Daniel Loeb. Credit: capitalbay.com
Marriage of Convenience: Behind the Alliance of Hedge Funds and Charter Schools
JULY 1, 2013
What’s the best way to strike at a teacher’s union?
Fund a charter school.
At least that’s the tactic Daniel Loeb, CEO of the hedge fund Third Point LLC, has employed in his ongoing feud with the American Federation of Teachers and its president Randi Weingarten. Since it’s rare for hedge funders to link their support for charters so explicitly to union opposition, the episode makes for a rare glimpse into the minds of the charter-smitten investor class.
As Bloomberg has it,
Loeb, who manages $13.6 billion, had fellow hedge-fund chiefs Paul Tudor Jones, David Tepper and Paul Singer applauding in the ballroom of Manhattan’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel last month as he donated an extra $1 million to a group of charter schools to show his opposition to the head of the second-biggest U.S. teachers union.In April, the union included the four billionaires on its “watch list” of money managers that support groups the labor