August 05, 2013
George Clooney says fund manager Dan Loeb is a ‘carpetbagger’.
George Clooney has accused a major investor in Sony of trying to undermine the company’s movie business.
George Clooney has slammed billionaire US hedge fund manager Dan Loeb for being a profiteering “carpetbagger” who “knows nothing” about the film industry in protest at the financier’s campaign to have Sony spin off its entertainment arm.
Mr Clooney said Mr Loeb was trying to manipulate the film market. “He calls himself an activist investor, and I would call him a carpetbagger, and one who is trying to spread a climate of fear that pushes studios to want to make only tent poles,” Mr Clooney said, referring to high-profile, big budget films.
“Why is he buying stock like crazy if he’s so down on things? He’s trying to manipulate the market.”
Mr Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund owns 7 per cent of Sony, has been calling for the consumer electronics group to spin off part of its entertainment arm. In Third Point’s latest investor letter, Mr Loeb said: “Given entertainment’s perpetual underperformance, perhaps Sony’s reluctance to discuss it candidly stems from (understandable) embarrassment.”
Mr Clooney, whose Smokehouse Pictures company has a production contract with Sony Pictures, told online magazine Deadline Hollywood: “I’ve been reading a lot about Daniel Loeb. How any hedge fund guy can call for responsibility is beyond me, because if you look at those guys, there is no conscience at work. It is a business that is only about creating wealth where, when they fail, they get bailed out and where nobody gets fired.
“A guy from a hedge fund entity is the single least qualified person to be making these kinds of judgments, and he is dangerous to our industry.”
A spokesman at Third Point said the company had no comment.