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American Morning
'New York Times': Ken Lay Selling All of Stock He Owned to Shore Up Other Investments
Aired January 21, 2002 - 07:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The American financial markets close today in observance of Martin Luther King Day, so Sasha Salama is not at the Nasdaq Marketsite, but rather one floor below where I'm sitting in the CNNfn studios, and looking fine on this Monday morning, if I may say so -- what's up kid?
SASHA SALAMA, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: Good morning to you. Happy Monday...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: ... and Martin Luther King Day.
CAFFERTY: So I read "The New York Times," and Ken Lay, this CEO for want of a...
SALAMA: Why do I feel like you wanted to say something else just now?
CAFFERTY: Well, because you know me pretty well, because we've worked together a long time. And I did, but I won't, because I'm trying to behave myself up here. You know, this place -- this is a much wider audience than we played to down there. Anyway, "The Times" says, according to his lawyer, that Lay was selling all of this stock that he owned in order to shore up other investments.
SALAMA: Right.
CAFFERTY: This according to his lawyer. Of course, the lawyer couldn't say what investments they were. He has no -- apparently, the lawyer has no clue. Now, if you were going to put your lawyer out front on this thing and say, go out there and tell them I was selling my stock to shore up my investments, wouldn't you at least tell him what the investments were before you had him out there talking for you?
SALAMA: You'd figure you would want him to have a little more beef...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: ... you know, in terms of where's the beef. But yes, apparently, they are saying that Lay didn't sell his stock, because he didn't have faith in Enron. He was selling it to repay some loans.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: So that's an interesting story. There was another interesting story about Enron in "The New York Times" that two -- at least two employees, according to "The Times" have been fired for putting negative comments on the Internet about Enron, and asking probing questions of Kenneth Lay, asking if the company was being overly aggressive in its accounting practices. Enron didn't comment, but some interesting tidbits coming out.
CAFFERTY: The other story is Fox may take a bath on the Super Bowl.
SALAMA: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Nobody takes a bath on the Super Bowl. What's up with that?
SALAMA: You know, February 3, they are still not sold out in terms of ads, and usually they're sold out a month ahead of time. So the ad market has been in a real slump, because of the recession, and this is one more piece of news here.
CAFFERTY: Interesting.
SALAMA: Yes, one-and-a-half million if you have that, you know, you could buy an ad.
CAFFERTY: I watched all of the playoff games over the weekend. Did you watch any of those?
SALAMA: No, but I watched the Golden Globes.
CAFFERTY: Yes, well, I missed those, but Pittsburgh and the Rams will be in the Super Bowl, and the Rams win by two touchdowns.
SALAMA: Apparently Baltimore was kind of embarrassing.
CAFFERTY: They were -- well, yes, they were terrible.
SALAMA: Yes.
CAFFERTY: I was thinking of another word there too, but they told me I can't say that one either. I got to run here, so I'll talk to you soon.
SALAMA: Great to see you.
CAFFERTY: All right. Tomorrow, you go back to work, because the markets will be open.
SALAMA: Yes, real work.
CAFFERTY: OK.
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