken worse licks than you will ever know. He lost close to $7 million in Apria Health and nearly $3.0 million in Indepence Savings Bank this year alone. Believe Him those losses hurt and He had worse than a daughter to tell about it, but His investors who are quick to pull a trigger finger at the first sign of trouble in a manager. Sir, the market is no place for sentimentality or emotion. You messed up, big time. So has Mr. Pink, even bigger time. In retrospect Mr. Pink's mistakes were just as stupid, if not stupider than yours. In the case of Apria, Mr. Pink bought into a deteriorating business in the hopes that it would be bought out. Instead the business fell apart further and andy possible suitor was scared away by possibly the worst management team and Board Mr. Pink had ever seen.
Fourth, lets see who lost a truck load of money on Apria Health, according to the newspapers.
Los Angeles Times, January 29, 1998
The management changes appeared to lessen the likelihood that Apria would agree to be acquired by another company, and that has upset some shareholders.
Money manager Third Point Management Co. in New York, for instance, sent a letter to Apria earlier this week calling on directors to sell the company.
"We, along with other shareholders, will hold this board accountable if opportunities for a transaction are wasted," Third Point manager Daniel S. Loeb wrote in a letter to Apria's new chairman, George L. Argyros.
Third Point, which manages more than $ 100 million for U.S. and offshore institutional investors, owns about 0.5% of Apria's shares.
After January, 1997, Loeb doubled down on Apria
Los Angeles Times
May 29, 1998, Friday, Orange County Edition
Shares of Apria Healthcare Group Inc. fell 14% Thursday after the giant home health-care company ended an almost year-long search for a buyer and said it will remain independent.
Apria shares fell $ 1.25, to $ 7.75, in New York Stock Exchange trading.
Whitworth said the board determined that staying independent would be the best way for Apria to boost its flagging share price, which has fallen 55% in the past year.
The decision to remain independent didn't sit well with some shareholders. Daniel Loeb, managing member of Third Point Management Co., which owns more than 1% of Apria, called on the board to say why it rejected the offers under consideration.
So, by August 30, 1998, when Pink wrote his touching letter to Mr. Lo Bianco, he had just lost millions on Apria Health. Coincidence. Read on.
Fifth, in January, 1997, Mr. Loeb hired Sebastian Hoppe to co-manage Third Point. Here's the press release:
IAC (SM) Newsletter Database (TM)
SDC Publishing
Mergers & Restructuring
January 6, 1997
Sebastian Hoppe has joined Third Point Partners, L.P. as a partner and will co-manage the $ 25 million fund.
Established by Daniel Loeb in June 1995 with $ 3 million, New York-based Third Point last month also opened an off-shore fund with $ 5 million.
Prior to joining Third Point, Hoppe ran Hoppe Capital Management, a hedge fund focusing on high yield bonds, for two years. He was previously a high yield analyst and institutional high yield salesman with Dabney Resnick and a distressed analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert.
Hoppe received his JD/MBA from Harvard University in 1988 and admitted to the California bar in 1989. He received his BA in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Sixth, here's when Pink started his thread at SI. Notice it was three months after he joined Loeb.
Started By: Mr. Pink
Date: Mar 10 1997 5:35PM ET
Mr. Pink shares his wisdom on such diverse topics as spin-offs, mutual thrift and insurance conversions, merger arbitrage, post-bankruptcy equities and short ideas. Mr. Pink does not lie.
Seventh, here is Hoppe's and Loeb's backgrounds.
1991 Securities Week, July 15, 1991
Dabney/Resnick has appointed Sebastian Hoppe as senior vp, focusing on high yield and distressed securities. Most recently, he worked with Drexel Burnham Lambert and Canyon Partners as a special situations analyst.
BondWeek, February 6, 1995
Separately, Daniel Loeb, an institutional high-yield salesman at Citicorp, has departed the firm to start his own hedge fund, he says. The fund, which will be called Third Point Partners, will invest in the distressed, high-yield and equity markets and start out with approximately $ 1.0 million in both
domestic and off-shore funds, he adds. At Citi, Loeb had been responsible for some of the more high-profile accounts, including Fidelity Investments and Nomura Capital Management, he confirms. He had reported to Greg Martini, managing director and head of high-yield sales. Martini did not return calls for comment by press time. Loeb says his move stemmed from a preference for
fund management over sales, noting that he has had several years of experience analyzing distressed issues, leveraged buy-outs and risk arbitrage.
Eigth, if you check the message board on September 4, 1998, you'll notice that Pink is writing messages under the moniker of Osama Bin Laden until 4:59 am when he says he has to go to bed. Msg 2552. But at 6:43, Mr. Pink esq. arrives in msg. 2554. How?
Here's how. Daniel Loeb lives in New York and Sebastian Hoppe lives in - you guessed it, Santa Monica, California. The 4 hour time differential lets these two cover this board and the others without any difficulty.
Let's see how I did on the profile. Both Loeb and Hoppe were born in 1961. That makes them 37 years old. They'll be 38 in December and November, respectively. Loeb took a bath in Apria Health, as did Pink. Hoppe got a degree in finance from UC Berkely. Loeb has a background in risk arbitrage. Hoppe is a tennis player in Santa Monica. Loeb manages Third Point and Hoppe manages a still active California corporation called Hoppe Capital Management, Inc. Mark Roberts, also a UC Berkley grad has his office where - Cambridge, right across from Harvard. Where did Hoppe get his law degree - you guessed it - Harvard. Why does he speak of himself as a god, because it only takes one Harvard grad to change a lightbulb. He holds it up and the world revolves around him. He probably met Mark Roberts at some UC Berkley alumni meeting in Cambridge.
So, for those that want to ask these people whether they are Mr. Pink, in all his Pinkness, try these two gentlemen and tell them the Barrister sent you.
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