City profiles
Cyrus Mistry The ousted chairman of India’s largest conglomerate, Tata Sons, is not going quietly, says Simon Mundy in the FT. Cyrus Mistry – who was fired in October and replaced by the family patriarch Ratan Tata, 78 – has threatened to bring legal action against the company “to tackle what he claims are governance flaws”. The ongoing war of words between Mistry and the Tata board has been highly divisive: some shareholders have continued to back Mistry, who was the first outsider ever to chair the family firm. Mistry is now dropping dark hints about mismanagement and even breaches of insider trading rules. “Beware the wrath of the CEO scorned” is a lesson that Ratan Tata may be about to learn to his cost. Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer “took on a Sisyphean task” when she arrived in 2012, says Jennifer Saba on Reuters Breakingviews. “Failure shouldn’t have spelled career disaster”, but the revelation of another giant hack of Yahoo user data, dating back to 2013, doesn’t look good for her. Security should be central to any internet business, and the delay in coming clean suggests that Mayer “wasn’t focused” on the issue. Worse still, her deal to sell Yahoo’s core business to Verizon – and thereby salvage something from her lacklustre tenure – may now be in danger. Many CEOS hitting the skids have made great comebacks. Who knows, Mayer may yet “be courted again”. But the betting is that she has “probably squandered her chance of another prominent corner office”.
“Sell everything. This is about return of capital, not return on capital.” RBS economists warn in January of a “cataclysmic” year ahead
“Rome burns all around them, but at the Belvedere Hotel, the Bavarian band plays on.” The FT’S Harriet Agnew drops in on the Davos elite
“Like watching a besieged city receiving food parcels.” Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey dismisses the nascent commodities rally
“God help us if he wins… because hairspray will be the only winner.” Justin Urquhart Stewart, of Seven, on the extraordinary prospect of Donald Trump in the White House
“Financial markets have entered an Alice in Wonderland world.” Tom Stevenson of Fidelity, on negative interest-rate angst
“It’s not going to happen… Look at what happened with Scotland. People aren’t going to pull a lever for Brexit.” US bond guru Jeffrey Gundlach, of Doubleline Capital