Shares of Sprint Nextel Corp. rise in premarket trading Monday morning after a report that the German phone giant Deutsche Telekom AG might be interested in acquiring the No. 3 wireless carrier in the U.S.
Reuters - Stocks looked set to open lower on
Monday after Microsoft Corp dropped its bid for Yahoo
Inc , clouding the outlook for mergers and acquisitions
and sending Yahoo shares down more than 21 percent.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks looked set to open lower on Monday after Microsoft Corp dropped its bid for Yahoo Inc , clouding the outlook for mergers and acquisitions and sending Yahoo shares down more than 21 percent.
The dollar's recent rally ran into headwinds Monday as traders weighed the widening gap between the U.S. central bank's lending rates and other rates around the globe.
U.S. stock futures tick lower, with shares of Yahoo expected to drop after Microsoft withdrew its offer for the Internet portal. M&A spotlight's also on Sprint Nextel as possible buyout candidate.
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - Soaring food prices are helping to push up inflation all around the world, central bankers said on Monday, urging more market competition and free trade to even out prices.
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Monday's session are Alvarion, Bakers Footwear, Berkshire Hathaway, Hovnanian, Marvel Entertainment, Maui Land, Microsoft, Partner, Sprint Nextel and Yahoo.
Sen. Barack Obama manages a close victory in the Guam Democratic Party caucus Saturday, besting rival Sen. Hillary Clinton by a margin of seven votes, or less than one percentage point.
Advertising firm WPP will consider moving its London headquarters abroad if certain tax changes go ahead. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 12:49 pm
Shares in Airbus parent EADS fall on reports that A380 superjumbo deliveries could be delayed further. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 12:48 pm
The head of the Asian Development Bank called on Monday for an "immediate response" to soaring food prices which he said threatened more than a billion Asians with a risk of malnutrition. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 12:46 pm
Wall Street stocks were set for a lower start on Monday, after software giant Microsoft withdrew its improved $46.5bn bid for Yahoo, sending shares in the internet search company tumbling Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 May 2008 | 12:45 pm
Ryanair increases its check-in charges to £4 per passenger and £8 per bag, the second increase this year. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 12:39 pm
Yahoo shares plunge in trading in Frankfurt after Microsoft drops its bid for the internet firm. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 12:38 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Sprint Nextel Corp rose 6.5 percent in pre-market trading on Monday after a German magazine reported that Deutsche Telekom AG is looking at possibly buying the No. 3 U.S. mobile operator.
The Philippines government fails to buy rice to replenish stocks after its tender attracts only one bidder. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 12:33 pm
Roughly 75% of the workers at the American Stock Exchange could lose their jobs after the exchange is acquired by NYSE Euronext, according to a published report Monday.
Government officials have stepped up an investigation into whether crimes were committed when the subprime mortgage market collapsed.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors have formed a task force, report Lynnley Browning of the New York Times and Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal.
This new effort is apparently broader in scope than a task force formed by the F.B.I. in January that is looking at possible fraud in mortgage lending.
The Timessays, "While the new task force is focusing on the role of mortgage lenders and brokers in low- or no-documentation loans, it is also examining how the loans were bundled into securities."
The investigation has accelerated in recent weeks, the Times say, as a growing number of banks reported additional write-downs on their securities tied to mortgages.
The Wall Street Journalquotes a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, Benton Campbell, who says the "jury is still out" on whether crimes will be uncovered in the securitization of mortgages, their trading or their disclosure.
"There are market forces in play in that area, and that doesn't necessarily mean there is fraud," Campbell told the Journal.
The United States attorney's office in Brooklyn, the Journal notes, is already investigating the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds last summer and questions over how UBS valued its mortgage-backed securities portfolio.
Reuters - Yahoo Inc's shares tumbled 22
percent in premarket trading on Monday after Microsoft Corp
withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer for the
Internet search and media company.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's shares tumbled 22 percent in premarket trading on Monday after Microsoft Corp withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer for the Internet search and media company.
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc faced growing pressure on Sunday to find an alternative strategy to Microsoft Corp's $47.5 billion takeover offer after the software maker walked away over a disagreement on price.
LONDON (Reuters) - Increased volatility grips stock markets, big investment banks tot up losses from a credit market seizure and jobs are slashed -- being a trader has seldom been more stressful.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - UAL's United Airlines is mulling asking its banks to rejig the terms of its credit facility in an effort to get crucial financial flexibility, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reeling from the deterioration in the housing market, will likely post steep losses for the first quarter, but the two largest home funding companies are expected to escape previous record losses.
These are some of the analyst calls affecting shares this Monday morning: American Capital Strategies (NASDAQ: ACAS) downgraded to Sell at UBS. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) raised target to $220 from $200 at RBC. CACI International (NYSE: CAI) raised to Buy at Jefferies & Co. Comerica (NYSE: CMA) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank. Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) cut tp underperform at FBR. Diebold (NYSE: DBD) raised to Buy at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) downgraded to Market Perform at William Blair. UST Inc. (NYSE: UST) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank. W-H Energy Services (NYSE: WHQ) raised to Buy...
In the aftermath of the writer's strike - and with ever-increasing competition from the Internet, cable channels and digital video recorders - primetime network television isn't the all-powerful medium it used to be.
Microsoft Corp.'s pursuit of Yahoo Inc. ended abruptly Saturday when the world's largest software maker withdrew a sweetened $46 billion offer and said it would not make a hostile bid for the Internet company.
Yahoo! shares are expected to fall sharply when Wall Street opens this morning after the online giant rejected an improved offer from Microsoft over the weekend. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 11:44 am
Yahoo! shares are expected to fall sharply when Wall Street opens this morning after the online giant rejected an improved offer from Microsoft over the weekend. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 11:44 am
European Union regulators on Monday cleared South Korea's STX Corp. to buy a 39 percent stake in Europe's largest shipbuilder, Aker Yards ASA. The EU dismissed initial worries that the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 11:31 am
When the stock market opens this morning, one deal stock—Yahoo—is poised to tumble, while another is set to soar.
Shares of Sprint Nextel are expected to surge following reports in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal that Deutsche Telekom is weighing a takeover of Sprint.
Both papers are following a report over the weekend in the German magazine Der Spiegel, and both caution that the plan is in its preliminary stages and is one of several options the former German monopoly is considering. No offer has been made.
Driving the idea of a takeover is a sluggish core market in Germany and a price war in the United States, where the No. 4 wireless provider, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, is seen as the most vulnerable.
All sorts of rumors have swirled around Sprint Nextel for months. There was talk it would spin off Nextel, or that Verizon Wireless or Carlos Slim might be interested in making a bid.
The rumors have come as Sprint's stock price has been battered, sliding 65 percent from last summer, to under $8. The company has a market value of $22 billion, which as the Financial Timesnotes, Deutsche Telekom "could easily pay after reducing debt substantially over the past six years." The rising value of the euro over the dollar would also make a deal for Sprint Nextel more affordable.
The New York Times' DealBook blog is skeptical, however, citing Sprint's troubles and noting that the companies have two different wireless technologies (C.D.M.A. for Sprint, G.S.M. for T-Mobile). The companies have not held any discussions, DealBook says.
Still, an acquisition with Sprint Nextel would lift T-Mobile from No. 4 in the U.S. wireless market to No. 1, tripling its number of subscribers to nearly 90 million.
In March, Merrill Lynch analysts wrote that Sprint Nextel's efforts to cut prices to attract customers could drive a merger with T-Mobile.
"In such a price-war scenario, we think T-Mobile would face the most pressure, and Deutsche Telekom would see the increased urgency to drive market repair," the Merrill Lynch report said.
Reuters - Bank of America Corp is likely to
renegotiate its deal to buy Countrywide Financial Corp
down to the $0 to $2 level or completely walk away from it,
said Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, which downgraded Countrywide
to "underperform" from "market perform."
(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp is likely to renegotiate its deal to buy Countrywide Financial Corp down to the $0 to $2 level or completely walk away from it, said Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, which downgraded Countrywide to "underperform" from "market perform."
AP - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said Monday it will offer 90-day prescriptions for $10 and lower the prices of more than 1,000 over-the-counter medications to $4 or less. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 5 May 2008 | 11:25 am
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said Monday it will offer 90-day prescriptions for $10 and lower the prices of more than 1,000 over-the-counter medications to $4 or... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 11:25 am
Dairy farmer Rich Byma pushes a huge bin packed with a feed mix of corn, soybeans, vitamins and minerals through his barn, delivering a morning meal for his 300 cows. As his milk-producers munch, it's like seeing them eat dollar bills for the veteran farmer because the cost of feed is at an all-time high.
After a two-week climb in gasoline prices, there appeared to be some short-term moderation Monday - but another run at the record high set last week seems likely, two surveys indicated.
India's finance minister said he was considering a blanket ban on trading in food futures, underlying growing concerns in Asia over the role of hedge funds and financial market traders in the surge in commodities prices. Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 May 2008 | 11:10 am
Billionaires Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger say the pain many financial institutions are feeling because of the credit crunch is well deserved. The chairman and vice chairman of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 11:06 am
The national average price for regular gasoline rose about 15 cents in the last two weeks, according to a survey. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline on Friday was $3.62 a Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 10:58 am
London was closed for a holiday and other market in Europe were mixed. The DAXX was down .1% to 7,039. Siemens (SI) was down 1% to 76.30. VW was down .9% to 187.72. The CAC 40 was off .3% to 5,057. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) was down 2% to 4.42. EADS was off 3.8% to 16.38. Data from Reuters Douglas A. McIntyre
Wall Street headed for a lower open Monday, with investors downbeat about Microsoft Corp. withdrawing its bid for Yahoo Inc. over the weekend. Microsoft had offered $42.3 billion to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 10:55 am
Oil prices rose Monday, supported by weekend news of an attack on a Nigerian oil installation, but with gains limited by a stronger U.S. dollar. Royal Dutch Shell PLC spokesman... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 10:40 am
German new car registrations rebounded in April following a slump the previous month, figures released on Monday by the VDA automobile federation showed. A total of 318,000... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 10:34 am
Factory owners in Bangladesh start subsidising food for thousands of their lowest paid workers. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 10:23 am
Yahoo!'s (YHOO) shares are off over 20% in trading in Germany after the portal company rejected an offer from Microsoft. According to Bloomberg."Citigroup Inc. and ThinkPanmure LLC analysts cut their ratings on Yahoo's stock to ``sell''. Douglas A. McIntyre
Google (GOOG) rules the search world in all but one important country. China not only has the largest population in the world, it has the largest number of people online totaling 221 million users. It passed the US last month for total number of internet citizens. At some point China could have 500 million people on the worldwide web, more than double the US. Google's share of the search market in China is only 25%. Local search engine Baidu (BIDU) has 60%. Baidu is a very small company when put along side Google. Revenue at the Chinese company many hit...
Asia-Pacific shares rose on Monday as commodity prices were robust and the US economy shed fewer jobs than expected on Friday, increasing speculation that the US Federal Reserve may pause or even halt... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 9:56 am
With the huge amount of debt on airline balance sheets and rising fuel costs, the big carriers may have trouble meeting their debt service or loan covenants. United (UAUA) has over $7 billion in long-term debt. AMR (AMR) has over $9 billion. According to the FT "United Airlines is considering asking its banks to revise the terms of its credit facility in an effort to gain much-needed financial flexibility to weather the airline industry’s sharp downturn." Dollars to donuts every other US airline is doing the same thing. This puts banks in a bad position, particularly with their own balance...
An expected realignment of the consumer internet sector was thrown into doubt over the weekend following Microsoft's surprise abandonment of its $46.5bn takeover offer for Yahoo Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 May 2008 | 9:38 am
Pegging Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) potential financial exposure from shareholder lawsuits after it turned down an offer of about $33 from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is hard. It starts with the difference between the offer and where the stock falls after the rejection. That price could be $22 or lower. Investors would have lost $12 billion, and perhaps more. Yahoo! is lucky, if one can call it that. Proving damages beyond the actual financial set-back to shareholders will be hard. Investors were not "damaged" as much as they simply lost money. The other factor to Yahoo!'s advantage is that some groups of...
The rate of farmer suicides in India's Maharashtra state has risen, despite relief schemes, a government report says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 9:23 am
Mixed week for stocks as dollar rises, oil falls, Fed cuts Wall Street started the week down, as investors chewed on the Mars acquisition of Wrigley, and closed lower again Tuesday, ahead of the Fed’s expected interest-rate cut. Wednesday saw another drop in U.S. stocks, which lost the solid mid-day gains achieved before the Fed’s rate cut. On Thursday Wall Street rebounded, as the U.S. dollar rose and oil prices fell. The TSX was down at the beginning of the week, as small gains in commodities disappeared. By Wednesday, Bay Street was up on financial and energy stocks, and continued...
Oil prices rose Monday, supported by weekend news of an attack on a Nigerian oil installation, but with gains limited by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. Royal Dutch Shell PLC... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 9:05 am
CINCINNATI, May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB) today announced the completion of its acquisition of nine branches from First Horizon... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:37 am
Steven A. Ballmer, Microsofts chief executive, walked away from a Yahoo deal on Saturday still looking for an answer to his companys fundamental problem: its time-tested recipe for success isnt working... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:33 am
An African leader dismisses the UN's food agency as a "waste of money" and calls for it to be scrapped. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 8:28 am
European stocks dipped in early trade on Monday, as comments by Warren Buffett that said the US economy was in recession prompted investors to take a breather after last week's lofty gains.EADS dropped... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:27 am
With soaring gas prices already sapping consumers' wallets, upscale organic supermarket Whole Foods is widely expected to take a hit as shoppers seek to save on groceries. But there's a bit of a debate... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
With the National Magazine Awards handed out this past Thursday, we at Media City thought it would be a good idea to see if the judges who awarded Ellies, as the magazine awards are called, actually know... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
WPP rejected Taylor Nelson Sofres received and turned down two unsolicited proposals from WPP Group through which the world's second-larg est advertising company aimed to take control of the second- biggest... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
Having abruptly left Yahoo! at the altar over the weekend, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is now under the gun to do something with the $46 billion check he was prepared to write the Internet target's shareholders... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
Top music downloads1. Lollipop, Lil Wayne2. Love Song, Sara Bareilles3. Low, Flo Rida4. With You, Chris Brown5. Bleeding Love, Leona Lewis6. Damaged, Danity Kane7. Crying Out for Me, Mario TiVo favorites... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
A big makeover is under way at TV Guide - with more than 100 sacked - and its ousted top editor is expected to be replaced by veteran celebrity editor Debra Birnbaum, insiders say. The restructuring comes... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 May 2008 | 8:22 am
According to Reuters. Warren Buffett says that US is in a recession and large banks will face more pain. Reuters writes that Yahoo! (YHOO) may face lawsuits after rejecting an offer from Microsoft (MSFT). Reuters writes that, because of FDA action, the future of several major cholesterol drugs is up in the air. Reuters write that Alan Greenspan say that the US in in a "pale" mild recession. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft (MSFT) will have to find a new strategy for rapidly expanding its online operations, that AOL may still be bought by Yahoo!, and that Yahoo!...
Manchester Airports Group says it is interested in buying Gatwick Airport if it comes up for sale. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 May 2008 | 7:54 am
Tokyo was closed. Other markets in Asia were mixed The Hang Seng fell .2% to 26,180. CNOOC was up 2..4% to 13.68. China Petroleum (SNP) was off 1.5% to 8.56. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.8% to 3,761. Data from Reuters. Douglas A. McIntyre
Reuters - The United States has fallen into an
"awfully pale recession" and may remain stagnant for the rest
of the year, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was
quoted on Monday saying.
The company's shares are expected to plunge today, as investors punish it for pushing away Microsoft.
He fended off Microsoft Corp.'s takeover bid, at least for the moment. Now Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang needs to prove that he made the right decision.
Yahoo stock is likely to dive. Suitor has other means to pursue goals.
In calling off its offer for Yahoo Inc. , Microsoft Corp. proclaimed its determination to build a bigger online advertising and services business by itself.
French politicians often look enviously across the Atlantic at the entrepreneurial successes of the U.S. economy, such as Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. So it is a heavy irony that the man who founded the U.S. venture capital industry, helping to create many multibillion-dollar companies, came from France.
Sales have been rising for labels produced by the family's Charles Krug operation, Napa Valley's oldest. A renovation is aimed at drawing more visitors.
Mondavi is one of the biggest names on the wine aisle. Then there's Peter Mondavi Jr. and his family's little winery.
The pilot program helps firms buy energy-efficient equipment.
California regulators want to expand a pilot program under which utilities offer interest-free loans to small businesses that want to buy energy-efficient gear.
States are aggressively trying to lure companies looking to grow. Incentives and a weak dollar are spurring investment.
Liu Keli couldn't tell you much about South Carolina, not even where it is in the United States. It's as obscure to him as his home region, Shanxi province, is to most Americans.
Gina Marie Lindsey is scheduled to appear before the airport commission and a council panel this week to explain her role in awarding LAX construction contracts worth $67 million to two firms.
Los Angeles airport director Gina Marie Lindsey -- about to complete her first year overseeing one of the world's busiest travel gateways -- will spend the next few days explaining to her bosses what role she played in the awarding of $67 million in LAX construction contracts.
Fast food company BurgerFuel has signed a deal expanding its franchise into Dubai.
It is the first master franchise agreement signed by BurgerFuel Worldwide, and will see the company's gourmet burgers on sale in the Arab Emirates... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 May 2008 | 5:59 am
The New Zealand dollar held firm in lacklustre trading today, assisted by positive data out of Australia.
Dealers said robust house price, job ads and inflation data in Australia provided more excitement this afternoon than New... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 May 2008 | 5:57 am
Paramount's comic-book knockoff blasted Sony's romantic comedy at the box office: $101 million to $16 million.
The unexpected success of Iron Man is a big win for Marvel Entertainment, which produced the film itself rather than sign over the rights as it has done in the past.
The question now is what the first blockbuster of the summer says about the rest of the season: Overall ticket sales on what Hollywood considers the first weekend of summer were off 15 percent from a year ago, according to figures from Exhibitor Relations Co., a Los Angeles-based entertainment-research firm.
While more comic-book heroes are on the way—The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy II: The Golden Army from Universal, and The Dark Knight from Warner Bros.—there are many more movies starring man-boy comedians: Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, and Eddie Murphy each star in comedies to be released from May to August.
"The comedy kings are on tour," says Jeff Bock, an analyst with E.R.C.
Sony in particular has tripled down on the genre, releasing Sandler's You Don't Mess With The Zohan, Ferrell's Step Brothers, and Rogen's Pineapple Express. But saturating the market with comedies could backfire for Sony if audiences tire of the genre—particularly with Sex and the City,What Happens in Vegas, and Made of Honor competing for female viewers and further fracturing the comedy audience along gender lines.
Sony is going farther out on a limb with Hancock starring Will Smith, who is usually stellar at the box office. This time, however, he is playing against type, as an alcoholic superhero who sleeps on the street and is—gasp!—mean to kids.
Smith has made the Fourth of July weekend his territory, releasing Independence Day, Men in Black, and Wild Wild West close to that holiday over the past several years. With an estimated budget of $150 million, Hancock, which comes out on July 2, is expected to do decently, but not to be one of the summer's big movies.
Hancock does, however, fit into the second large theme of the summer: the superhero.
Universal should do fine with Hulk and Hellboy, both of which are sequels with budgets that were kept in check (unlike last summer's bloated Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean follow-ups).
Universal may have hurt the box office of Hulk by opening it up against The Happening, an M. Night Shyamalan movie from 20th Century Fox: Executives fear the movies could cannibalize each other's audience.
Warner Bros., meanwhile, faces its own difficulties, particularly in promoting The Dark Knight without appearing to minimize or exploit the death of its star, Heath Ledger, while the movie was being edited.
Wanted, with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, and James McAvoy, could prove poorly positioned too, opening as it does the same weekend as Disney's WALL-E and coming a week before Hancock. But Universal is betting that a strong overseas turnout for Jolie and Freeman could more than make money for the movie, whose budget is rumored to be low for an action movie.
"Hollywood's dirty little secret is that every film makes money," says Bock, once you factor in overseas distribution and ancillary markets like DVD, pay-per-view, and airline sales.
A final theme for this summer, not surprisingly, is family movies. Disney's Narnia follow-up Prince Caspian, and Pixar release WALL-E, are both in contention for slots in the summer's three top-grossing films, with an assumed minimum gross for WALL-E, which stars a robot that critics are comparing to E.T., of $200 million.
On less sure footing is Speed Racer, a Warner Bros. film with stars like John Goodman, Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, and Christina Ricci. With a budget said to be between $100 and $200 million, Warner Bros. is hoping the movie is one that can get families to the theater together—and repeatedly.
But for Hirsch, coming off of a good run after Into the Wild and Alpha Dog, starring in a big-budget movie that misses with audiences could be career cyanide. Best-case scenario for the star and the studio? Speed Racer turns into a franchise, with movies two and three coming out next.
Warner Bros. also has this summer's only 3-D film, Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is based on the Jules Verne novel and another potential family favorite. To hedge its bets, the studio is also releasing a decidedly non-family film, Sex and the City, which naysayers fear may have too much of a niche audience to become a summer blockbuster.
Still, "women's comedies are exploding," says David Poland, the man behind the industry blog MovieCityNews.com. "After The Devil Wears Prada, the industry realized that people want to see comedies in the summer. There are probably too many."
Transpower is proposing a $700 million upgrade of the link that carries electricity between the North and South Islands.
The link consists of two separate circuits, each with its own major converter system at each end. The converters... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 May 2008 | 2:30 am
The US carrier is considering asking its banks to revise the terms of its credit facility in an effort to gain much-needed financial flexibility Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 May 2008 | 2:00 am
Reuters - Yahoo Inc faced growing
pressure on Sunday to find an alternative strategy to Microsoft
Corp's $47.5 billion takeover offer after the software maker
walked away over a disagreement on price.
Allowing parents with young or disabled children to work flexible hours has not delivered the gains in productivity promised by the Government, the leading manufacturers' trade body has said. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
David Cameron's household has another reason to celebrate this bank holiday - his mother-in-law has announced that sales at her furniture retail business have just jumped by a third. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Start-up property fund manager Internos Real Investors has joined the growing band of investors waiting in the wings to buy into commercial property once the market bottoms out. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Warren Buffett has fuelled suspicions that he is set to turn his sights on British companies by declaring he is now particularly focused on buying European businesses. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Militants in Nigeria attacked Royal Dutch Shell facilities in southern Delta over the weekend, leading to another cut in output. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
As the fallout from the credit crisis continues, the concern among economists and those whose budgetary livelihoods hinge on big businesses with deep pockets is that cost-cutting meassures are coming faster. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Britain's oldest wine merchant has reported record sales for Bordeaux 2005, a vintage that some wine experts are dubbing the greatest of all time. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Dawn Airey, who left her job at ITV last week to become chief executive and chair of Five, is owed £2.3m by Iostar, the failed independent television producer of which she was briefly chief executive last year. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
American sports tycoon Tom Hicks has approached some of the hedge funds that backed Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United to help finance his buyout plans for Liverpool Football Club. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Wage and salary increases continue to put pressure on inflation, figures out today from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) show.
The Labour Cost Index (LCI) recorded an increase of 3.4 per cent in salary and wage rates, including overtime,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 May 2008 | 12:00 am
OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Sunday said he does not expect financial markets to panic as write-downs and losses for bad debts mount in the financial services industry, but said those losses were not over "by a long shot."
Tower shares soared 9 per cent when the sharemarket opened this morning following Guinness Peat Group's move for a partial takeover on Friday.
Tower shares opened on 227, 19 cents or 9.1 per cent up on close of play on Friday.
The... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 11:15 pm
Center Parcs UK, the leisure group that offers family activity holidays in
some of Britain's biggest forests, has pinpointed Ireland as its next
location after it opens its new £200 million site in Bedfordshire in 2010. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
The Government has vastly underestimated the cost of building a new generation
of nuclear power plants, according to the head of the world's largest power
company. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
The legal storm unleashed by Parmalat's collapse in 2003 will enter a new
phase today when Citigroup becomes the first bank to go to trial in a
damages case for its alleged role in the Italian milk company's meltdown. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
Warren Buffett has emerged as a possible buyer of the insurance arm of Royal
Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Speaking at the annual meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway investment group
yesterday, Mr Buffett said that his business was “close” to buying a
medium-sized British company and would look at the possible sale of RBS’s
insurance unit.
Last month RBS said that it was considering selling all or part of RBS
Insurance, Britain’s second-largest general insurer, which includes the
Direct Line and Churchill brands, to bolster its balance sheet. Analysts
have valued it at up to £8 billion.
Mr Buffett, who was responding to reports that he may be interested in Direct
Line, also told journalists that he believed that the US economy was now in
recession. He said: “I would define that as a situation where people are
doing less well than they were three months, six months or eight months
earlier and most businesses find themselves in that position too.”
Separately, Mr Buffett’s new bond insurer emerged as the biggest underwriter
of American local government securities in its first full quarter of
operation, taking in $400 million of premiums relating to an estimated $20
billion of municipal bonds.
Mr Buffett claimed that the volume of new bond insurance policies underwritten
by his dedicated municipal securities business in the first quarter of this
year was not only the largest in the United States, but could be even larger
than all its rivals combined.
Mr Buffett set up Berkshire Hathaway Assurance in December, at the prompting
of New York insurance regulators.
Last week Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut$’s attorney-general, said that he was
examining a “clear and direct conflict of interest” between the new bond
insurer and Mr Buffett’s long-held stake of nearly 20 per cent in Moody’s
ratings agency as part of a broader study of the ratings industry.
Before the shareholders’ meeting, Mr Buffett commented on the case for the
first time, denying that there was any conflict. He said: “It would be wrong
if we tried to pressure Moody’s, but that never happened. I have no contact
with the management of Moody’s.”
If Berkshire Hathaway, a company with about $40 billion of cash and holdings
in household names such as Coca-Cola and Tesco, were not rated AAA, Mr
Buffett said, he was not sure which company would be.
Many bond insurers were hit hard by the surge in claims relating to the
mortgage securities that they had underwritten.
Regulators were worried that the ability of local government to raise money
for public projects, such as roads and bridges, would be severely hampered
if existing insurers could no longer guarantee new municipal bonds.
Mr Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway$’s 30-person insurance operation had
underwritten 278 securities, including about $750 million of bonds to
finance two water projects in Detroit. He said that many of these bonds had
been insured by existing AAA-rated underwriters but that their owners were
concerned about their ability to meet potential claims in the wake of the
sub-prime mortgage meltdown.
Berkshire Hathaway was charging an average of $“two and a fraction of a per
cent” to underwrite these bonds, against the 1 per cent typically charged by
its competitors, Mr Buffett said. The $400 million of premiums received thus
indicate $20 billion of bonds.
$
$“It tells you something about the state of AAA when they are paying us to
write business that is already insured,” Mr Buffett said.
His municipal bond insurer further illustrates how Mr Buffett is using his
cash to his benefit as credit markets dry up. Last week, he agreed to take a
19 per cent stake in Wrigley’s for $2.1 billion as part of Mars$’s $23
billion takeover of the chewing gum group. His stake comes at half the price
Mars paid Wrigley$’s shareholders because he stumped up $4.4 billion that was
crucial to financing the transaction.
On Friday, Berkshire Hathaway unveiled first-quarter profits down 64 per cent
to $940 million after recording a $1.6 billion loss on derivatives contracts
under accounting rules. Mr Buffett said he was confident of profiting from
these contracts in the long term.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
AOL, the internet arm of Time Warner, has approached Microsoft about a
possible tie-up as a deal between the software group and Yahoo! unravelled, The
Times has learnt.
The move emerged as Microsoft this weekend said it was walking away from
Yahoo!, after the online search engine rejected a second, higher offer from
the software group valuing Yahoo! at $47.5 billion ($£24 billion).
The news broke after a meeting in Seattle on Saturday at which Steve Ballmer,
chief executive of Microsoft, sought to persuade Jerry Yang, co-founder of
Yahoo, to yield to the software group by raising his offer from $31 a share
to $33. The increased offer valued Yahoo! at $5 billion more than
Microsoft$’s initial approach in February. Mr Yang refused to accept the
increased valuation, insisting that Yahoo shares were worth at least $38.
In a letter to Mr Yang, Mr Ballmer said: $“I am disappointed that Yahoo! has
not moved towards accepting our offer ... I still believe even today that
our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your
stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an
agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on
the table. But clearly a deal is not to be.”
Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo! to win a bigger slice of the online
advertising market, valued at $40 billion a year and set to double within
two years. A combination of Yahoo! and Microsoft would have helped the
software group to compete more effectively with Google, the world$’s biggest
internet company.
It emerged yesterday that Microsoft has been approached by a number of the
parties with which Yahoo! had sought a defensive tie-up to fight off
Microsoft. It is understood that AOL, the internet arm of Time Warner, is
one of those companies.
At the same time, it is also understood that Yahoo! is continuing talks with
both News Corporation, parent company ofThe Times, and with AOL, in an
attempt to forge an alliance to compete more effectively with Google. Having
rejected a $33-a-share offer, Mr Yang is now under pressure to devise a
means of boosting the online search engine$’s share price and justifying his
board’s rejection of the offer.
After a three-month fight for control of Yahoo!, Microsoft decided to walk
away after Mr Yang threatened to forge an alliance with Google.
In his letter to Yahoo!, Mr Ballmer said: “Our discussions with you have led
us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make
Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft. We regard with
particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a ‘hostile’ bid by
pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to
Google of key paid internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our
view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an
acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us.”
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the advertising group, told The
Times yesterday: “Microsoft showed price discipline by not going above their
revised offer. You don’t need to worry about Microsoft, they are a $300
billion company with plenty of other ideas to explore. The people who have
lost out most are their customers and [advertising] agencies who were
looking for a better balance in the marketplace. Such a deal would have
provided that balance.$”
Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo!, said: “We remain focused on maximising
shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo!
for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this
process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our
belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased
that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view.”
Microsoft and Yahoo! both declined to comment and Time Warner failed to
return calls. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
Warren Buffett gave an hilarious performance at his annual shareholders’
meeting this weekend, musing that envy was the most useless of the seven
deadly sins because it hurts you, rather than its subject, who may even feel
better as a result.
Gluttony, on the other hand, had an upside, Mr Buffett told an audience of
31,000 as he munched chocolates and guzzled cola throughout a five-hour
question-and-answer session in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska, on
Saturday. His take on the Christian vices was classic Buffett, combining a
strict moral code with his desire to enjoy the pleasures of life and
wrapping a serious message in a joke.
With an estimated $62 billion ($£31.4 billion) fortune, Mr Buffett, 77,
recently supplanted Bill Gates, a member of his Berkshire Hathaway board who
attended the meeting, as the world’s richest man.
The annual weekend of events has come to be known as the Woodstock of
capitalism and is thought to be the largest financial gathering in the
world, with hotel rooms booked years in advance. Mr Buffett’s annual
shareholder meeting is without parallel. It attracts a range of people from
successful hedge fund managers to small children, from Britain, Australia
and India, to hear his opinions on derivatives and currency fluctuations.
The combination of age, wealth and success has left Mr Buffett comfortable in
his skin and with little to prove.
How many heads of huge corporations would recommend shareholders to sell their
stock in his company, as he seemed to do at the weekend? “If you have a
small amount of money, for many there might be something better to do than
buy Berkshire Hathaway. If you have plenty of time, there are more
attractive things to buy in smaller investments - it is not feasible for us
to do it now like we did in the past,” Mr Buffett said.
Over the past 40 years Mr Buffett has turned a failing textiles company into a
$200 billion conglomerate stretching from insurance to sweets, prompting a
more than 7,000-fold rise in its share price. The sheer size of Berkshire
Hathaway means that he has to make huge investments if they are to have any
impact on his fund$’s bottom line. Mr Buffett bemoaned that it is much
harder to make a good return on multibillion-dollar investments because
there are fewer of them and the companies involved are much better known.
Berkshire Hathaway owns or has stakes in about 80 companies, including
Coca-Cola, See’s Candy, Tesco, Johnson & Johnson and the Washington
Post. He is set to add a 19 per cent stake in Wrigley’s after agreeing to
help Mars to finance a takeover of the chewing gum maker last week.
“There is no question that returns for Berkshire will be lower than in the
past. We operate in a universe of stocks of companies worth at least $10
billion and more often $50 billion,$” Mr Buffett said.
“You can take Warren’s promise [on Berkshire’s returns] to the bank,” quipped
Charlie Munger, the group’s 84-year-old vice-chairman and less famous half
of the corporate world’s greatest comedy duo.
Although he has not been involved in the day-to-day running of Berkshire
Hathaway for years, Mr Munger has played a considerable part in the group’s
success, providing an invaluable sounding board for Mr Buffett over the past
30 years.
In a relationship honed over decades, Mr Buffett played his usual role of the
sociable wife to Mr Munger’s grumpy, acerbic husband, jockeying him along
and smoothing his bluntness for the guests. After giving an investor from
New Jersey a lengthy response to a question about the futurepossible
direction of the stock markets, Mr Buffett, oozing folksy Mid-Western charm,
gave the floor to his po-faced, dead-pan deputy.
“I have nothing to add,” Mr Munger said.
“He’s been practising for weeks,” Mr Buffett joked.
A little later, after his answer about future energy sources, Mr Munger
concluded that “most people don’t think like that, but I do”.
“Charlie does not find comfort in numbers,” Mr Buffett explained, to the same
gales of laughter than greeted many of their exchanges.
There is an obvious chemistry between the two. At one point, Mr Buffett mused:
“Charlie and I don’t even need to talk to each other. We think in the same
way and have the same spheres of knowledge.”
As if to underline the point, a shareholder from Mexico City asked Mr Buffett
where he stood on religion.
“I am an agnostic,” Mr Warren said. “I simply don’t know,” Mr Munger added,
with precision timing.
On the surface there is something surreal about 31,000 people flying across
the world to see these elderly men talking about finance. But, more than
anybody else, they represent a human face of business that people can relate
and aspire to. Their investment philosophy sounds so simple - invest in
solid, market-leading brands that people will always want and don’t get
involved in things you don’t understand, such as derivatives.
They are very funny and they have remained ordinary. Mr Buffett has lived in
the same house, valued at about £350,000, since 1958 and has pledged to give
away 85 per cent of his wealth over time, most of it to the Bill and Melinda
Gates charitable foundation, the rest going to four family charities. He and
Mr Munger take annual salaries of only $100,000 $– although their holdings
make them billionaires.
On the subject of pay, Mr Munger said on Saturday: “The leaders of great
enterprises have a moral duty not to take the compensation they do. I don’t
know how they can do it.” And Berkshire Hathaway is a company of its word,
Mr Buffett said. Once it has agreed to finance a deal, it will do so “even
if [Federal Reserve chairman] Ben Bernanke runs off to South America with
Paris Hilton”.
Towards the end of the meeting, a 12-year-old girl asked him why, when his
hero was Benjamin Graham, the investment guru who taught him at Columbia, he
insisted on not paying a dividend.
“You were influenced by your hero in so many ways, so why not in this?” she
asked.“I had to do something my way,” said Mr Buffett, who has not paid a
dividend since the 1960s, preferring to reinvest all profits in his company.
Ins and outs of life at Berkshire
— Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares trade at just under $135,000 each,
making them the most expensive in the world
$
$— The group introduced Class B shares, with fewer voting rights, in 1996,
valued at 1/30th of the Class A, to make it more affordable to invest
— Mr Buffett has about 32 per cent of Berkshire's voting power, while Charlie
Munger, the vice-chairman, has 1.4 per cent
— Berkshire's investments include stakes in Tesco, American Express, Procter &
Gamble, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson
— In April, Warren Buffett overtook Bill Gates to become the world's richest
man, with an estimated $62billion fortune, according to Forbes magazine$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 4 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
After a week of intense takeover discussions with Yahoo that seemed increasingly likely to lead to a deal, Microsoft abruptly walked away Saturday. While Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer had been threatening to do just that, most analysts and observers were expecting either a deal to be done at a higher price or a hostile takeover to begin.
The proposed merger had drawn its share of critics, who charged that integration and cultural issues would outweigh potential benefits from combining the two. But now that the deal won't happen, the outlook for both companies is as dire as it was three months ago before the merger was proposed.
"Without Yahoo, Microsoft has no compelling means of becoming the No. 2 player in online advertising," said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart. "And without Microsoft, Yahoo has no magic wand to lift its stock back above the mid-20s."
This much is certain: Yahoo's stock will take a hard tumble this week as arbitrageurs and others counting on a Microsoft buyout relinquish their shares at a steep discount to last week's levels. "The word crater comes to mind," said Rob Enderle, president of tech advisory firm Enderle Group.
Yahoo had already been facing at least one shareholder lawsuit after it refused to accept Microsoft's proposal. It's likely to face more lawsuits, as well as other pressure from activist investors.
One of them, Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital, is urging Yahoo shareholders to vote against all of Yahoo's board members when they are up for election later this year. Jackson says he's started hearing from more Yahoo shareholders since Microsoft dropped its bid.
"They're surprised and extremely frustrated," Jackson said. "They were certain a friendly deal was going to happen."
To appease those shareholders, Yahoo needs to improve its financial performance dramatically. The company unveiled a plan in March showing how a new search technology and an open-source approach to software development would help boost its revenue and cash flow. But analysts and investors have signaled that they aren't impressed.
The best short-term hope for Yahoo to increase its cash flow is to ally itself with the very company that has put it in dire straits—Google. Yahoo and Google may enter a limited ad partnership that will run Google ads on keywords where Yahoo makes less money.
That could help bring Yahoo new revenue in coming quarters. But it could also drive away advertisers who are on Yahoo precisely because its search engine, which is significantly less popular than Google's, charges less for keywords.
Microsoft's stock will likely fare much better in the near term. But longer-term threats to its profit growth remain. Vista software sales are slowing, Apple is gaining market share in desktops and laptops, and Google is pushing free versions of office-productivity software, threatening Microsoft's Office cash cow.
Microsoft has invested heavily in online advertising, only to see its share of the search market—like Yahoo's—decline steadily. The division that includes Microsoft's online-ad business has posted steadily growing operating losses for nine straight quarters. In aggregate, it's racked up $1.7 billion in losses since early 2006.
Such pressures drove Microsoft to pursue Yahoo. The $31-a-share bid Microsoft made in February offered a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's stock price at the time. But it also discounted 32 percent off the $41-a-share bid Microsoft had previously made for Yahoo, a bid that was also rebuffed by Yahoo's board.
Last week, Microsoft raised its offer to $33 a share, but Yahoo's board held out for $37.
"I think Yahoo misread Microsoft," said Enderle. "People usually bid low and then raise their bids. But Microsoft didn't want talks to drag on, so its strategy was to get the deal done as quickly as possible." Yahoo, however, sensed that protracted talks could strengthen its hand, and so it held firm on a higher bid. "Yahoo thought Microsoft was lowballing it," Enderle said, "and they missed the boat."
So like Yahoo, Microsoft must now scramble. Ballmer has outlined other possible acquisitions it could make if the Yahoo deal fell through: Facebook, Time Warner's AOL, and News Corp.'s MySpace. Facebook is also determined to remain independent, while AOL has talked with Yahoo about a deal. That leaves MySpace as the easiest partner for Microsoft.
Or Microsoft could simply bide its time and come back to Yahoo after its shareholders start screaming. In doing so, it would follow Larry Ellison's playbook in Oracle's acquisition of BEA Systems. Oracle walked away from BEA after its bid was rejected, then talked a lot about how hard it pushed for its bid. Once BEA investors complained, Oracle bought BEA at a lower price.
"Microsoft can come back again," said Aggarwal, "especially if Yahoo doesn't do very well on its own."
The Government's operating balance has dipped slightly to $1.13 billion in the nine months to the end of March, the crown accounts show.
The figure, released today, is $4b below forecast, almost entirely due to unrealised losses... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 10:19 pm
The man who originally argued that rail should be sold to private enterprise has blasted the Government for today's decision to buy back the railways and ferries.
Richard Prebble, a former Labour Cabinet Minister before moving... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 9:58 pm
Rich countries risk stoking protectionism by blocking foreign takeovers on grounds other than national security, a senior White House official has warned Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 May 2008 | 9:01 pm
Hillary Clinton said she was convinced that energy companies were manipulating oil prices and vowed to launch an investigation if elected president Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 May 2008 | 8:41 pm
The swing of the pendulum is almost complete. As political rallying cries go they don't come much more to the old school left than: "nationalise the railways."
Despite the disappointing reality across much of New Zealand, trains... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 8:15 pm
Reuters - Warren Buffett on Sunday said
he does not expect financial markets to panic as write-downs
and losses for bad debts mount in the financial services
industry, but said those losses were not over "by a long shot."
Marvel Entertainment (MVL) and Viacom (VIA), parent of Paramount, benefitted as "Iron Man" based on a Marvel comic book character brought in over $100 million. According to the AP The film also scored overseas with $96.7 million in 57 countries where it began opening Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $201 million. The move makes that management at Marvel look brilliant for handling the production of "Iron Man" themselves instead of having it handled by a major studio. Paramount handed distribution. Douglas A. McIntyre
Berkshire Hathaway's fledging bond insurer generated $400m in premiums during the first quarter, outstripping all the established, but troubled, operators in the so-called US monoline insurance market Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 May 2008 | 7:31 pm
Climate change, the credit crunch and recent tax changes in New Zealand are set to be the hot topics at an investment conference in Auckland today.
Mercer, an advisory firm for asset managers, is hosting a forum to discuss the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 7:30 pm
US billionaires Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger say the pain many financial institutions are feeling because of the credit crunch is well deserved.
The chairman and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc said today that the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 May 2008 | 7:00 pm
Auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's are confident of selling up to $1.8bn of Impressionist, postwar and contemporary artworks during the upcoming New York season Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 May 2008 | 6:35 pm
Deutsche Telekom is considering the takeover of US mobile telephone operator Sprint Nextel of the US which would catapult the German telecoms group from number four to number one by users in the US mobile market Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 May 2008 | 6:11 pm
Software giant Microsoft drops its bid to buy internet firm Yahoo after the two sides fail to agree a price. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 4 May 2008 | 4:02 pm
Reuters - Stocks looked set to open lower on
Monday after Microsoft Corp dropped its bid for Yahoo
Inc , clouding the outlook for mergers and acquisitions
and sending Yahoo shares down more than 21 percent.
Reuters - Yahoo Inc's shares tumbled 22
percent in premarket trading on Monday after Microsoft Corp
withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer for the
Internet search and media company.
Reuters - Bank of America Corp is likely to
renegotiate its deal to buy Countrywide Financial Corp
down to the $0 to $2 level or completely walk away from it,
said Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, which downgraded Countrywide
to "underperform" from "market perform."
Reuters - The United States has fallen into an
"awfully pale recession" and may remain stagnant for the rest
of the year, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was
quoted on Monday saying.
Reuters - Yahoo Inc faced growing
pressure on Sunday to find an alternative strategy to Microsoft
Corp's $47.5 billion takeover offer after the software maker
walked away over a disagreement on price.
Reuters - Warren Buffett on Sunday said
he does not expect financial markets to panic as write-downs
and losses for bad debts mount in the financial services
industry, but said those losses were not over "by a long shot."