Gawker: valleywag, charles schwab

Schwab held $85 million in bad Lehman, WaMu debt

Jackson West — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Venerable San Francisco financial firm Charles Schwab just took an $85 million hit, writing off some debt it owned in Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual. On the Old Money quarter-mile, Montgomery Street, a small electronic ticker from Schwab offers a barometer. After yesterday's 777.68 plunge, the year-to-date number from the Dow Jones index has gone from -17.1 percent when I walked by on Friday to -20.5 percent yesterday afternoon. I've updated the photo from Google Street View to correctly reflect current trends. [San Jose Mercury News]

Did new Schwab CEO try to stiff ex-wife?

Owen Thomas — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

The Charles Schwab Corporation has predictably named its president, Walt Bettinger, to succeed its eponymous founder as CEO. Bettinger, like Schwab, is a scrappy entrepreneur, or so the canned corporate biography has it; he founded a company at the age of 22, which Schwab later bought. Not mentioned in Bettinger's bio: A court case involving a Walter W. Bettinger II and Laura Bettinger. In 2005, this Walter tried to get a $6,000/mo. child-support payment to Laura reduced, in part because the value of her Schwab account had increased. If that's the same Walt Bettinger, Schwab shareholders should be impressed: He may not have kept the marriage intact, but he successfully retained his ex-wife as a customer.

California man successfully scams Google out of $8,225

Jackson West — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:40:00 EDT

Plumas Lake, California's Michael Sargent managed to roll a ton of pennies into a five-figure pay day by gaming E-Trade, Charles Schwab and Google Checkout customer verification systems in an ingenious scheme reminiscent of the one perpetrated by characters Peter, Michael and Samir in 1999's cubicle culture classic Office Space. Using aliases, including character names from Office Space director Mike Judge's cartoon King of the Hill, Largent used a script to sign up for new accounts and then collect the few cents used to verify his checking account information. In six months he managed to milk E-Trade and Schwab for over $50,000 according to Wired. And now he's indicted on charges of computer fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud. But while the Secret Service says he bilked Google Checkout for $8,225.29, he's not being indicted on charges related to that part of the plan. Granted, even if he doesn't have to return that money, he'll probably have to spend it on lawyers.

Mark Zuckerberg and 46 others make up the Bay Area billionaires list

Jordan Golson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:10:50 EST

Who's the richest billionaire in the Bay Area? No surprise here: Oracle founder and yachting enthusiast Larry Ellison, is the 14th wealthiest in the world (which must grate on him something fierce) with $25 billion. Trailing him are a trio of Googlers, Larry and Sergey with almost $19 billion each and CEO Eric Schmidt with $6.6 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest billionaire is pegged at $1.5 billion and outgoing eBay CEO Meg Whitman, one of only 99 women on the list, has $1.3 billion. Other local billionaires include Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab and George Lucas. Grab the full list from Forbes.

SVUG #10: What's the Right Address in the Valley?

Paul Boutin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:21:30 EST

PAUL BOUTIN — Greetings from Atherton, the billonaire bedroom community hidden between Woodside, Menlo Park and Redwood City. Despite its A-list of high-rolling residents including Google CEO Eric Schmidt and brokerage king Charles Schwab, Atherton keeps such a low profile that many Valley residents still haven't heard of it.

Rich and powerful people live everywhere in the Bay Area, but Atherton is the select address for tech power brokers. There's no there here — for those who deal in dreamers and telephone screamers all day, it's a place to come home to peace and quiet.

Town zoning laws passed in the 1920's prohibit Atherton real estate from being subdivided into parcels smaller than one acre — about 200 feet x 200 feet — with few exceptions. Hillside areas are limited even further, as little as one home every five acres. Structures higher than 34 feet are banned outright. The town's general plan still aims "to preserve the Town's character as a scenic, rural, thickly-wooded, residential area with abundant open space."

[Above: Green Acres, yours for only $16M.]

Eighty years later, the results are in:

Population: 7,914
Average home price: Over $3 million.
Median household income: $240,000
Schools with top ratings in science.
Police protection to weep for. Check out the online form to have your house watched while you're on vacation.
Restaurants and shopping: You drive to Menlo for that stuff.

An Atherton address says you're successful, yet low-profile about it. But how do you get in before you hit the big time? A Chronicle reporter who made the pilgrimage to Web 2.0 overlord Mike Arrington stumbled onto the formula:

Oddly enough, while the house is in affluent and leafy Atherton, it's a fairly nondescript one-story place with barely any artwork on the walls, Ikea furniture, tables cluttered with tech gear he is reviewing and an inefficient heating system that leaves it freezing. Even space heaters and a Duraflame log in the fireplace have no discernible effect.

Yep, Mike was renting. Like wannabe poets who move to North Beach, aspiring tech moguls learn that a half-empty rental in Atherton beats a castle in Cupertino. That's why the town is home to both the super-rich and the house-poor who want to be like them. Next time you see a middle-aged man in Dockers tilt back the last of a Petit Syrah at Savvy Cellar in Redwood City, toddle out to his 2000 Accord at the curb, and pilot it carefully south down El Camino, you needn't wonder where he's going. He's already arrived.