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OT: Here's A Good Laugh!


December 19, 2007, 1:36 pm
Sallie Mae’s [Expletive] Good Conference Call
Posted by Dana Cimilluca
Here’s one analyst conference call that won’t put you to sleep.

At the beginning of Sallie Mae’s telephonic rendezvous with its investors today, CEO Albert Lord (left) mentioned the buyout deal for the company that fell apart last week. “I’m going to attempt to engage in a little self-defense, hopefully not defensively,” he said. He then proceeded to do just that.

A conference call that will live in infamy, along with that famous Enron call where Jeff Skilling called an analyst a naughty name, started out innocently enough. “The purpose of this call really is to reacquaint myself with you and you with me and try to create some transparency by me as CEO,” Lord, who reassumed that role last week, began. (Transcript courtesy of Thomson Financial.) But things went down hill from there.

First, he snapped at an analyst for asking a follow-up question: “This is the last question I answer that’s more than one part.” Then another analyst beseeches Lord for more data the analyst can use to make forecasts and for more details of Lord’s forced sale of his own shares in the company last week. Lord demurred, saying the analyst should call Steve McGarry in investor relations. The analyst pressed: “But, you’re the CEO. You’re the guy who just took over the Company.” Lord’s response: “Yes, that’s exactly right, I’m the CEO. You should give Steve a call. Next question.”

Lord then recommended that analysts be prepared to go through a metal detector when they attend the company’s analyst meeting in New York in January. Then things really spiral downward. When it appears that no one else wants to ask a question (can you blame them?) Lord says: “How (inaudible) is this? Steve, let’s go. There’s no questions, let’s get the (expletive) out of here.”

Don’t look for that climax in the version of the call Sallie Mae posted on its own Web site. That part was dropped.

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