hell, i would not buy it even with osama's money. remember, goldman sachs did not buy timberhill; it bought hull trading instead.
you are wrong on all accounts. there is no conspiracy theory here. i'm sorry that you are unable to comprehend that not all aspects of the situation are public knowledge. if you go back to my original post, you'd see that I was responding to another comment, nothing else.
exactly. refco has been hit with many lawsuits prior to this mess. that is a reflection of the attitude of executives in the higher echelons
)) dude, maybe like Def there is sthg u know that we don't know... me, i am just looking at the facts... IB didn't have access to any more doc when it placed its bid the other week than it had had when flowers did... if flowers hadn't placed its bid, giving weight to the idea that there was real value worth saving there, we simply wldn't be talking abt RFXCQ anymore - and that wld've been the preferred course of events for IB, fxcm etc - because it just wldn't be a going concern anymore... now i have nothing against IB in particular, actually quite impressed by a number of things from them, v.likely to open an acct with them... but that doesn't stop me from taking a critical look at events as they unfold... and when i see s.o. or a company or one of their groupies puffing their chest and making statements to the effect that they woulda, coulda (shouda??), i am sorry but i just have to laugh ;-))))))) peace
Def, that we do know, nothing new here, and also that every competitor wld immediately "express an interest" if only to get privy to as much inside info as they can, but now tell me: how scientific was/is IB's process in assessing refco's business value if in the space of 3 weeks, u end up placing 2 successive blind bids as u have? anyway, this is v.much rear-guard type stuff, am more interested in the battle ahead, and the outcome(s) ;-))) good luck to IB! cheers
article in NYTIMES this weekend on how Goldman and Flowers saved Refco or what was left of them from imploding www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/business/yourmoney/30deal.html?pagewanted=print
As these are righteous concerns for current IB customers, I'll volunteer some loose 'nononsense' thoughts. Knowing something about software engineering, my speculation from a distance would go as follows: (1) REFCO has or had a reliable platform(s) with plenty of really nice eye-candy. Only Futures. No API. Only good for 'button-pushing', 'ladder-drugged' traders, no future whatsoever; (2) REFCO had the insight (or good fortune?) not to have been stuck in the Java mess. Java, in spite of Sun's frantic efforts, is on its way out. (If you didn't know yet, read more about it in one of the latest O'Reilly books); (3) REFCO never managed to think beyond or support anything but windoz. Also not very clever these days; (4) REFCO had the wisdom of not trying to cater to the hungry 'Charting Crowd' knowing pretty well that there is only "miser's" money to be made of that customer segment; besides, a lot of competition; besides, a few practitioners went kind of under already trying their hand at it; (5) REFCO and FIX? dunno about this. IB these days is trying to start something here but is still stuck with its Java. On top, you will likely need TWS next to the FIX connector, again Java; (6) What about combining REFCO and IB software platforms? An ignorant observer might step over this lightly. This is not a '1 + 1 = 2' play however. If I would have to direct such a software project, I would refuse unless given absolute power to kick things around in the right direction. Why and how? Read points 1 - 5 once over again; (7) What then, assuming that IB would really acquire REFCO? It ain't going to be a cakewalk. nononsense
I hope they lose the bid. What a pos IT backend. Can't log in all day. Bloody POS. Fire the IT idots and offshore the whole incompetent department.
It is not only the platform, it is Refco's "clearing" clout IB is after. You are right about the type of clients Refco caters (mostly position) which do not necessarily subscribe to the way IB do their business. I for one will be giving my Buz. to Man Financial...They are as mature as Refco.