Hedge Fund News: Warren Buffett, John Paulson, Jason Karp

Hedge Fund Manager Loeb Takes Aim At “Oracle of Omaha” Buffett (Reuters)
Hedge fund mogul Daniel Loeb on Wednesday took aim at the “Oracle of Omaha,” calling beloved billionaire Warren Buffett a hypocrite. “I love how he criticizes hedge funds yet he really had the first hedge fund. He criticizes activists but he was the first activist,” Loeb, who runs $17.5 billion hedge fund Third Point, said about Buffett who has been running conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway for 50 years.

Bridgewater’s McCormick Sees Oil Below $75 at End of Year (Bloomberg)
David McCormick, president of Bridgewater Associates, said he sees the price of oil below $75 a barrel at the end of the year. He made the comment at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. McCormick also said he thinks the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates after the end of the year. McCormick was U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs from 2007 to 2009.

SALT Conference Draws Hedge Fund Stars to Las Vegas (The New York Times)
At the Bellagio’s high-roller Villa Privé No. 6 Tuesday night, hedge fund celebrities including Leon Cooperman and John A. Paulson sipped Krug Champagne and exchanged conversation about the government, the economy and the health care system. It was one of several private parties in the run-up to the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, or SALT. Around 1,800 members of the hedge fund industry from across the country have arrived for the three-day conference to shake hands, close deals and talk politics.

Omega’s Leon Cooperman Says His Hedge Fund Bought Google Shares (Bloomberg)
Leon Cooperman, founder of Omega Advisors, said his hedge fund bought shares of Google Inc. Google will take steps to use its growing cash pile of $60 billion to increase its share price, Cooperman said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. “It’s not particularly productive to sit on all that cash earning zero,” Cooperman said. “Employees own a lot of the stock and generally the competition in Silicon Valley for employees, they want to make money on their options. So I think Google can do a lot to help them make money.”