Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Malone Doesn't Rule Out DirecTV Takeover by AT&T or Verizon Communications DirecTV Group Inc. Chairman John Malone won’t rule out a possible takeover by AT&T Inc. or Verizon Communications Inc., saying they will likely have closer ties to his company as they develop packages of phone and television service.


• Facebook Common Stock Value Jumps 42% to $9.5 Billion on Private Market The price of Facebook Inc. stock on exchanges for private companies has jumped as much as 42 percent in the past four months as membership of the site topped 300 million users and the company turned cash flow positive.


• AOL Will Eliminate 2,300 Jobs as It Seeks to Lower Costs by $300 Million AOL, the Internet unit being spun off from Time Warner Inc. in December, plans to cut about one- third of its workforce over the next several months.


• Elizabeth Warren Winning Means Banks Won't Sell When They Can't Explain It In Elizabeth Warren’s world, credit card contracts would be so simple a teenager could read and understand them in four minutes. Loans would be as easy to compare as toasters, and online credit scores would be free.


• Electric Cars Push `Old-Guard' Japanese Engine Parts Makers to Crisis Mode Auto supplier NTN Corp. knew its gasoline engine parts wouldn’t be needed in Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric car. So the component maker’s engineers built a mock model to test a motor-and-brake system it developed for electric vehicles.


• L.A. Mayor Pitches Obama for $9 Billion to Prevent 7 Mile-an-Hour Gridlock Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said his goal to speed up construction of 12 transit projects and ease congestion in the second-biggest U.S. city requires “creative” funding help from Washington.


• Boeing May Lose $7.5 Billion Sale to Brazil as Senate Blocks Obama's Envoy Boeing Co. may lose a $7.5 billion jet fighter sale to Brazil unless the U.S. Senate lifts a four- month delay in confirming President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Latin America’s biggest country, a former top U.S. diplomat to the region said.


• Tufts President Says Wealthy College Endowments Should Take Much Less Risk American colleges and universities with the largest endowments should abandon an investment strategy that has contributed as much as 49 percent to their annual operating budgets because such risk-taking resulted in disruptive cost-cutting in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow said.


• Azeris May Send Natural Gas to Asia as EU Caspian Pipeline Plans Languish Azerbaijan, Europe’s closest energy ally in the Caspian basin, is threatening to sell its gas to Asian markets, pressuring the European Union to complete pipeline accords to boost its own deliveries from the region.

Bloomberg Daily News 20th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Lender That Really Does God's Work Is Slowed as Mortgage Funding Dries Up Mark Holbrook helped fuel a church construction boom by originating more than $3 billion of mortgages in the past decade, transforming a $2 million credit union he joined after Bible college into the largest U.S. evangelical lender.


• KDB Financial's Min Rues `Very Good Opportunity' He Missed to Buy Lehman KDB Financial Group Inc. Chairman Min Euoo Sung said his failed attempt to buy Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year was a missed opportunity for the Korean bank and the global financial system.


• Suitmakers in London Signal Swing to U.K. Conservatives as Brown Stumbles Accountants, management consultants and custom tailors are donating increasing time and expertise to Britain’s Conservative opposition, anticipating the party will beat Prime Minister Gordon Brown in next year’s election.


• General Motors Said to Narrow Search for Finance Chief to Two Outsiders General Motors Co. narrowed the field to replace Chief Financial Officer Ray Young to two executives from outside the auto industry and may make a choice by year’s end, two people close to the matter said.


• Qiagen Poised for More Purchases After Spending $2 Billion in Last 5 Years Qiagen NV, the Dutch biotechnology company that has spent about $2 billion on acquisitions since 2004, is armed for yet more takeovers as it seeks additional gene-based tools to predict disease.


• Mattel's Barbie Store in Shanghai Misses `Astronomical' Revenue Targets Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toymaker, lowered the sales target for its Barbie store in Shanghai by at least 30 percent after deciding the original marketing concept didn’t work.


• GE Enlightening China Regions Embracing Emissions Plants to Curb Pollution The Ordos region of Inner Mongolia, home to one of China’s biggest deserts, is being transformed into the site of a pine forest that will stretch across its low hills as far as the eye can see.


• Griffin Picking `Juggernaut' Edsparr to Run Bank Means Do-Over at Citadel Patrik Edsparr spent 12 years making hedge fund-like bets at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Now he’s been tapped to run an investment bank at a hedge-fund firm.


• Japan's Deflation Concern Mounts Even as Economy Expands Most in Two Years The acceleration of Japan’s economy to the fastest growth pace in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and services that threatens to temper the nation’s recovery.


• Terrorist Attacks Roil Businesses in Pakistan's Punjabi Economic Heartland A spate of attacks in Pakistan’s Punjab as Islamic militants work more closely with the Taliban has raised business concern in the province that generates more than half of the country’s economic growth.


• Nomura Extends Lead in Managing Asian Share Sales With Hitachi, MUFG Deals Nomura Holdings Inc. widened its lead in arranging Asia-Pacific stock sales this year after winning mandates from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Hitachi Corp. valued at a combined $14.5 billion.

Bloomberg Daily News 18th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Deutsche Bank Is Drowning in Las Vegas With Wall Street's Costliest Casino Deutsche Bank AG’s Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino complex in Las Vegas, already the most expensive debacle in the city for a single lender, is now two years behind schedule, $2 billion over budget and under water -- literally.


• Bernanke Lunches With Wall Street as Jobless Prosperity Buoys Stock Market Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has succeeded in returning the U.S. economy to growth after the longest contraction in more than six decades. So far Wall Street, not Main Street, has been the primary beneficiary.


• Vivendi's Levy Trumps Telefonica for `Underdog's Revenge' in GVT Takeover Vivendi SA Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy, who snatched Brazil’s GVT (Holding) SA away from Telefonica SA late last week, got what he earlier this year said he enjoys: “the revenge of the underdog.”


• London's `New Era' of Air Pollution From Diesel Threatens Olympics in 2012 London, which has some of Europe’s worst air pollution, may have to ban cars and reschedule events during the 2012 Olympics to ensure optimum conditions for athletes, a leading air-quality scientist said.


• Unilever's R&D Chief Berger Seeks Swiffer Repeat for P&G Veteran Polman Unilever is set to unveil “big innovations” as soon as next year as Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman seeks to replicate the success Procter & Gamble Co. had with products like the Swiffer.


• Yuan Bets Boost Dollar Lending, Cut Deposits in China: Chart of the Day Demand for dollar loans in China is climbing and deposits of the greenback are sliding, reflecting increasing speculation that the yuan will resume appreciation against the U.S. currency, Bank of China Ltd. said.


• U.S. Demand May Take Until 2010 to `Regenerate,' Li & Fung Chairman Says U.S. consumer demand may take until the middle of 2010 to “regenerate,” and it’s unlikely China can fill the gap as the global economy recovers, said Victor Fung, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. supplier Li & Fung Ltd.


• Marvell Technology Investigates Employee Named in Galleon Hedge Fund Probe Marvell Technology Group Ltd. is conducting an internal investigation after employee Sam Miri was named as a recipient of payoffs for inside information by a hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty in the investigation of Galleon Group, company spokeswoman Diane Vanasse said.


• China's Yuan `Straitjacket' Risks Inflating Asset Bubbles as Growth Surges China is facing the biggest challenge to its currency policy since the start of the global recession as economists warn the peg to the dollar risks causing an asset bubble.


• Obama in China Can't Avoid Immovable Renminbi as Weak Dollar Sinks Asians President Barack Obama may find on his Asian visit that began today that discontent about China’s currency peg to the dollar isn’t confined to Washington’s lawmakers and business lobbyists.

Bloomberg Daily News 17th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• China's Yuan `Straitjacket' Risks Inflating Asset Bubbles as Growth Surges China is facing the biggest challenge to its currency policy since the start of the global recession as economists warn the peg to the dollar risks causing an asset bubble.


• Marvell Technology Investigates Employee Named in Galleon Hedge Fund Probe Marvell Technology Group Ltd. is conducting an internal investigation after employee Sam Miri was named as a recipient of payoffs for inside information by a hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty in the investigation of Galleon Group, company spokeswoman Diane Vanasse said.


• Tweets Steer Venezuelans Through Caracas Traffic in BlackBerry Revolution Venezuelans’ BlackBerrys buzz with urgent news on Twitter: an accident in La Trinidad industrial zone, a tie-up at the old toll booth on the mountain, a mudslide onto the Prados del Este highway.


• Hated Investment Bank `Oligarchs' Scupper Moves to Split Lenders, Kay Says Investment bankers are wielding their political influence to override popular support for legislation to break up lenders’ trading and retail operations, economist John Kay said.


• Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mined by Blowing Up U.S. Mountaintops Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S.


• Thanksgiving Dinner Costs Less to Make This Year: Chart of the Day Families can anticipate the biggest decline in the cost of preparing Thanksgiving dinner since 2000, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.


• Food Strike, Fatal Riots Hobble India's Push to Sell Car Parts to GM, Ford Prem Kumar’s demand for higher pay and better food at the cafeteria at the auto-parts factory where he works near New Delhi forced General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. to shut three plants on the other side of the world.


• Rajaratnam Arrest Jolts Sri Lanka From Stock Exchange to Tsunami Survivors About 60 Muslim fishermen and their families congregated in a community hall on Sri Lanka’s east coast to pray for Raj Rajaratnam after he was arrested for alleged insider trading at his New York hedge fund.


• Robin Hood Says `Hell Yeah' to Wall Street Recovery Led by Goldman Bonuses David Saltzman, executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, may be one of the few people who refuses to demonize a Wall Street recovering from record losses with earnings that may include record bonuses.


• Playboy Said to Be in Talks on Sale to Iconix Brand Group; Shares Advance Playboy Enterprises Inc., the men’s magazine publisher, is in talks to sell itself to Iconix Brand Group Inc., according to two people close to the situation. Playboy’s stock jumped 42 percent.


• Wall Street Faces `Live Ammo' as Congress Tries to Dismantle Biggest Banks Seven Wall Street lobbyists trooped to Capitol Hill on Nov. 9, hoping to convince Representative Paul Kanjorski’s staff that his plan to dismantle large financial firms was a bad idea.


• 3Com Option Trades May Have Been More Than `Luck' Before $2.7 Billion Bid Analysts say good timing alone doesn’t account for trading in bullish 3Com Corp. options yesterday, which gained as much as 315 percent today.

Bloomberg Daily News 16th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• China's Yuan `Straitjacket' Risks Inflating Asset Bubbles as Growth Surges China is facing the biggest challenge to its currency policy since the start of the global recession as economists warn the peg to the dollar risks causing an asset bubble.


• Rajaratnam Arrest Jolts Sri Lanka From Stock Exchange to Tsunami Survivors About 60 Muslim fishermen and their families congregated in a community hall on Sri Lanka’s east coast to pray for Raj Rajaratnam after he was arrested for alleged insider trading at his New York hedge fund.


• Food Strike, Fatal Riots Hobble India's Push to Sell Car Parts to GM, Ford Prem Kumar’s demand for higher pay and better food at the cafeteria at the auto-parts factory where he works near New Delhi forced General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. to shut three plants on the other side of the world.


• Hated Investment Bank `Oligarchs' Scupper Moves to Split Lenders, Kay Says Investment bankers are wielding their political influence to override popular support for legislation to break up lenders’ trading and retail operations, economist John Kay said.


• Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mined by Blowing Up U.S. Mountaintops Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S.


• Playboy Said to Be in Talks on Sale to Iconix Brand Group; Shares Advance Playboy Enterprises Inc., the men’s magazine publisher, is in talks to sell itself to Iconix Brand Group Inc., according to two people close to the situation. Playboy’s stock jumped 42 percent.


• Wall Street Faces `Live Ammo' as Congress Tries to Dismantle Biggest Banks Seven Wall Street lobbyists trooped to Capitol Hill on Nov. 9, hoping to convince Representative Paul Kanjorski’s staff that his plan to dismantle large financial firms was a bad idea.


• 3Com Option Trades May Have Been More Than `Luck' Before $2.7 Billion Bid Analysts say good timing alone doesn’t account for trading in bullish 3Com Corp. options yesterday, which gained as much as 315 percent today.


• BAE Vies With Lockheed as Iran Threats Spark Weapons Spending by Neighbors Most of the world looks at Iran and perceives a growing nuclear threat. Its Persian Gulf neighbors are also focusing on what they call a dangerous conventional weapons buildup.

Bloomberg Daily News 13th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Defaults as Prepackaged Bankruptcies Signal New Normal for U.S. Bondholder When Euramax International Inc. was struggling in 2008 amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, lenders to the building-materials maker reorganized its debt to prevent a collapse.


• Fed Faces Biggest Blow to Authority, Independence in Dodd Banking Measure The Federal Reserve faces the biggest blows to its authority and independence in five decades under legislation championed by its lead overseer in the U.S. Senate.


• Bear Stearns Managers' Acquittal May Hamper Other U.S. Fraud Prosecutions The acquittal of two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge-fund managers in a subprime-mortgage fraud case that relied heavily on e-mail evidence may make it more difficult for the government to win related cases based on similar facts.


• Santander's Madoff Losses Trigger Criminal Charges for Ex-Boss of Optimal Manuel Echeverria, the former head of Banco Santander SA’s Optimal Investment Services unit in Geneva, has been charged with criminal mismanagement over his handling of client funds invested with Bernard Madoff.


• Google Made `Strategic' AdMob Purchase to Expand IPhone Ads, Schmidt Says Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said his company’s $750 million purchase of AdMob Inc. will expand sales of ads that appear in applications on smart phones such as the iPhone.


• Commercial Real Estate Crisis Looming for U.S., Zisler Says: Chart of Day “A crisis of unprecedented proportions is approaching” in the U.S. commercial real-estate market, according to Randall Zisler, chief executive officer of Zisler Capital Partners LLC.


• ING's Breakup Offers `Rare' Chance for Insurers to Buy in Emerging Markets ING Groep NV’s decision to split off 12 billion euros ($18 billion) of insurance businesses is likely to have competitors jostling for its units in emerging markets on three continents, analysts said.


• Volkswagen Board Is Said to Consider Buying Component-Maker Karmann Assets Volkswagen AG will consider the purchase of assets from insolvent automaker Wilhelm Karmann GmbH at a board meeting today, three people familiar with the situation said.


• Colombia Isn't Considering Capital Controls, Finance Minister Zuluaga Says Colombia isn’t considering implementing capital controls to stem gains in the peso, Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga said.


• Renault Targets U.S. Partner Better Place for French Electric-Car Network Renault SA plans to bring in U.S. partner Better Place to run its future electric-car charging network in its home market of France, Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata said.


• FDIC's 20% Shorter `Merit' Examinations Preceded Failures of Three Banks At least three U.S. banks failed in the past year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deemed them healthy enough to qualify for a program that reduced the time examiners spent on reviews by at least 20 percent.


• Monsanto Faces `Distrust' as New Seeds Seek to Blunt DuPont's Sales Gains Monsanto Co., reeling from its first market-share losses to DuPont Co. in a decade, may be losing the confidence of some investors based on early results from the new modified seeds it’s counting on to beat competitors.

Bloomberg Daily News 12th November 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• FDIC's 20% Shorter `Merit' Examinations Preceded Failures of Three Banks At least three U.S. banks failed in the past year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deemed them healthy enough to qualify for a program that reduced the time examiners spent on reviews by at least 20 percent.


• Monsanto Faces `Distrust' as New Seeds Seek to Blunt DuPont's Sales Gains Monsanto Co., reeling from its first market-share losses to DuPont Co. in a decade, may be losing the confidence of some investors based on early results from the new modified seeds it’s counting on to beat competitors.


• Barclays, Bank of America, JPMorgan Vie to Manage Indian Share Offerings Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are competing to sell shares for state-run companies in India as the government plans the biggest sell-off in at least five years.


• Spherix Sought Investments, `Information Edge' From Technology Executives When Richard Choo-Beng Lee and Ali Far set up Spherix Capital LLC last year, they counted on former bosses, Silicon Valley executives, Wall Street analysts and hedge-fund managers to be their first investors, according to the firm’s marketing documents.


• Dancing Bin Laden Doll, Terrorist-Headband Kitsch Chronicle Gaza's History “I can offer you a discount on the headbands,” said Tareq Abu Dayyeh, souvenir-store owner. “They’re just like the kind used by suicide bombers.”


• Biggest S&P 500 Gains Enhanced in '09 by Dollar Collapse: Chart of the Day Shares of U.S. companies getting a majority of their sales overseas are doing the best this year on speculation the dollar’s decline to an almost 15-month low is boosting earnings.


• DAX World-Beating Gain Since Wall Crumbled Led by Carl Zeiss Unity Exports In the 44 years that Carl Zeiss AG was forced to operate as two companies, separated by a Cold War dividing East and West Germany, the stock market in Europe’s biggest economy was about as exciting as sausage and sauerkraut.


• SAC Said to Tell Investors an Internal Review Found No Suspicious Trading SAC Capital Advisors LLC, the hedge- fund firm run by Steven Cohen, reviewed its buying and selling of stocks cited in the Galleon Group LLC insider-trading cases and found nothing suspicious, according to one of its investors.

Bloomberg Daily News 11th November 2009