SAC Capital Partners

SAC Capital Advisors (SAC Capital Partners, SAC Capital Management) is a $16 billion dollar group of multi-strategy, multi-discipline hedge funds founded by Steven A. Cohen in 1992. The Company is incorporated in Anguilla, British West Indies [ [http://www.fool.com/community/pod/2005/050401.htm Some Things I Suspect About Hedge Funds] The Motley Fool. April 1, 2005. Retrieved 19 June, 2007] , and its trading offices are located in Stamford, Connecticut and New York City. SAC also maintains dedicated satellite offices in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Boston, and London. [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_29/b3842001_mz001.htm The Most Powerful Trader on Wall Street You've Never Heard Of] BusinessWeek. July 21, 2003. Retrieved 19 June, 2007.]

The firm has 800 employees, about ~150 of which are investment professionals. The group manages $16 billion in unleveraged assets across four independent portfolios, each with distinct mandates. [http://www.careers.sac.com/SAC/careers/me.get?WEB.websections.show&SAC_003] Source: SAC Capital Website.] SAC is commonly regarded as perhaps the best trading house in the world. Although larger multistrategy funds exist, in absolute terms, SAC's significant devotion to pure long-short strategies and aggressive capital flows make it the most influential price-setting hedge fund in traditional equity markets. However, the company has recently branched out into other alternative investment strategies including private equity and emerging markets through significant expansion.

While most hedge funds charge a performance fee of 20% to 30% of the annual returns, SAC keeps 50%, the highest in the industry.Fact|date=April 2008 Favored industries for the fund include high technology, retail/consumer goods, and healthcare. Since inception, average fund returns for the consolidated group have exceeded 40% annually.

SAC founder Steven Cohen's estimated net worth is $6.8 billion.Fact|date=July 2008

Investments

According to BusinessWeek magazine, SAC Capital Partners routinely accounts for as much as 3% of the New York Stock Exchange's average daily trading, plus up to 1% of the NASDAQ's – a total of at least 20 million shares a day. Average trading activity rivals Fidelity Investments. Moreover, the fund is widely known to pay brokers the highest commissions of any equities-focused investment group. In addition, SAC reportedly has a considerable stake in Invitrogen/Applied Biosystems [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Raises+Stake+in+New+River+Pharmaceuticals+%28NRPH%29+to+5.2%25/1199341.html] , California solar power firms [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a8s8Mva3n2Ow&refer=news] [http://www.nanosolar.com/pr5-6.htm] , Cypress Semiconductor Corporation [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Accumulates+5.4%25+Stake+in+Cypress+Semiconductor+(CY)/1264226.html] , AC Moore, Greenbrier Companies [http://www.themoneyblogs.com/investingideas/my.blog/sac-capital-raises-stakes-in-interlink-sorc-ac-moore-arts-amp-crafts-acmr-and-greenbrier-companies-gbx.html] , Marinemax Inc. [http://www.themoneyblogs.com/investingideas/my.blog/sac-capital-and-related-funds-raise-stake-in-marinemax-hzo-to-51.html] , Bally Total Fitness [http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/11/06/short-stories-ballys-sudden-cardiac-arrest/] , New Frontier Media [http://www.rgm.com/articles/nypost3.html] , Progen Industries [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Raises+Stake+in+Progen+Industries+(PGLA)+to+6.5%25/1369640.html] , retailer Casual Male [cite news |title=SAC Capital Discloses 6.2% Stake in Casual Male (CMRG) |url=http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Discloses+6.2%25+Stake+in+Casual+Male+(CMRG)/1381571.html |publisher=StreetInsider.com |date=November 27 2006|accessdate=2007-12-17] , pharmaceutical company Impax Laboratories [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Discloses+5%25+Stake+in+Impax+Laboratories+(IPXL)/1381594.html] , Phelps Dodge [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061211.wphelps1211/BNStory/Business/home] , supermarket chain Pathmark Stores [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+CapitalSteven+Cohen+Discloses+a+5%25+Stake+in+Pathmark+Stores+(PTMK)/1448040.html] , and Penwest Pharmaceuticals [http://www.streetinsider.com/13Gs/SAC+Capital+Raises+Stake+in+Penwest+Pharmaceuticals+%28PPCO%29+to+6.2%25/1264027.html] . The hedge fund also controls 19.5% of search engine Baidu [http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BB198479B-2C86-48C9-92EE-437CEE1AACB6%7D&siteid=google] . One of its new investments in 2006 was a stake in Tyco International [http://www.streetinsider.com/Insider+Trades/Changes+in+SAC+Capital's+Positions/1356841.html] . Its newest investments are Avanex. [http://www.thelion.com/bin/forum.cgi?msg=1058915&tf=wall_street_pit&cmd=read] SAC is now dabbling in private equity. cite news
last =Goldstein
first =Matthew
title = Shift for SAC's Cohen
publisher =thestreet.com
date = 2007 January 29
url = http://www.thestreet.com/newsanalysis/wallstreet/10335463.html
accessdate = 2007-02-10 ]

Biovail lawsuit

In March 2006,"60 Minutes" reported on a lawsuit against SAC and Camelback (now known as Gradient Analytics) by Biovail, a Canadian pharmaceutical company. According to the report, in the spring of 2003, SAC asked Camelback, an Arizona stock-analysis firm, for a report on Biovail. Former Camelback employees alleged that SAC had determined the content and timing of their reports on Biovail in order to drive the price of the stock down. In the following six months Biovail’s stock fell 50 percent, however, the Company issued two disappointing earnings statements. Biovail CEO Eugene Melnyk insists it was the Camelback reports that triggered the sell off.

Camelback responded by saying it had already written a negative report on Biovail that pre-dated the alleged conspiracy and said "everything in our reports was true; we and no one else wrote those reports; "nothing we did was illegal." The report also noted that ten years previously Melnyk had sued another hedge fund, accusing it of spreading rumors about his stock in order to sell it short. Camelback said the former employees were lying and disgruntled and had been fired for poor performance and unethical conduct. SAC denied all the charges and said that the stock was overvalued and that the decline was due to earnings shortfalls and regulatory investigations. [ [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/24/60minutes/main1438812.shtml Betting on a Fall, Lesley Stahl, "60 Minutes" March 26, 2006. Retrieved 19 June 2007.] ]

In March, 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Biovail and some of its former officers, for accounting fraud, particularly that "Biovail actively misled investors and analysts about the reasons for the company's poor performance". Biovail settled for $10 million US. [ [http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-50.htm SEC Charges Biovail Corporation and Senior Executives With Accounting Fraud] , U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission press release, March 24, 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.sac.com/ SAC Capital corporate website]
* [http://www.careers.sac.com/ SAC Capital Career site]
* [http://www.tickerspy.com/member.php?mid=-1018103&pid=-1 S.A.C. Capital's most recent holdings]