, Columnists
Talk Is Cheap. Unless You're a UBS Banker
With 100-hour work weeks and 24/7 connectivity, it’s nearly impossible to avoid working in public spaces. Beware your eavesdropping neighbor.
Ohmigod! You’ll never believe it.
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Careless talk costs dollars.
That’s the lesson from a case heard last week by one of France’s financial regulators. Lazard Ltd. dealmaker Vincent Le Stradic spent two and a half hours aboard a Eurostar train from London to Paris in 2014 working on a $15 billion takeover bid by Iliad SA for T-Mobile US Inc. He was oblivious to the fact that the casually dressed man sitting next to him was Alexandre Zaluski, a UBS Group AG banker, who passed the information to a colleague, ultimately resulting in the bank pitching to Iliad to help finance the deal.