Private Equity
No Deal: Sinochem abandons Potash bid. Down Time: Yahoo, which is the subject of buyout rumors, suffered an outage yesterday. Still interested AOL? A Takeover Price: What price AOL and PE need to offer for Yahoo. What's the deal: The mystery of the SEC's tabled vote on Rattner's settlement yesterday. Also, Rattner finds a pal in the Mayor. Settlement: Man gets $650,000 after stripper kicks him in the eye with her high heels. Results: GE third quarter earnings fall 18%. No Money: WikiLeaks's funding blocked after government blacklisting.
1 min read · 15 October 2010
Yahoo Rumors Again: AOL and several PE firms are mulling a bid to buy Yahoo. Meanwhile, Yahoo has hired Goldman to help it field offers. Finally: Steve Rattner is near a deal with the SEC to settle a federal probe of his role in the pay-to-play scandal. But what about NYAG Cuomo's investigation? Glitter Gone: Celebrity media funds may open doors but doesn't mean big returns. Performance: A long term look at leveraged ETFs. No Lawsuit: UBS, in a fit of restraint, won't act against its ex-bosses. Suspension: A Tribune executive was suspended after sending out a memo with links to The Onion.
1 min read · 14 October 2010
Free at Last: Chile mine rescue shows how far mine safety has come. Also, on even of rescue, trapped Chilean miners get media training. Stepping down: Google's Marissa Mayer resigns from her position as VP of search product and user experience ahead of Bing relaunch. Backing: Rapper 50 Cent gets $200 million from George Furla’s Hedge Fund Film Partners. Longer Waits: Starbucks tells its baristas to only work on two drinks at a time. Flash Crash: Now Waddell & Reed isn't to blame. Slumping at Work: How athletes deal with slumps can help office workers.
1 min read · 13 October 2010
Benchmark: Twitter aims to get 1 billion users and match FB. Come Together: New survey finds that most workers are happy just to be employed and one-fifth would have a fling with their boss if it helped their career. Picture Perfect: Buy a poster of all your FB friends for $20. Timing: Bad pricing hits PE-backed IPOs. Record Pay: For second straight year, pay rises on Wall Street and is expected to $144 billion. Meanwhile, another report says that there won't be many early bonuses. Felix Salmon: Smacks Charles Gasparino for his critique of Nouriel Roubin. Just In Time: WalMart says iPad will reach its stores by Friday.
1 min read · 12 October 2010
SNL: Saturday Night Live pokes fun at Facebook while Zuckerberg looks good in skit. Regret: Securities firms used huge signing bonuses to lure talent and now regret it. Post Mortem: The 25 best startup failures. Potash bids: Two firms emerge to derail BHP's $39 billion bid for Potash Corp. Stop the Whining: A response to the articles about women in tech, from Shripriya Mahesh. Zombie Network: Beware free public WiFi.
1 min read · 11 October 2010
Hating the New Look: New Gap logo catches Twitter buzz. Secret Talks: What were the chiefs of Microsoft and Adobe chatting about? While other says rumors are nonsense. David Brooks: Zuckerberg isn't a bad person, he just isn't house-trained. Buffett on PE: The Oracle of Omaha avoids buying companies from buyout funds because "they don't know the business." Flash Crash: The mutual fund behind the May 6 stock plunge.
1 min read · 08 October 2010
Facebook Event: Redesign on tap. AMD Not For Sale: With so much M&A, this chip maker says it will listen to proposals but isn't for sale. Who's Cooler: Teen achievement picks Steve Jobs over Mark Zuckerberg. Showing Interest: Why would anyone want to buy Sara Lee? Tanking: CNN's new show, "Parker Spitzer," gets bad ratings and bad reviews. Rolodex Journalism: NY Times has interviewed "Spaghetti Tacos" expert Prof. Robert Thompson 78 times. Mission to Mars: NASA has given the green light to further develop a $438 million mission to Mars to find out if the Red Planet has life. Needy Bank: Wilmington Trust is looking for "capital infusion" from PE firms. Happy Couples: Is Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton team on tap for 2012?
1 min read · 06 October 2010
Felix Salmon: How Carlos Slim made $150 million off the New York Times. Quirky Banker Fired: Solomon Lederer, a software developer at Morgan Stanley who seeks friends on the subway, gets canned after profile appears. Satellite Talk: LightSquared speeds up Inmarsat implementation plan while Harbinger reportedly plans to sell 10% of satellite firm. Not Like the U.S.: Economists bet that world economy won't get dragged into slowing U.S. economy. Lawsuit: Microsoft claims Motorola's line of android phones infringes their patent. Small Deals: PE firms dream of $10 billion transactions but will likely stick to smaller deals.
1 min read · 04 October 2010
Lawsuit: BHP says its close to lodging a legal challenge to Potash attempts to fend off its $39 billion hostile takeover bid. New Head: Jane Rowe faces a full plate when she becomes the head of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s $10-billion private equity portfolio in October. Fundraising Rise: PE firms raised $57 billion in third quarter. Yanked Deal: Decision to pull IPO of Liberty Mutual Group adds job risk on Wall Street. The Ugliest Girl at The Dance: How Yahoo destroyed Google's Yelp acquisition.
1 min read · 01 October 2010
Searching for a CEO: HP made overtures to two senior execs at IBM in its search for a new CEO. Pension Fund Scandal: With Hevesi plea deal, the attention turns to Rattner and Hank Morris. Payback: AIG and government agree on plan to payback taxpayers. Goldman Ad Campaign: Investment bank tries to win America over with newspaper ads. FT Alphaville: Yes, the Yen is up or the dollar is down. Not Delayed: Nokia ships new N8 Smartphone. Who's Hiring: PE firms to hire compliance officers. Who's Leaving: Major meltdown at Yahoo as top execs depart, including U.S. head Hillary Schneider. Pulled IPO: Liberty Mutual Holding Co. delayed its IPO, which was expected to be the biggest new issue this year. Yikes: Midlife crisis now hits in the 30s. The Other Social Network: Why did Columbia's Campus Network lose out to Harvard's Facebook? Felix Salmon: Dodgy credit card of the day. Joshua Brown: When is a black swan simply a black duck?
1 min read · 30 September 2010
