IMG's Ted Forstmann Says U.S. In Severe Credit Crisis
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Forstmann Feels Credit Crisis Will
Get Worse Before It Gets Better |
IMG Chair & CEO Ted Forstmann said the U.S. is "in a credit crisis the likes of which I've never seen in my lifetime," according to the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Brian Carney, who talks to Forstmann as part of the paper's Weekend Interview feature. Forstmann currently "devotes most of his professional attention to IMG," but the economy "has him worried." Forstmann: "The credit problems in this country are considerably worse than people have said or know. I didn't even know subprime mortgages existed and I was worried about the credit crisis." More Forstmann: "You've got [U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson saying 'Oh, you see the good news is it's over.' I think we're in about the second inning of this. ... This all started in August (of 2007), and it was going to get cleared up by October. It hasn't gotten cleared up at all." Forstmann said that "'in order to fix what's going on in the United States there's going to have to be a certain amount of pain. The market's going to have to clear somehow ... and it's hard for me to believe that it gets fixed without' upheaval in the financial system, the economy and the country as a whole." Forstmann: "Things are going to fail. Enterprises are going to fail. The economy is going to slow" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/5).
TERRY SEMEL: In London, Walsh & Goodman reported while Dubai Int'l Capital is working with former Yahoo CEO TERRY SEMEL on a bid for IMG, the two sides are "still some way apart on the value of the group." Sources close to IMG said that IMG "would take an offer in the region of $3[B]." However, industry sources said $3B was a "very aggressive price" (LONDON TIMES, 7/6).
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