Institutional Investors

The pricing of stocks in decimals, hailed three years ago as a big step forward for individual investors, is suddenly being questioned by powerful forces on Wall Street. In decimal pricing, stocks are quoted in simple dollars and cents rather than in fractions. Aside from making prices easier to understand -- 69 cents, for example, instead of 11/16 -- the introduction of decimals in 2000 and 2001 was intended to reduce the hidden costs incurred by small investors.

Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner met with Wall Street investors and analysts Friday to convey that although the entertainment company has a multitude of problems such as the money-losing ABC network and lagging theme park attendance, it's not the unhappiest place on Earth. During an afternoon meeting, Eisner, who also is chief executive, and Disney Chief Financial Officer Thomas Staggs unveiled no significant news, according to people who were at the meetings.

California's planned sale of as much as $10.5 billion in short-term notes is scheduled for the week of Sept. 21, Treasurer Bill Lockyer's office said Tuesday. The debt, known as revenue anticipation notes, or RANs, would bridge the gap in timing between near-term state spending and tax revenue expected later in the fiscal year. The money raised also would repay a $1.5-billion loan that JPMorgan Chase & Co. made to the state last week. That loan will allow Lockyer to begin redeeming IOUs issued by Controller John Chiang since early July, when the state first began to run short of cash.

The Mexican government on Monday launched two bond offerings aimed at individual U.S. investors, but the yields on the securities underwhelmed some analysts. Mexico offered five-year notes yielding an annualized 5% and seven-year notes yielding 5.1%. By contrast, the yield on five-year U.S. Treasury notes was 4.57% on Monday. The yield on Treasuries maturing in seven years was 4.62%.

Shares of Groupon Inc. continued their downward march amid persistent worries over the daily-deal company's growth prospects and the flagging confidence of its institutional investors. Groupon's stock closed down 2.1% on Monday at an all-time low of $4.65. Shares have tumbled 38% from a week earlier, when the company reported quarterly earnings that disappointed the market. The stock has dropped more than 75% year-to-date. "I think it's the aftermath of the earnings that we're still feeling," said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee.

A partnership that includes former junk bond king Michael Milken is looking for investors interested in putting as much as $1 billion into its educationrelated ventures. Details of the offering were sketchy. However, a spokesman said Tuesday that Knowledge Universe Education had retained two investment banks to manage a private placement. About half of the offering has been placed. Milken, his brother Lowell and Steven Green, former U.S.

Bruised by a year of financial catastrophe, some bank shareholders are out for revenge as the corporate annual meeting season approaches -- with Bank of America Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth D. Lewis a prominent target. His critics, who are calling on shareholders to vote him off the company's board at its annual meeting April 29, cite the bank's moves last year to acquire two struggling firms, mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. and brokerage powerhouse Merrill Lynch & Co.

It's a cold winter for apartment investors in Los Angeles County: Rents are down, prices have fallen and vacancies are way up. Deal velocity -- broker slang for sales volume -- is a thin stream compared with the overflowing activity of 2005 and '06, the most recent boom years. But to smaller investors like Johnny Caal, with cash in hand and a taste for risk, the weather is delightful. This is the best market I've seen since 1994," during the previous recession, said the Van Nuys-based investor, who owns six small rental complexes in L.A. County.

Federal securities regulators Friday accused a Van Nuys man of preying on Armenian immigrants in a $19-million fraud scheme. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators said that Michael Garian, also known as Melkon Gharakhanian, falsely told investors that he and his company, National Investment Enterprises, were investing their funds in the hot technology stocks of the late 1990s. The SEC filed a civil complaint against Garian in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday.

Vivendi Universal's stock climbed Friday, with shares closing 10% higher, as investors gained confidence in a new management team and its ability to avert a feared financial meltdown at the media giant. The increase was a welcome end to a week in which the stock plunged in the wake of Monday's tumultuous ouster of Jean-Marie Messier, followed by the selection of respected businessman Jean-Rene Fourtou as interim chairman and chief executive.