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When Vincent Viola was introduced as the majority owner of the Florida Panthers, he brought with him a lot of promise. He has deep pockets and he said he was willing to use them and spend money on hockey in Florida, something that never really been the case for the franchise.
There's no indication that plan is going to change for Viola and the ownership group but it could be a situation worth monitoring.
Thanks to a new book from author Michael Lewis that focuses on the trading business on Wall Street, Virtu trading firm -- founded by Viola -- is drawing a bit more attention for the practices that have helped the company become so successful.
We won't pretend to know much (or anything at all) about the trading business so while it doesn't sound like Virtu was doing anything explicity illegal, the practices could still come under great attention and perhaps litigation awaits. From Business Insider:
The firm is touting its partnership with IEX, and CEO Brad Katsuyama said Virtu is one of the "good high-frequency traders."
But that doesn't change what Virtu itself wrote in its IPO prospectus:
"Regulatory and legal uncertainties could harm our business. These uncertainties could increase our costs and inhibit our plan to provide liquidity in new securities and other financial instruments as new regulations cause migration of certain products to electronic trading."
And this:
"We are subject to risks relating to litigation and potential securities law liability, which could increase our costs and negate any competitive advantage we have based on our low-cost structure."
Again, there is no telling if this would have any impact whatsoever on the Florida Panthers and whatever plans ownership has for the future of the organization. It's just something worth paying attention to moving forward.
