The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which is held by SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) has sent shock waves across the markets. On Thursday, as the stock market digested the disclosure from SVB about the need to shore up its capital through an equity offering, its stock tanked, leading to a drop in other regional banking stocks, as the broader market moved lower on Friday.
Here are a few voices heard on Wall Street regarding the fall of the regional bank:
Burry Raises Specter Of Enron, Worldcom: Big short fame Michael Burry, who is known for his notorious cryptic tweets on Thursday tweeted that “It’s possible today we found our Enron,” referring to the energy company that went bankrupt in the wake of an accounting scandal. The tweet has since then been deleted.
In a premonitory tweet on Friday, which has also been deleted, Burry said, “Next we find our Worldcom. Patience.” Worldcom, which was once the second-largest, long-distance telephone company, was accused of fudging accounts to inflate earnings. When the accounting scandal came to light, it was forced to file for bankruptcy in July 2002.
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Chanos Slams VC Community: Jim Chanos shared the FDIC order taking possession of the bank, which said investors and depositors initiated withdrawals of $42 billion in deposits from SVB on Thursday.
“This is stunning. $42 billion was probably a quarter of their deposit base as of Wednesday night,” he said. In a separate tweet, he noted that public companies with uninsured deposits with the bank have to start making some “uncomfortable disclosures soon.”
Chanos also took exception to the VC community’s calls for the Fed to bail the bank out. While noting that the VC community started the run on Thursday by asking its portfolio companies to pull their deposits, he said they want the “taxpayer to bail out their investments.” “Capitalism, Silicon …
