Point72 Asset Management, L.P., is an American hedge fund. SAC Capital Advisors was founded in 1992 and converted its investment operations to the Point72 Asset Management family office in 2014. In 2018, the firm reopened to external investors after a two-year ban and began accepting outside capital. As of 2019, Point72 employs approximately 1,400 people. Point72 has its main office in Stamford, Connecticut, and there are several satellite offices around the world.
History
2014 S.A.C. Capital converts to Point72
Point72 was founded in 2014 as the successor to S.A.C. Capital, after the firm pleaded guilty to federal insider trading charges and paid a $1.8 billion fine. In March 2014, S.A.C. Capital transferred the bulk of its assets to Point72 and was placed in "run-off," or a winding down of its operations. During this transition, Point72 launched a program a firm spokesperson referred to in a Wall Street Journal article as "the first phase of its transformation and renewal." In the wake of the government's criticism of S.A.C.'s compliance program, Point72 enacted a series of reforms to bolster internal compliance. Former federal prosecutor Vincent Tortorella was hired to fill a newly created role of chief surveillance officer, and former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, Kevin J. O’Connor, was hired to serve as Chief Counsel. A specialized surveillance unit, composed of ex-CIA, FBI and SEC investigators, was created to emphasize the need for compliance by traders, and in 2014, the firm retained Palantir Technologies, Inc., a Central Intelligence Agency-backed software maker to provide a new tool for compliance and surveillance. During this time, Point72 adopted other software programs designed to bolster internal compliance. In August 2014, founder Steven Cohen replaced many of the management personnel who had operated S.A.C. Among the changes, he named a new president of Point72, Douglas D. Haynes, and a new chief operating officer, former IBM executive Timothy Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy retired in 2018 and was replaced by Gavin O'Connor, who joined the firm from Goldman Sachs. In 2015, the firm launched the Point72 Academy, an internship program to train new employees according to its mission and values. Point72 describes the program as an effort to build a stronger internal culture. There are satellite offices in New York City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Paris, Sydney, and Palo Alto.
Business Lines
Point72 & EverPoint
The firm's long/short investment divisions are Point72 Asset Management and EverPoint Asset Management. EverPoint Asset Management headquartered in New York operates a stock trading portfolio. Point72 folded its big data unit into its Market Intelligence team in 2018. In 2018 Point72 had 125 portfolio managers and around 1,000 employees.
Point72 Ventures
In 2016, Steve Cohen established Point72 Ventures, a venture capital fund that makes early-stage investments in Asia, Europe, Central America, and the United States. Point72 Ventures now invests in fintech, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cyber-security and core-enterprise companies. Matthew Granade, the head of Point72’s Market Intelligence unit and a former co-head of research at Bridgewater Associates, is the Managing Partner at Point72 Ventures. As of 2019, the fund is composed of about 15 employees, and its investments typically range from $500,000 to $15 million. Pete Casella leads Point72 Ventures-Fintech, Dan Gwak and Sri Chandrasekar lead Point72 Ventures-AI, and David Dubick and Noah Carr lead Ventures’ third sleeve, Point72 Ventures-Core Enterprise.
Cubist Systematic Strategies
Cubist Systematic Strategies is its quantitative investing business. The name was chosen as a reference to cubist art; the New York Times reported that "Cohen is a well-known art collector".
Legal
The New York Times reported that Point72 President Douglas D. Haynes who was hired as managing director for human capital and then became President resigned in March 2018 "amid gender bias lawsuit" and was replaced as president by Cohen.
