The phone call lasts just a few seconds. The words "congratulations,
you've become a partner", are just about all Lloyd Blankfein, the boss
of Goldman Sachs,
will have time to say to the 85 or so bank high-flyers he will ring
next Wednesday to invite into one of the most prestigious and lucrative
cliques on Wall Street.
It is a day of huge expectation for
individuals spanning time zones from Sydney to New York who are waiting
to hear that they have been given a role for which there is no job
advert and no interview.
The whittling down of the candidates is
under way this week in Goldman Sachs's head office in New York.
Stretching across several days, a team of partners led by London-based
Michael "Woody" Sherwood are deciding upon whom to bestow the glittering
title of Goldman Sachs partner.
The decision comes at the end of a
thorough, secretive and sometimes brutal decision-making process that
happens only every two years. This year's deliberations began in the
summer and include the selection of managing directors, one rung below
partnership.
With the title of partner comes prestige that is,
arguably, unrivalled in the financial world. It also brings vast wealth
in the form of a partnership bonus pool that pays out millions of
dollars each year. And it opens the door to high-profile career moves:
former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was in the golden circle, as
was one-time BBC chairman Gavyn Davies. Annual payouts can reach tens of
millions of dollars – each – on top of annual salaries which are
thought to start at almost $1m. Blankfein, for instance, took home more
than $16m last year, according to Forbes, but received $68.5m (£43m) in
2007.
Read the rest
here.
The damages award against illegal file-sharer Kywan Fisher will most
likely send him to the poor house. Illinois federal court Judge John Lee
ordered Fisher to fork out $1.5 million to adult entertainment company
Flava Works this week, according to TorrentFreak.
Flava Works sued Fisher for sharing 10 movies he'd previously paid for
via BitTorrent. The damages award amount was reached by fining Fisher
$150,000 per movie. This is the largest damages award ever ordered in a
BitTorrent case.
Flava Works caught Fisher sharing its movies by tracing the illegal
copies he was accused of sharing back to him using an encryption code
inserted in the films he originally bought.
Read the rest
here.
