Wall Street stocks were set for a third positive session in a row as investors continued to take heart from Monday's upbeat housing data and a revised offer from JPMorgan for Bear Stearns Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:45 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc said on Tuesday its board has adopted a non-binding shareholder vote on executive pay beginning in 2009. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:44 pm
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd and Bank of China posted higher fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday, buoyed by the country's surging economy, but the state Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:40 pm
HBOS shares gain as much as 17% after it emerges management bought £6m worth of shares in the bank. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:34 pm
The head of Air France-KLM is prepared to improve an offer for financially-strapped Alitalia, press reports said on Monday before he met union leaders at the loss-making Italian carrier... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:33 pm
Bank of China reports a 31% rise in profit for 2007 despite $5bn in exposure to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:28 pm
U.S. stock futures ticked up Tuesday as investors looked to build on the previous session's advance and awaited reports on consumer confidence and home prices.
Global shares rise strongly, boosted by JP Morgan Chase raising its takeover bid for fellow US bank Bear Stearns. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:16 pm
For a brief moment this week, the housing crisis may take a back seat to another once hot-button economic issue: the financial health of Social Security.
The dollar reversed downwards on Tuesday after an overnight rally that had been sparked by hopes of an easing of the credit crunch, dealers said. In European trading, the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:05 pm
Oil prices consolidated on Tuesday but gold, base metals and agricultural commodities staged a recovery after last week's sell-off. Risk appetite appeared to have revived as equity markets rose following... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:05 pm
Buyer's remorse fills the New York International Auto Show at Manhattan's Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center this week. Owners of gas-hungry Sport Utility Vehicles, like Mildred Jimenez, an elementary school teacher from The Bronx, are eyeing hybrids, marveling at their mileage performance data.
Major Chinese lenders Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China posted record profits in 2007, as gains in interest income and fee-based businesses offset losses from the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:02 pm
Reuters - Stock futures pointed to a higher open
on Tuesday ahead of data that could show the housing crisis has
ebbed while financial shares may continue to benefit from a
raised buyout offer for Bear Stearns .
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday ahead of data that could show the housing crisis has ebbed while financial shares may continue to benefit from a raised buyout offer for Bear Stearns .
The central bank of Iceland unexpectedly raised its key interest rate to 15% from 13.75% to halt a slide in the krona and to curb price rises, prompting an immediate surge in the currency Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 pm
The improved takeover offer for Bear Stearns has been welcomed around the world, helping ease investors' fears about banks.
Stocks surged on Asian and European markets following Monday's rally on Wall Street. In Tokyo, the Nikkei closed up 2.2 percent, and Hong Kong ended up 6.4 percent. London was up nearly 4 percent at midday.
So what's not to like?
Richard Bove, a widely followed banking analyst with Punk Ziegel & Co. is calling J.P. Morgan Chase's new $10-per-share offer for Bear a "high-risk transaction," Reuters reports.
"What is most disturbing about this deal is that it uses a great deal of Morgan capital to buy a company that is losing market share, in a series of businesses that are declining in size, with a top management team that is best described as sclerotic," Bove wrote in a note to clients, according to Reuters.
"Every aspect of this transaction is likely to be tested in the courts with J.P. Morgan paying the bill all the way. This is not a lay-up at all."
Indeed, many expect that the deal will be decided in the Delaware courts. The biggest test will be over the revised deal's option for J.P. Morgan to buy 39.5 percent of Bear. The stake will make shareholder approval a foregone conclusion. But past Delaware court decisions have ruled against measures that are considered "coercive" and effectively deny shareholders a vote.
The Bear rescue, to be sure, was not your typical merger situation. Still, as Steven Davidoff, the Deal Professor on DealBook notes in a useful explainer of the issue, "When (not if) it is challenged in a Delaware court, Bear will have to give a compelling justification for its 39.5 percent grant to J.P. Morgan. But at this point, given the J.P. Morgan guarantee and merger, can they do so?"
And little has been heard yet from the big Bear shareholders who were vehemently opposed to the original $2-per-share offer.
Joe Lewis, the British Bahamas-based financier who bought a big stake in Bear last year, is at a golf tournament in Orlando, Florida, which he sponsors (and which his friend, Tiger Woods, unexpectedly lost). The Daily Telegraphreports that Lewis has been "locked in talks with his lawyers."
European equity markets rebounded strongly on Tuesday, with banking stocks leading the rally after JP Morgan's move to increase its offer for Bear Stearns lifted Wall Street and Asia. At midday, the FTSE... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:59 am
The trustees of Social Security and Medicare are certain to kick off a fierce round of debate when they release their annual assessment of the fiscal health of the government's two... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:57 am
Ford's sale of Land Rover and Jaguar to Tata, the Indian conglomerate, could
be finalised as soon as tomorrow and fetch upwards of $2 billion ($£1
billion). Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:57 am
U.S. stock futures turned higher on Tuesday, a session after a strong advance on hopes for a bottom to housing market-related woes, though there's data to come that could show consumer confidence on the wane and house prices falling further.
Shares in HBOS and other banks across Europe surged today, rebounding from last week's plunge, as JPMorgan's sweetened bid for Bear Stearns went some way to allievating the gloom surrounding the financial sector. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:30 am
Global Media, the private group headed by Charles Allen, the former ITV chief
executive, is seeking a week-long extension to a deadline to agree a £371
million takeover of GCap Media, Britain’s largest commercial radio group. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:26 am
The projected sale of the Jaguar and Land Rover vehicle lines by Ford Motor Co. to India’s burgeoning Tata Motors certainly appears to make a lot of sense.
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trading in Tuesday's session are Bear Stearns, Ford, General Growth Properties, Motorila, Phillips-Van Heusen and 3Com.
US regulators approve the merger of satellite radio firms Sirius and XM despite protests from consumers. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:16 am
The U.S. dollar fell Tuesday morning against other major currencies in European trading. Gold prices rose. The euro rose to $1.5570 from $1.5418 late Monday in New York. Other dollar Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:16 am
U.S. stocks headed for a moderately higher open Tuesday as investors awaited readings on consumer sentiment and housing. Investors overseas remained upbeat following the U.S. rallies... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:15 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures rose modestly on Tuesday, suggesting Wall Street may edge up in early trade as financial shares continue to benefit from a raised buyout offer for Bear... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:14 am
Reuters - India's Tata Motors Ltd
has closed a deal to buy Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land
Rover brands for $2.65 billion, news channel NDTV Profit said
on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Tata Motors Ltd has closed a deal to buy Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land Rover brands for $2.65 billion, news channel NDTV Profit said on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
Can Bear Stearns shareholders do even better? Hopes may be running high after Joseph Lewis, a major Bear Stearns shareholder, has squeezed a higher offer out of JPMorgan Chase.
Chinese lender Bank of China has reported its net profit rose 31 percent in 2007 despite nearly $5 billion in exposure to the U.S. mortgage lending crisis. The state-owned lender,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:05 am
Traders followed HBOS Chief Executive Andy Hornby’s lead in snapping up shares of the rumor-infested lender on Tuesday, part of a broad-based rally in U.K. equities after a four-day break.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) will admit tomorrow that it made
mistakes in its supervisory role of Northern Rock, the UK mortgage lender
that collapsed and was nationalised earlier this year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's revised takeover offer for Bear Stearns Cos Inc is a "high risk transaction," Punk Ziegel analyst Richard Bove said on Tuesday, a day after JPMorgan boosted its all-stock offer for Bear five-fold to about $10 a share.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's sovereign wealth fund has taken a stake in Visa Inc , according to a media report on Tuesday, dipping its toe back into the market as Beijing agonizes over whether to be more aggressive in its overseas investments.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thornburg Mortgage Inc , which is scrambling to raise nearly $1 billion this week to avoid bankruptcy, said it has changed its by-laws to allow a single investor to buy up to $300 million of stock.
There is no need to restrict sovereign wealth funds provided they are motivated by profit, the OECD says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:50 am
Reuters - China's sovereign wealth fund has taken
a stake in Visa Inc , according to a media report on
Tuesday, dipping its toe back into the market as Beijing
agonizes over whether to be more aggressive in its overseas
investments.
Reuters - Capstead Mortgage Corp said on
Tuesday that it expected to have sufficient liquidity to manage
its $7.3 billion portfolio absent any significant drop in
financing availability, but it would take a $1.5 million
first-quarter loss from a recent sale of $760 million of debt. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:41 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Capstead Mortgage Corp said on Tuesday that it expected to have sufficient liquidity to manage its $7.3 billion portfolio absent any significant drop in financing availability, but it would take a $1.5 million first-quarter loss from a recent sale of $760 million of debt.
London shares were trading sharply higher on Tuesday morning as global equities markets rallied strongly following the long Easter break.Financial stocks led the gainers on the FTSE 100 as the index responded... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:38 am
South African oil firm Sasol details the Black Economic Empowerment sale of a 10% stake in the business. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:31 am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Valero Energy Corp. moves into the energy spotlight on Tuesday, likely to trade weaker after the gasoline producer said it would miss its first-quarter earnings target because of rising prices for raw materials and unexpected costs incurred at its refineries.
Employers' organisation the CBI says the UK economy will grow more slowly than predicted in 2008. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:23 am
Asian equities surges on Tuesday as upbeat sentiment from Wall Street flowed into the region after JP Morgan put in a sweetened offer for Bear Stearns and better-than-expected US housing data welcomed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 10:08 am
Oil prices fall to just above $100 a barrel, as the dollar's recent gains calm investor enthusiasm for crude. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 9:55 am
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bank of China , the country's flagship foreign exchange lender, posted a 31 percent rise in 2007 profit amid a booming mainland economy, but it booked a $1.3 billion allowance to cover potential losses on its U.S. subprime-related securities.
Markets are up this morning after yesterday’s rally in the US and Far East. Notwithstanding this morning, the performance of the UK’s premier index has been something of a disappointment in recent days as we eye the 800+ point bounce in the Dow and today’s 1000 point push in the Hang Seng Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 9:40 am
Markets are up this morning after yesterdays rally in the US and Far East. Notwithstanding this morning, the performance of the UKs premier index has been something of a disappointment in recent days as... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 9:40 am
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German engineering group Siemens is planning to shake up its national entities and reorganize international operations into 20 regional centers, a German daily newspaper reported.
France's CMA CGM, the world number three container shipping line, is set to reap some of the benefit of high ship prices after it sold a two-thirds stake in a leasing subsidiary in a transaction valuing... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 9:08 am
Carl Icahn rejected an offer of two board seats from Motorola Inc. yesterday, hours after he sued the telecommunications-equipment company for refusing to hand over internal documents on possible boardroom... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
Electronic Arts' senior management team is in transition at a time when the videogame publisher is seriously pursuing its rival, Take-Two Interactive. EA announced yesterday that chief financial officer,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
BlackRock boss Larry Fink may want to thank the Federal Reserve for handing him a fistful of new business yesterday. As part of JPMorgan's sweetened takeover bid for beleaguered brokerage giant Bear Stearns,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
Steven Madden Ltd., the maker of women's shoes, said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamieson Karson resigned to "pursue other opportunities." Edward Rosenfeld, executive vice president of strategic... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
House sellers are refusing to face up to the reality of the credit crunch by putting their homes on the market at unrealistically high prices, according to the latest survey from Rightmove. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:20 am
Airports operator BAA, which is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, sells a portfolio of 33 properties for £265m. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:14 am
Banking shares led a near 200-point surge by the FTSE 100 in the opening
minutes this morning as Barclays and HBOS recovered from their lowest
ratings for about five years. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:13 am
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Executives at Air China and Shanghai Airlines said on Tuesday that the companies had no intention of forming an equity tie-up, denying speculation that has boosted their shares.
Uniq, one of Marks & Spencer’s biggest food suppliers, blamed spiralling
raw material costs today as it axed the final dividend and said that its
turnaround programme was running behind schedule. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:08 am
Reuters - The seemingly unstoppable profit machine
that is the Japanese auto industry is about to come to a
grinding halt. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 7:29 am
Major shareholder Carl Icahn is suing Motorola to force it to release details about its struggling handset unit. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Mar 2008 | 7:26 am
Yusuf Raza Gilani was sworn in as Pakistan prime minister by President Pervez Musharraf, a day after being elected and announcing his intention to release all judges arrested on Mr Musharraf's orders Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Mar 2008 | 7:19 am
Employers may coordinate with Medicare on healthcare provisions for seniors. An AARP legal challenge is turned away.
The Supreme Court on Monday gave employers a green light to reduce health benefits for millions of retirees who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. The justices turned away a legal challenge from AARP, the nation's leading senior citizens lobby, which had contended these lower benefits for older retirees violated the federal law against age discrimination.
Some doubt the $4-billion project will be built, but backers dream of dominating West Coast cargo traffic.
Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in the nation's history, a $4-billion seaport that could transform this farming village into a cargo hub to rival the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The pharmaceutical industry says its needs more time to gear up for a novel state plan to fight counterfeiting.
News of as many as 19 deaths in the United States linked to contaminated blood thinner heparin from China has generated new concerns about how to keep bad drugs from finding their way into the marketplace.
Wall Street gets its first broad, back-to-back gains in almost a month.
A flurry of upbeat news lifted stocks Monday, giving Wall Street its first broad, back-to-back gains in almost a month and raising more hopes that the worst could be over for shellshocked investors.
JPMorgan will pay $10 a share and assume more risk in the Fed-engineered rescue to address the concerns of investors and trading partners.
Hoping to quickly seal its government-backed takeover of struggling brokerage Bear Stearns Cos., banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday said it would pay five times its original offering price for the firm and shift $1 billion of risk in the deal from the Federal Reserve's shoulders to its own.
Federal prosecutors name 19 suspects in a nationwide scam that left strapped homeowners without title to their houses or without the equity they had built up.
Federal prosecutors Monday charged 19 individuals, mainly from Southern California, with defrauding homeowners in trouble partly by using "foreclosure rescue pitches" and an equity-draining technique called equity stripping.
Reuters - Thornburg Mortgage Inc , which
is scrambling to raise nearly $1 billion this week to avoid
bankruptcy, said it has changed its by-laws to allow a single
investor to buy up to $300 million of stock.
Buyers snapped up the New Zealand dollar as equity markets recovered from a five-week low touched early in the Easter break.
It closed on US80.15c from around US78.70c on Friday.
Although it lost ground to the aussie today,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 5:15 am
The Government and Toll have moved closer to agreeing on a price for the purchase of Toll's rail and ferry business, Finance Minister Michael Cullen says.
Dr Cullen confirmed a fortnight ago the Government had made an offer for... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 4:44 am
Growth in credit card spending picked up a little last month, with the biggest increase in spending on overseas cards.
Billings on all credit cards in February rose 0.7 per cent on January, seasonally adjusted, to be up 8.1 per... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 4:40 am
The Blue Chip liquidators are urging investors to get to tomorrow's creditors' meetings early.
Liquidators for 20 failed Blue Chip-related companies are holding meetings in two sittings at Auckland's Ellerslie Events Centre.
The... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 3:27 am
South Korea's soldiers will be asked to make do with one bath a week, while air force pilots will have to do more training on computers instead of real fighters, as record oil prices force the country to slash its fuel usage Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Mar 2008 | 2:20 am
Mortgage brokers and real estate agents who rely on commissions will be hit hard by the sharp slowdown in the number of houses sold in recent months, says Kiwibank chief executive Sam Knowles.
Even banks who have developed large... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) today confirmed the final level of acceptances in their Auckland Airport offer.
Ultimately they secured a 'yes' for 63.5 per cent of ordinary AIAL shares.
If the offer gets government... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
The international aid effort in Afghanistan is in large part 'wasteful and ineffective', with as much as 40 per cent of funds spent going back to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries, Kabul-based charities will say Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Mar 2008 | 1:18 am
New Zealand casino operator Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd is probably off the takeover radar and can now look to a revival and expansion, the new chief executive said today.
Nigel Morrison, in the job for three weeks, said turbulent... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 1:00 am
AMP is warning shareholders not to accept unsolicited offers to buy their shares at prices significantly below their current market value.
Spokeswoman Jane Anderson says AMP is not involved or associated with a group calling itself... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:30 am
Slumping stock markets since the start of the year have added almost £40bn to corporate Britain's collective pensions deficit. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Investment bank Goldman Sachs is in talks to buy a significant stake in Trafalgar Asset Managers, one of London's top hedge funds Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Bear raids happen. It is a fact of life in the markets, but for some reason the recent "rumour"-fuelled attack on HBOS seems to have struck a nerve and has led to reams of journalistic copy which has been churned out in varying levels of misinformation. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Kate Swann, chief executive of high street newsagent WH Smith, secured a maximum bonus payout of £2.45m only after removing the staff's long-standing pension benefits. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
HBOS led a rally in the banking sector this morning after its shares soared as much as 17pc, helped by the news that its chief executive Andy Hornby had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on shares in the high street lender in the days surrounding last week's share price plunge.. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Virgin Atlantic has started talks with aircraft manufacturer Boeing over compensation for the late delivery of its problematic 787 Dreamliner planes. Source: Telegraph Business | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Two-year fixed-rate mortgage deals are losing popularity as the rising cost of
mortgages means that even the most creditworthy of borrowers will have to
pay thousands extra to renew. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
The age of the superjumbo is upon us and it landed at Heathrow last week.
Those plane-spotters who turned out to see the arrival of the first
Singapore Airlines A380 in London on Tuesday may have been adding a very big
tick in a must-see box, but they were also witnessing a watershed moment in
aviation. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
JPMorgan Chase caved in to pressure from shareholders in Bear Stearns,
including Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, and agreed yesterday to raise
its offer for the stricken investment bank to about $1.4 billion ($£705
million), roughly five times its original bid. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
World rice supplies are reaching dangerously tight levels as stores of South
Asia's staple food fall to 25-year lows and governments strive to stabilise
domestic markets. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
The economic slowdown is set to be more prolonged than anticipated and will
prompt recession-like conditions, the CBI, Britain's biggest employers'
organisation, believes. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Freightways said today it had agreed to buy Momentum Management, trading as Now Couriers, for $7.5 million plus a buyout of up to $3.5m over two years.
Now operates a package delivery business in the metropolitan Auckland market... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Mar 2008 | 11:30 pm
Some local charities will be urging you to give them a moment's thought when next buying salad dressing at the supermarket.
Movie star Paul Newman's 2008 charity campaign will see NZ$100,000 donated to New Zealand charities.
The... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Mar 2008 | 11:05 pm
The proposed merger between XM and Sirius, the two leading satellite radio companies in the US, was approved by antitrust authorities who said the deal would not lessen competition and was not likely to harm consumers Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Mar 2008 | 10:56 pm
3i, the former powerhouse of Europe's venture capital industry, is abandoning early-stage investing in start-up companies, its worst-performing activity since the technology bubble burst Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Mar 2008 | 10:10 pm
Fiat is talking to Detroit's carmakers about sharing production of Alfa Romeos in the US as part of a three-pronged assault on the world's largest market for vehicles Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Mar 2008 | 10:10 pm
The US must reinvest in its ageing, overused transportation networks or risk losing ground to the world's other leading economies, United Parcel Service's chief executive said Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Mar 2008 | 10:10 pm
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's incoming president, warned that granting Nato membership to the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia could threaten European security Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Mar 2008 | 10:05 pm
Reuters - Rallying financial issues helped pull
the Toronto Stock Exchange's main index strongly higher on
Monday, amid increased confidence in the value of bank stocks
and a rush of bargain-hunting.
AP - Tiffany & Co. on Monday said its fourth-quarter earnings fell almost 16 percent, hurt by one-time charges, but its adjusted results beat analyst expectations and the jewelry retailer raised its outlook for this year. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:51 pm
The Chinese government routinely blocks Internet content. Today, it's what the government doesn't censor that has human rights activists accusing American companies of complicity in human rights abuses. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:05 pm
The tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan has changed from an absolute monarchy to the world's newest democracy and reformed its economy. Do the Bhutanese know what they're in for? Marketplace's Lisa Napoli tells the story of playing host to a Bhutanese visitor to Los Angeles. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:05 pm
Women outspend men by more than $14 billion on technology products, a study found. Kevin Pereira from G4's "Attack of the Show" talks with Kai Ryssdal about some of the gadgets being marketed to women and why. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:05 pm
Commentator and high school junior Morrisa Brenner is taking tests and filling out applications to get into college. In the process, she's learned that colleges are selling themselves just as much as prospective students. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:05 pm
Some former executives of the fallen mortgage lender Countrywide are starting a new company to invest in troubled mortgages. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:05 pm
As the banking crisis continues to unfold on Wall Street, a lot of fingers are pointing at Washington and asking what happened to the people who're supposed to keep an eye on the market. Jeremy Hobson reports. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:04 pm
If $2 a share in the JPMorgan-Bear Stearns deal engineered by the Fed wasn't enough for stockholders, will $10 a share satisfy them? And is this now officially a bailout with a capital B? Kai Ryssdal takes a look with Marketplace's Bob Moon. Source: Marketplace | 24 Mar 2008 | 8:04 pm
The two are not just the leading satellite-radio providers, they are the only satellite-radio providers.
But Bush administration regulators have rarely seen a merger they didn't like, and the Justice Department said today that a merger was not "likely to substantially lessen competition."
"The evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite-radio customers for several reasons, including: a lack of competition between the parties in important segments, even without the merger; the competitive alternative services available to consumers; technological change that is expected to make those alternatives increasingly attractive over time; and efficiencies likely to flow from the transaction that could benefit consumers," the Justice Department said.
The Federal Communications Commission must still approve the deal. While the commission may impose a number of conditions, it is not expected to go against the Justice Department and try to block the deal.
While the combined company would have a monopoly in satellite, radio is very fragmented, with internet radio providing competition to conventional broadcasting.
Sirius, known for having Howard Stern on its roster, has 7.7 million subscribers, while XM, whose programming includes Oprah & Friends, has 8.6 million.
The two companies have been bleeding billions of dollars. Shares surged this afternoon on hope that a combined company could become profitable.
Reuters - Regional U.S. banks will be allowed
to temporarily boost holdings of mortgage-backed securities by
some $150 billion in another bid by regulators to bring
stability to troubled mortgage markets.
Listening to Google's conference call about its plan to use the "white space" spectrum soon to be freed up by the switch to digital television to offer inexpensive broadband access in urban and rural areas across the country this morning, I picked up some information of particular interest to music fans.
According to Rick Whitt, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, consumers could have access to white space devices running Android applications as early as the 2009 holiday season.
The FCC has yet to approve the plan, and there are plenty of opponents (broadcasters, ISPs, and possibly otheres) who will mount a formidable resistance. But if Google and its partners succeed in convincing the FCC to open up unused spectrum for an inexpensive mobile broadband network, music services will certainly spring up to take advantage of it.
According to Google, the network would provide access at multiple gigabytes/second -- more than enough to handle even the highest-quality music streams.
Two years ago, Biovail, the Canadian pharmaceutical company, waged a noisy public and legal campaign against hedge funds that it accused of making false claims. It filed a racketeering lawsuit against some prominent hedge funds, and appeared on 60 Minutes to rail against them. Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission is confirming the main claims.
The commission has accused the company and four current and former executives of "engaging in a number of fraudulent accounting schemes and making a series of misstatements to analysts and investors."
Biovail will pay $10 million to settle the allegations without admitting or denying wrongdoing. The complaint will proceed against the four executives: its former chairman and C.E.O. Eugene Melnyk; former chief financial officer Brian Crombie; current controller John Miszuk; and current C.F.O. Kenneth G. Howling.
The S.E.C. complaint contends that there were three accounting schemes from 2001 to 2003, involving shifting expenses, misstated foreign-exchange losses, and improperly recognizing revenue.
Short-sellers' suspicions about Biovail reached new heights in October 2003, after the company claimed that its failure to meet its quarterly earnings guidance was chiefly the result of a truck accident. The truck, the company said at the time, was "carrying a material shipment of Wellbutrin XL," an antidepressant, when it was involved in a pile-up near Chicago. Biovail said some $10 million to $20 million in revenue was involved in that truck shipment.
The S.E.C. says that "the accident, in fact, had no effect on third-quarter earnings."
Canadian securities regulators are also investigating the company's accounting.
In the case of Melnyk, who owns the Ottawa Senators, the investigations point to another trend in recent years: N.H.L. owners involved in accounting scandals. There has already been John Rigas, former owner of the Buffalo Sabres, and Sanjay Kumar, former owner of the New York Islanders.
It's official: 2007 was the best year yet for the nation's largest law firms. The top 50 U.S. firms generated a total of $46.6 billion in revenue in 2007, a 16 percent increase over the 2006 total of $40.3 billion, according to this week's issue of the Lawyer, a British trade paper.
Three firms had more than $2 billion in annual revenue—a first for each of them. DLA Piper, the product of a 2005 merger among three firms—DLA of Britain and two U.S. firms—topped the list from the Lawyer, with $2.3 billion in revenue, followed by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, with $2.002 billion and Latham & Watkins, with $2 billion.
At the same time, however, there are signs that business overall will slow. Some firms have already announced layoffs of associates. Business will be lost as a result of the takeover of Bear Stearns and will decline further if more funds close their doors.
It's indicative of the time warp in law firm profits. Law firms "don't feel it until anywhere from two to three months down the road," says Ward Bower of Altman Weil, the law firm management consulting group. Bower says he has spoken with the managing partners or chairmen of a number of the firms on the top 50 list, who have said their revenues have been down 10 to 15 percent in the first two months of 2008.
The $2 billion club is a watershed. "Historically, law firms of that size would have been unimaginable." The main driver is law firm mergers and consolidations. Bower calls DLA Piper a classic example of the phenomenon. "Through merger, they have surpassed the traditional leader, Skadden Arps," Bower says.
The Lawyer, which opened a New York office last year, is heating up the competition with American Lawyer Media, which was purchased last July by Incisive Media, a company that owns Legal Week, another British trade. This top 50 list beats the American Lawyer's 100 list to the punch by two months. The AmLaw 100, the most anticipated and well-read issue of the monthly magazine, comes out in May.
The lawyers themselves tend to obsess over profits per equity partner, rather than gross revenues. Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz of New York has topped the list for many years. And the top 50 list compiled by the Lawyer confirms Wachtell's top-dog position once again. Wachtell's profits per equity partner were $4.48 million, followed by Cravath Swaine & Moore with $3.3 million, and Sullivan & Cromwell with $3.13 million.
The average profits per equity partner among the top 50 firms was $1.72 million, up 11 percent from $1.44 million in 2006. There were some losers: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft posted the highest fall in profits per equity partner, according to the Lawyer. Cadwalader, a key law firm for Bear Stearns, had a big practice in mortgage-backed securities and has been hit hard by the subprime crisis, already announcing associate layoffs. Its profits per equity partner in 2006 was $2.72 million, down 6.2 percent from 2006.
The biggest loser was San Francisco-based Heller Ehrman, which dropped off the top 50 list altogether.
As the economy slows and goes into a recession, Bower predicts "second-tier firms will feel this more. There will be fewer deals, but they will tend to gravitate to the top firms that are perceived to have the best reputations."
What's Bear Stearns worth? It's ultimately the responsibility of its board of directors to determine the best price its shareholders can get, and, as evidenced by the events of the past 10 days, they don't have much of a clue.
Today, the board agreed to sell Bear Stearns for five times that amount, and it signed off on the sale of 39.5 percent of the firm without shareholder approval. James Cayne, the chairman of the board, reportedly joined forces last week with some of Bear's largest shareholders to find a better offer than the very one he had agreed to just days earlier.
Bear Stearns' fate may still be uncertain, and questions about just how this deal was orchestrated will remain unanswered for some time. Lawsuits will be filed, jobs will be lost, and money will be made when all is said and done.
The directors of Bear will likely be long forgotten by then, which isn't surprising considering the low profile they've maintained even at the center of this high-profile affair.
Just who is behind the upheaval of Bear? For starters, "diverse" might not be a word used to describe the makeup of the 12 seats on its board. No women, only one minority, and no one under the age of 56 had a say in the Bear sale. Below is a snapshot of the players:
Alan Schwartz, 56 Schwartz became chief executive of Bear in January, when the embattled James Cayne stepped aside to focus on his bridge and golf games. Schwartz has been in the eye of the storm ever since.
Alan Greenberg, 79 "Ace" Greenberg was chief executive of Bear from 1978 to 1993 and chairman of its board from 1985 to 2001. Of all of the Bear directors, the sale may have been hardest for Greenberg, who spent his entire career there, starting in 1949. He also serves on Viacom's board.
James Cayne, 72 Cayne's downfall last year was precipitated by the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds at the start of the credit crisis. No executive could have survived the media spotlight on the many hours at the bridge table, on the golf course, and in bathroom stalls smoking joints. Cayne was no exception.
Henry Bienen, 67 Bienen has served as president of Northwestern University since 1995 and has served on Bear's board since 2004. Carl Glickman, 80 Glickman is described by Bear Stearns as a "private investor," and he's served on the board since 1985. He started a real estate development firm called the Glickman Organization in 1953, and he serves on the board of the Lexington Corporate Properties Trust.
Michael Goldstein, 65 Goldstein stepped down from his post as chief executive of Toys R Us in 2001, and he joined the board of Bear Stearns in January 2007. He serves on the boards of five other public companies, including Martha Stewart Omnimedia and Medco Health Solutions.
Donald Harrington, 61 Few people probably know that the Bear directors had a priest in the house, ready to administer the last rites upon the death of the bank. Donald Harrington has been a board member since 1993 and has been president of St. John's University since 1989. Frank Nickell, 59 Nickell runs Kelso & Co., a private equity firm. He's been on Bear's board since 1993.
Paul Novelly, 63 Novelly is the chairman and chief executive of Apex Oil Company, which stores and transports petroleum products. He's occupied a seat on Bear's board since 2002.
Frederic Salerno, 63 Formerly the chief executive of Verizon Communications, Salerno is a professional corporate board member. He sits on the boards of six public companies, including Bear Stearns, where he's been since 1992.
Vincent Tese, 63 Tese is also making a comfortable living as a professional board member. He sits on the boards of six public companies and serves as the chairman of Wireless Cable International, a privately held developer of cable television systems. He's served on Bear's board since 1994. Wesley Williams, 64 Williams was a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling until his retirement in 2005. He currently serves as co-C.E.O. and co-chairman of the Caribbean-focused financial conglomerate Lockhart Companies. He's also the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He's been on Bear's board since 2004. Related Links Another Victim of the Bear Collapse: Jimmy Cayne's Family Foundation Cayne Out, Journal Says Bear After Cayne
The harshest criticism of the Federal Reserve is that it is irrelevant: too small, too slow, and too old-fashioned to have any meaningful impact on the fast-changing, complex colossus that is global finance.
Just a week ago, the Fed seemed intent on disproving its critics, standing center stage in the emergency takeover of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase and preventing what would have been a huge flameout that could have sparked market contagion around the world.
As economist Nouriel Roubini has put it: "The response of the Fed to this banklike runs on nonbank institutions has been the most radical change in monetary policy and lender of last resort support by the Fed since the Great Depression."
So the news that J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns have quickly renegotiated their deal appears to have pushed the Fed right back into the role of a bit player.
For the revised deal, unlike the first one, was clearly driven by J.P. Morgan, not by federal officials. The revision, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times, is intended to mollify shareholders angry at the $2-per-share fire-sale price and to correct an apparent mistake in the original agreement, which would have required J.P. Morgan to guarantee Bear's trades even in the event the takeover was rejected by shareholders.
So J.P. Morgan's liability has now been addressed. And the taxpayers'? Oh, yeah, the Fed is now on the hook for just $29 billion of Bear's debt, not $30 billion as in the original deal.
And should Bear shareholders get anything at all, much less a fivefold sweetener, if the firm was on the brink of bankruptcy?
As Roger Ehrenberg noted on the Information Arbitrage blog, were it not for the Fed's intervention, Bear's equity "was worth precisely zero at that time."
Now that the Fed has signed off on the revised deal, he argues, "if I'm a shareholder and am feeling enlivened and validated by the Fed's behavior, why not hold out for more? I mean, the Fed is apparently in the dealmaking business; why not try and cut yet a better deal?"
If the revised deal is the best possible solution to preventing a messy collapse, then why are not Treasury and Fed official speaking out and making that case? Even the normally press-shy Joseph Lewis is having greater success in getting his message out.
Perhaps there is still some sparkle left, even in a recession.
Tiffany & Co. today reported a 16 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings, but the results exceeded analysts' forecasts.
The company took a big hit from loans it made to a diamond company, Tahera Diamond Corp., that filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Excluding one-time charges, Tiffany earned $1.27 per share.
Sales rose nearly 10 percent, to $1 billion. The weak dollar continues to help Tiffany, as international sales rose 21 percent.
In January, Tiffany lowered its outlook for the year, after reporting that holiday sales at U.S. stores open at least a year fell 2 percent.
For the quarter, the retailer said U.S. same-store sales fell 1 percent. U.S. retail sales overall rose 4 percent, thanks to "higher spending per transaction," the company said.
Tiffany's chief executive, Michael J. Kowalski, had some guarded optimism for the luxury sales sector, which is increasingly dependent on the new rich in emerging economies like China, Russia, and India.
"In 2008, we expect to see robust growth in our non-U.S. markets other than Japan, and are experiencing such performance in the quarter-to-date," he said. "We remain cautious about the U.S., although comparable store sales are currently increasing slightly."
J.P. Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns have agreed on a revised deal that would give Bear shareholders $10 of J.P. Morgan's stock, up from $2 in the original emergency takeover.
The revised offer will intensify the debate over the federal government's role in the rescue and may also give a boost to shareholders trying to stop the deal.
Under the deal announced today, the involvement of the Federal Reserve has also changed. J.P. Morgan will now bear the first $1 billion of any losses on Bear's debt portfolio, while the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will finance the remaining $29 billion. Under the earlier deal, struck on March 16, the Fed backstopped $30 billion of Bear's debt.
J.P. Morgan and Bear have also agreed to allow J.P. Morgan to buy 39.5 percent of Bear, a stake that should ensure that the revised deal gets approved.
"We believe the amended terms are fair to all sides and reflect the value and risks of the Bear Stearns franchise and bring more certainty for our respective shareholders, clients, and the marketplace," Jamie Dimon, chief executive of J.P. Morgan, said.
Shares of Bear surged 80 percent after the revised offer was announced, trading above $10.
At $10 per share, Bear would be valued at $1 billion. That's a quarter of what it was valued on the Friday before its rescue and less than a tenth of what it was worth last fall.
On March 14, however, Bear Stearns was facing bankruptcy. That bleak prospect and the apparent lack of any other possible bidders appeared to seal the $2-per-share offer as the only alternative for the firm.
What reopened the negotiations, reports Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times, who broke news of the talks, was a mistake: a sentence in the takeover agreement that would require J.P. Morgan to guarantee Bear's trades even if shareholders voted down the deal.
"That provision could allow Bear's shareholders to seek a higher bid while still forcing J.P. Morgan to honor its guarantee," Sorkin says.
Dimon was said to be "apoplectic" when the error was discovered, according to the Times.
A renegotiated merger will put further scrutiny on the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, which helped secure the original deal.
Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism says that a higher offer from J.P. Morgan "makes the Fed look like a chump to have agreed to the initial backstop."
And indeed Treasury officials have been vocal in denying that the Fed action amounted to a bailout, pointing to the huge hit being taken by Bear shareholders.
Henry Blodget on Silicon Alley Insider says that "when the Fed caves" to the revised deal, "it will come under a new round of fire for saving Wall Street fat cats at the expense of the little guy. And the nation's homeowners, who are also underwater, will clamor ever louder for their own bailout. And so on..."
On CNBC this morning, the multiplatform Sorkin said that conversations with government officials indicated that they were not opposed to a renegotiated price.
But opening up the deal will certainly provide aid and comfort to big shareholders like Bahamas-based investor Joe Lewis, fund giant Legg Mason, and some Bear employees, who seem determined to stop the takeover even if it means liquidation.
Reuters - Stock futures pointed to a higher open
on Tuesday ahead of data that could show the housing crisis has
ebbed while financial shares may continue to benefit from a
raised buyout offer for Bear Stearns .
Reuters - India's Tata Motors Ltd
has closed a deal to buy Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land
Rover brands for $2.65 billion, news channel NDTV Profit said
on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
Reuters - China's sovereign wealth fund has taken
a stake in Visa Inc , according to a media report on
Tuesday, dipping its toe back into the market as Beijing
agonizes over whether to be more aggressive in its overseas
investments.
Reuters - Thornburg Mortgage Inc , which
is scrambling to raise nearly $1 billion this week to avoid
bankruptcy, said it has changed its by-laws to allow a single
investor to buy up to $300 million of stock.
Reuters - Rallying financial issues helped pull
the Toronto Stock Exchange's main index strongly higher on
Monday, amid increased confidence in the value of bank stocks
and a rush of bargain-hunting.
Reuters - Regional U.S. banks will be allowed
to temporarily boost holdings of mortgage-backed securities by
some $150 billion in another bid by regulators to bring
stability to troubled mortgage markets.