Short-term results “can and will be lumpy,” Fortress Investment Group CEO Wesley Edens told investors after the firm announced first-quarter results earlier this year.
When does “lumpy” become something more serious?
These are tough times for Fortress, one of the few publicly traded hedge fund and investment management firms.
Since that earnings announcement, Fortress abandoned its effort to buy Penn National Gaming, the value of its new mortgage-backed securities fund is down 30 percent, and the stock of one its major investments — GateHouse Media — “could be worthless,” according to one analyst. Fortress owns about 40 percent of GateHouse.
The price of Fortress Investment Group’s own stock continues to fall. It closed at just over $10 last week, down from $31 when the company went public in early 2007.
Edens, an alum of Lehman Brothers and BlackRock Financial Management, co-founded Fortress in 1998.
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was an investor in Fortress. He ended that relationship last year when it was revealed that Fortress was foreclosing on New Orleans residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
GateHouse, which publishes about 100 small daily newspapers around the country, has more than $1 billion in debt. Company stock closed at less than $1 a share last week, down from about $8 at the beginning of the year.
Edens is chairman of GateHouse.
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