Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

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Welcome to the April edition of the Hoover’s Index. The Hoover’s Index provides insight on which companies are being watched most closely by the sales, marketing, and business development professionals who make up a large part of Hoover’s audience. Each month, I offer comments on some of the most interesting stories and trends turned up by the unique ranking system of the Hoover’s Index.

VISA
Visa isn’t just “everywhere you want to be” — it saved the IPO market during the first quarter of 2008 when it posted the largest IPO in history. In the midst of tumultuous economic times, the credit-card giant debuted on the Big Board with an offering in the neighborhood of $18 billion. Possibly even more stunning: the company’s shares have climbed even more since the IPO. Unfortunately, Visa’s performance can’t be considered any kind of a bellwether for other companies wanting to do an IPO, simply because there are no potential IPO makers on the horizon who enjoy the brand recognition that Visa does.

Bear Stearns
Even a few weeks ago, supporters the redoubtable Wall Street firm were saying “Bear is doing fine — nothing to worry about.” But after the bank’s abrupt collapse and humiliating lowball buyout deal with JPMorgan, some regulators have now moved onto the stage of “What did Bear know and when did it know it?” The company has become the biggest and worst victim of mortgage-based insecurity in the worldwide securities markets, and its erstwhile leader, Jimmy Cayne, now faces a ignominious (if wealthy) retirement. Perhaps he’ll console himself with more golf and bridge.

The Carlyle Group
So apparently the cabal that rules the world* The Carlyle Group doesn’t walk on water. In March it was forced to fold up the tents of its affiliate Carlyle Capital, which had invested heavily in mortgages. Given current market conditions, even the fact that those mortgages were triple-A-rated didn’t help: the parent company extended a $150 million lifeline of credit to the affiliate, but Carlyle Capital’s creditors began liquidating its assets anyway. The Carlyle Group made its name in no small part because of the super-duper-heavy hitters it employed, including George H. W. Bush, John Major, James Baker, and Frank Carlucci. But public suspicions about the Group’s closed-door deals has led it to remake its management board and create more transparency in its dealings.

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* I kid. Yes, Carlyle has always had lots of ultra-connected ex-politicos in its stable, but I think the rumors of its Svengali-like hold on policy makers in Washington, London, etc. has been wildly overblown. But then, I’m pretty much allergic to conspiracy theories.