The broad popularity of Facebook has reached the point to where investment banks have blocked employees from using the social networking site. But a financial trade publication has found that, in fact, thousands of banking staff continue to use it. 
  
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers  Holdings, JPMorgan, Bear Stearns and UBS deny access to Facebook because of concerns employees  spend too much time on it, Financial News reported. 
  
Still, nearly 20 percent of Goldman’s employees are members of the Goldman-only network on Facebook, the publication said.  Deutsche Bank was second with 11.3 percent signed up  to the bank’s network and Lehman third with 10.4 percent.

The fact that investment banks are cracking down on Facebook usage comes with a certain amount of irony, considering that Wall Street is throwing itself at the company in hopes of roping in the company and its founder Mark Zuckerberg as a client. Though Facebook has said it’s not up for sale, bankers await the day it files to go public or is sold to a corporate /private equity buyer. Facebook just named an ex YouTube finance chief as its CFO, in a sign the company may be ramping up its IPO plans. 

(Reporting by Jeffrey Goldfarb in London)

(Photo: Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Wikipedia)

Sumner Redstone just won’t stop dancing.

CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc.’s executive chairman keeps getting questions about whether he would take one of his media companies private — and he keeps dodging the issue.

His latest dance came during a conference call to discuss CBS’ quarterly earnings, when he was asked what would “trigger” a decision to go private. Back in June, he fielded a similar question during an interview on CNBC.

Here’s what he said on Tuesday: 

“(We) like the companies the way they are. We think there is an enormous amount of growth in them without any great strategic change. 
However, and I’m very clear on this, we do consider all alternatives. There has been a lot of discussion inside and outside about taking one of these companies private. 
What I can say is, I’ve said it before, it’s not on the front burner. But you can rest assured it will receive the consideration it should as we always consider what’s good for these companies.”

Why the equivocation? Given the the skittishness of the debt markets, this would seem a reasonable time to rule out going private. What do you think? What’s Redstone got in mind?
   

Their public fight-for-the-right-to-marry has tended to overshadow the fact that XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio must keep their businesses running.

You know: making radios, keeping Oprah happy, wooing customers, etc.

That’s why it’s a treat when they report quarterly results — for the satellite radio grist, set apart from the “what monopoly?” testifying and the “we are good for consumers” lobbying.
Like XM, Sirius said it shrunk its second-quarter loss, helped by a big boost in subscriptions from users whose radios are built into their cars. And from Sirius’ conference call came some other interesting tidbits…

* About 10 percent of Sirius’ 7.1 million subscribers are cars on dealer lots, as yet unsold to, you know, people. (Sirius counts radios sold to deals as subs, but doesn’t count revenue until the cars are sold.) Sirius CFO Dave Frear told analysts, “On the percentage of OEM gross adds that are sitting out on the lot…it’s a number that’s been bouncing around 9 to 10 percent.” Doing the math, one analyst put that at about 700,000 cars, er, subscribers.

* Sirius said it expects to introduce the next version of its top-of-the-line portable “wearable” radio — call the “Stiletto 2″ — later this year. Sirius and XM’s commitment to high-end, buy-it-over-the counter models is closely watched since so much of the business is shifting to car units.

* Sirius is “preparing for the launch” of aftermarket backseat TV products, which will complement the rollout of the service in 2008 model year Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles.

* Timing of the newly announced sports or family or music radio channel packages? Around Fathers Day 2008.

* The pick-your-own channels service, a-la-carte option? Christmas 2008.

* The “interoperable” chip that allows a user to get both services on a single radio? “Between one year and two and a half years” after the deal is done, according to Jim Meyer, Sirius’ President, Operations & Sales

Overstock.com’s Chief Executive Patrick Byrne thinks consumers could make a buck or two by buying low-priced items on Overstock and selling them for a profit on online auction site eBay.

The controversial CEO said some of Overstock’s items are so competitively priced that some people are earning a living reselling the items.

“Our motto is buy it on Overstock, sell it on eBay,” Byrne said on a conference call Tuesday with investors.

“If you compare the prices of the stuff on Overstock, it is cheaper than on eBay for commodity goods and such.  In fact, there are people — there are lots of people who make their living buying on Overstock and selling on eBay.”

Taking Byrne up on his idea, Reuters randomly selected three items on Overstock’s “Top Sellers” page.

In a nonscientific study, none of the three Overstock items tested were less expensive than the comparative item on eBay.

1) Dyson DC 14 Full Access Upright Vacuum 
     — Overstock: $439.99 plus $2.95 s/h    ($442.94 total)
     — eBay: $300 plus $48.70 s/h                 ($348.70 total)
    
2) Sandisk 2GB Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card
    — Overstock: $25.99 plus $2.95 s/h     ($28.94 total)
    — eBay: $9.99 plus $11.99 ship              ($21.98 total)
    
3) Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows
    Overstock: $17.49 plus $2.95 s/h     ($20.44 total)
    eBay: $13.29 plus $4.85 s/h              ($18.14 total)
(s/h=shipping and handling)

Overstock has thousands of items, and to be fair, surely a few are cheaper at any given time than on eBay. We only compared the Overstock items to those listed by eBay suppliers that had at least a 98 percent satisfactory rating and auctions that had ended or were close to ending.

Byrne cautioned that the lawyers might not agree with the “Buy it on Overstock, sell it on eBay” motto.

“I don’t think we could get permission from the legal department to actually make that our motto,” Byrne said.

Are the banks ready to yank TXU’s financing in favor of paying a break up fee and walking away?    

According to this Wall Street Journal blog entry on July 26, a novel theory is circulating on Wall Street that banks could decide to pull megabuyout financing deals, pay the break up fees, and walk away. Doing that would be cheaper in the long run than being stuck with all that unwanted debt on their balance sheets, so the theory goes.

An interesting theory, no doubt, but one that sources tell DealZone is far-fetched, or in British terms: “bollocks.” Banks should be able to survive any “hanging” from bridge loans, according to this Reuters article.  In addition, the comments section of the Journal’s blog entry is filled with people throwing cold water on the theory.

Nevertheless, the theory has spilled over into KKR and TPG’s $32 billion leveraged buyout of Texas utility TXU, prompting a London-based article from AFX News/Thomson Financial headlined: “Lenders mull pulling out of TXU and pay 1 bln usd break-up fee”      

From the article:
    
    “Banks led by Citigroup are considering whether they should offer to pay a 1 bln usd break-up fee in order to get the buyout bidders for Dallas-based energy company TXU to break the agreement, according to sources.  
     The lenders are trying to avoid being stuck with 37.2 bln usd in committed debt to fund the purchase of TXU. The lead arrangers for the debt are understood to be Citigroup Inc., Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.”  

Reached by DealZone, TPG, KKR and Citigroup declined to comment.      

For what it’s worth, TXU shares were flat most of the morning, and down just 19 cents by midday, so the market doesn’t seem to be giving the report much credit. Shares of TXU have been trading lower in the last few days, but that’s not surprising given the broad credit market concerns. The reputional risk banks face by walking away from their prized private equity clients would seem too high to pull such a move.
     
Jon Najarian, co-founder of option information Web site optionmonster.com in Chicago, says:
   
“The lack of transparency in the credit market has pushed option volatility higher across the board, especially deal stocks such as TXU and First Data.”
   
Najarian acknowledged the Citigroup-TXU rumor, but said traders were not giving it much thought anymore.
   
“TXU October 60 puts were active, trading 8,100 contracts all for 85 cents a contract with the stock at $66.02. The price of those options are unchanged so far and there is no indication that there was any panic to the put purchase earlier today.”      

If by chance banks do take the plunge and pull financings in exchange for break-up fees, Justin Monteith, market analyst, KDP Investment Advisors says the bright side is that it ”would certainly go a long way towards reducing the overhang of anticipated bond and loan supply this year.”  
   
(With reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago and Dena Aubin in New York)
(Photo: Reuters file)

This blog prides itself on keeping readers aware of what’s coming around the bend. In the future, elevators will not be quite as luxurious or user-friendly as they are now, as you can see by these prototypes being tested by policemen.

The two elevators on the left are going up. The ones on the right are going down. Thes are local elevators, which is why they have ropes, unlike the express Elevators of the Future, which will not. Of course, if the Elevator of the Future doesn’t appeal to you, you can always stick with the Stairway of the Future, seen here being tested by the dude on the far right.

More Oddly Enough Blog

Paramilitary policemen take part in an anti-terrorism drill to celebrate the upcoming 80th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on August 1, in Taiyuan, north China’s Shanxi province July 27, 2007. REUTERS/Stringer

Hey, Blog Guy! I’ve been following this Red Bull Air Race, held in various places around the world. I know you get around - have you seen it in person?

We do have video footage of a recent leg from London, as the planes do hairpin turns and other aerial acrobatics.

But I see this more as a math story problem. If a plane travels very close to the ground, at speeds of 250 mph… Let’s see, height divided by seconds, multiply, carry the 4… It looks like it could take about 2.2 seconds for one of them to get down to where I’m watching with my chili dog and root beer. So, I think I’ll just enjoy the nice Reuters video clips. Daragh Burke reports:

More Oddly Enough Blog

Three killed in blast at rocket site in Calif.

Television images showed wrecked equipment and vehicles and blackened ground from the blast, which Diffenbaugh said involved the highly flammable gas nitrous oxide. 

Your article incorrectly states that nitrous oxide is flammable. The fact is the nitrous oxide is not flammable and is very stable. Stating incorrect technical information about nitrous oxide does not enlighten the public audience.

Marty H.

Several readers noticed this one. We corrected: GBU Editor

Jose Mourinho has long complained that other clubs have an inflated “Chelsea price” whenever the mega-rich Londoners show any interest in signing a player but the boot seems to be on the other foot in the case of Arjen Robben.

The Dutch winger was bought from PSV Eindhoven three years ago for 12 million pounds but seems set to go to Real Madrid for something around the 20 million mark.

Madrid, it seems, are desperate to sign some flair players having bizarrely sacked coach Fabio Capello because the team failed to show enough panache in winning the title.

His replacement Bernd Schuster said this week that “getting Robben here is very important for us. I want a lot of mobility there, similar to what Zidane did.”

Perhaps the Madrid hierarchy have been sent a video of what Robben can do but it must have taken some pretty creative editing to bring him into the same orbit as the French World Cup winner.

In his early days Robben’s delicate dribbling added an extra dimension to Chelsea but as his injuries piled up he became less and less effective.

Last season he managed only three goals and probably around the same total of productive crosses. (Note: There’s an interesting piece about his diminishing influence over at Blue Champions).

He also fell foul of Mourinho over what management consultants would probably call his “attitude to risk”. At times it seemed as if a slight strain was enough to rule him out of matches, while team mates such as John Terry limped into battle held together with string and liniment.

Why the champions of Spain think he is the final piece in the jigsaw to enable them to challenge again for the Champions League, and all in a crowd-warming flamboyant style, remains one of the great mysteries of the summer.

Mitch Phillips, London