Friday, May 19, 2006
by Alex Gabor
A recent U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing from Soros Fund Management, billionaire financier George Soros' investment fund--which has investments in 286 companies and has a total fair market value of $2.72 billion shows some significant changes to the fund, which still holds large stakes in Sun Microsystems (SUNW), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Hainan Airlines, Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Lattice Semiconductor and EchoStar Communications (DISH)among others.
Hi9s indirect stake in the gargantuan software company Microsoft (MSFT) has been cut to 251,750 shares from from 1.38 million during the past quarter. The sale of over 1.1 million shares gave Soros Fund Managers at least $30 million in cash to redeploy into other investments more promising than Microsoft. The sale may have been a small factor in the recent plunge of microsoft shares from a 52 week high of around 28 to closer to $22 in recent trading days.
The SEC filing further discloses that Soros has acquired 857,400-shares of Boston Scientific--which recently completed its acquisition of Guidant--and a 698,500-share stake in communications equipment maker Cisco Systems.
The Hungarian-born and London School of Economics-educated Soros is betting on the rumblings of global exhanges recent merger talks. Soros, who is the world's 71st richest man according to Forbes magazine, doubled his fund's stake in the Nasdaq Stock Market (nasdaq: NDAQ ) to 553,200 common shares and took on an 89,750-share stake in NYSE Group (nyse: NYX ).
NASDAQ recently received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to begin operations as a national securities exchange.
Exchanges continue to be under tremendous pressure to consolidate to boost volumes, create economies of scale that reduce trading costs and to attract more companies to list their shares.
Talks between NYSE Group and European share markets operator Euronext and the German Bourse have been ongoing for the past few days signaling that a possible merger may be in the wings. NYSE Group, Inc. last week filed an 8-K announcing the combination of the businesses of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. and Archipelago Holdings, Inc., making it the largest and most technologically sophisticated stock exchange in the world.
At the same time, developments in Iran for the establishment of the Iranian Oil Bourse have speculators lining up in Europe on the side of the Euro as investors like Soros, Gates and Buffet continue to hold huge multi billion dollar short positions on the U.S. dollar as inflation rears its ugly head in the United States and Central Bankers are focusing on pulling away from trading oil contracts in dollars if the IOB begins operations any time soon.
The dollar has slid more than 6% in the past month alone and as interest rates are raised to stem the loss in purchasing power, U.S. consumer confidence continues to slide, wholesale prices have begun to reflect what savy investors have been predicting for the past two years, and the U.S. and British real estate markets have seen notices of default increase by more than 50% during the first quarter of 2006.
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