More on Sybase's "menace," Thomas Sandell...
- TAGS:data warehousing, hedge fund, M&A, mobile software, sybase, Wall Street
- IT TOPICS:Enterprise Apps, Mobile, Privacy
The man threatening a boardroom brouhaha with Sybase CEO John Chen is a reclusive, workaholic Swede who was once that badminton-mad country's national junior champion.
Thanks to Hans Sandberg, a Swedish journalist living in Princeton, New Jersey, who sent me a link to his recently-published article about Sandell.
Evidently, this is the first interview that Sandell has given since 2004. According to Sandberg, Sandell routinely turns down the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times when they call, invariably about some company his hedge fund, Sandell Asset Management, is taking an "activist" position in.
Some details:
- As a rising executive at Wall Street investment bank, Bear Stearns, Sandell supposedly came into work at 3 am and stayed until the evening, so that he could follow the markets in Europe, U.S. and Asia.
- He started his hedge fund, Castlerigg Investments, in 1998, naming it after a 4,000 year-old circle of stones in northern England (think Stonehenge, but even older).
- In a decade, his firm has grown from 3 employees overseeing $125 million in assets to a 120-employee firm overseeing $7.5 billion.
- His firm has averaged an almost 15% annual return, including 11% this year (he shorted firms exposed to subprime mortgages as well as homebuilders).
Read the rest here.
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