WHEN: Today, Tuesday, October 11th
WHERE: CNBC's "The Strategy Session"
Following is the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC's David Faber. All references must be sourced to CNBC.
Following is a link to the breaking news on CNBC.com: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44859944
DAVID FABER: AND WELCOME BACK TO "THE STRATEGY SESSION" A LITTLE MERGER AND ACQUISITION STORY TO SHARE WITH YOU. WHEN I SAY LITTLE, I MEAN IT, BUT INTERESTING NONETHELESS. ROUBINI GLOBAL ECONOMICS, THAT'S THE ECONOMICS RESEARCH FIRM THAT WAS FOUNDED BY NOTED ECONOMIST NOURIEL ROUBINI, IS FOR SALE, ACCORDING TO SOURCES WHO HAVE BEEN APPROACHED BY AN INVESTMENT BANK IN EUROPE THAT IS CONDUCTING AN AUCTION FOR THE FIRM. RGE, AS ITS KNOWN, HAS GROWN QUICKLY SINCE ITS FOUNDING BY ROUBINI, WHO OF COURSE IS ITS CHAIRMAN AND KNOWN FOR PREDICTING MUCH OF THE FINANCIAL GLOOM THAT THAT BEFELL US IN THE '07 '08 PERIOD. THE FIRM HAS 85 EMPLOYEES, AND IT IS STILL LOSING MONEY. ACCORDING TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN THE OFFERING BOOK FOR THE SALE, THE FIRM IS PROJECTED TO HAVE REVENUES OF ABOUT $14 MILLION THIS YEAR AND LOSE ABOUT $2 MILLION DOLLARS. IT PROJECTS THAT IT WILL HAVE EIGHT PERCENT REVENUE GROWTH INTO NEXT YEAR FOLLOWED BY VERY STRONG 40% REVENUE GROWTH IN 2013. NOT SURE IF THAT IS PART OF MR. ROUBINI'S OVERALL ECONOMIC ASSUMPTIONS OF THINGS PERHAPS GETTING BETTER THEN. NOW ROUBINI, WHO HAS BEEN IN KOREA, HAS NOT RETURNED CALLS AND A SPOKESMAN AT THE FIRM DECLINED TO COMMENT. BIDDERS ARE BEING TOLD TO SUBMIT A RANGE OF WHAT THEY WOULD BE WILLING TO PAY AND THEN BEING TOLD THAT WHATEVER THE LOWEST NUMBER IS IS WHAT THEY WILL CONSIDER A BID. IT'S UNCLEAR WHETHER THERE WILL BE ANY TAKERS THOUGH. THE FIRM HAS BEEN EXPANDING ITS RESEARCH OFFERINGS, BUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN THE OFFERING DOCUMENT TELL ME MANY OF THE FIRM'S CLIENTS ARE CORPORATIONS, NOT INVESTORS, MAKING IT UNCLEAR EXACTLY HOW MUCH NEW BUSINESS MIGHT BE OBTAINED BY ANY BUYER OF RGE. AS I SAID AGAIN, NO WORD FROM MR. ROUBINI.
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