The first global bank to offer credit cards in China…

Regulators are still scrutinizing the deal, but opposition to the deal is mounting.

via NY POST

Shut your pie hole!

That’s the message that notoriously press-averse Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has sent around Wall Street recently, telling Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the other banks involved in his company’s $100 billion IPO to stop leaking juicy tidbits to the media and to stop talking up the stock offering to clients, The Post has learned.

Zuckerberg, 27, whose stake in the social network giant amounts, in round figures, to around $28 billion, wasn’t too happy that some aspects of the much-anticipated initial stock float — including the fact that its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission would take place on Feb. 1 — were disclosed. Facebook officials let the bankers know about it through phone calls and e-mails, sources said.

Facebook officials also appeared to also be irked about what appeared to be subtle sniping in the press between Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs centered on which firm would grab the coveted lead underwriting role on the IPO — the highest profile since Google went public with a $1.7 billion offering back 2004.

Zuckerberg’s warning appears to be working.

The powers that be at each bank, sources said, have reacted by warning employees not to discuss the filing.

“[Facebook] wants to be taken seriously and viewed as a blue-ship company,” said one bank official familiar with the listing, but not authorized to speak publicly.

Facebook and its team of underwriters are in a so-called quiet period since filing the paperwork, known as an S-1, with regulators.

Although the Facebook e-mails and calls contained no threats, running afoul of Zuckerberg could result in a bank getting dropped from the IPO. Just two years ago, UBS was dumped from the group of banks handling General Motors’ much-anticipated IPO.

For the banks, the Facebook IPO means more than just the $40 million it could earn from the deal. Indeed, landing the prestigious Facebook offering is likely to have a halo effect that could help a bank land future tech IPOs. Getting booted from the deal can have the same halo effect — in reverse.

At lead underwriter Morgan Stanley, the reaction to Facebook’s warning has been quick and unambiguous. Its private wealth advisers were admonished to stay mum on the upcoming IPO — a difficult task considering clients are clamoring to get in on the action.

The hush-hush mandate comes as the underwriters are gearing up in the coming week or two to hash over — with Zuckerberg, CFO David Ebersman and COO Sheryl Sandberg — the most appropriate valuation for the Menlo Park, Calif., company.

Despite the white-knuckle media frenzy surrounding Facebook, underwriters will be aiming to hit a sweet spot of offering the social media giant’s shares at a level that deep-pocketed institutional investors can wrap their head and their wallets around.

A $100 billion valuation for the IPO would peg Facebook at an eye-popping 100 times its profits of $1 billion in 2011.
Read more: http://trade.cc/ahyb

(via examiner.com)

As we announced in an October 2011 article , MGM Grand is undergoing a major renovation project in Las Vegas. New faces will adorn rooms, bathrooms, elevators, hallways, and the central rotunda area.

The hotel has just installed a full – scale mockup of their new standard King rooms in the main lobby for folks to check out. The rooms feature a neutral pallette of beige, brown, and panda color schemes. Other features include 42″ LCD televisions, LEED certified carpeting, Caesarstone motif platforms, and a desk nook table with chairs.

Though the bathroom facelift is not presented in the lobby mockup, baths will feature new hardware, lighting, new door handles and hinges, new paint, shower fixtures, curved curtain rods, and “electric” mirrors.

We phoned the hotel to confirm that some of the new rooms are indeed available for booking. Midweek rates for a two – queenbed room on December 22, 2011 were quoted at $75 per night plus taxes and resort fees ( grand total of $106.40 ). That nightly rate is about $20 more than the quoted going rate ($55) for their old standard rooms. Even though we’re currently right in the middle of the lowest average annual room rate windows for Las Vegas, the mere $20 disparity in old vs new room rates is quite encouraging.

Cool…

Cheers…

Charles Higgins

Article info source = Vegas Chatter

“The impact is not as big as some people may think,” said Yang, who recommends buying Qihoo 360’s shares. The company derives no revenue from offering mobile-phone applications at present, she said.

Carolyn Wu, a spokeswoman at Apple in Beijing, said she was trying to obtain more information about the removals.

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Depomed Inc. (DEPO) gained 7.5 percent to $7.2. The drugmaker said it will get “modest, single-digit royalties” on net product sales of Merck & Co.’s (MRK US) type 2 diabetes Janumet XR until the expiration of the licensed patents.

General Motors Co. (GM) rose 1.2 percent to $26.50. The automaker is likely to report net income in 2011 was $8 billion when it reports earnings on Feb. 16, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people who have seen the figures. That compares with the average analyst estimate of $7.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Hasbro Inc. (HAS) declined 5.5 percent to $33.89. The world’s second-biggest toymaker reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.33 billion, falling short of the average analyst estimate of $1.34 billion.

Micron Technology Inc. (MU) fell 2.6 percent to $7.74. Steve Appleton, the memory-chip industry’s longest-serving chief executive officer, died after crashing an experimental plane in Boise, Idaho. Chief Operating Officer Mark Durcan will assume the CEO’s responsibilities until a successor is chosen.

Riverbed Technology Inc. (RVBD) rose 2.3 percent to $26.51. The maker of computer-networking products was raised to “outperform” from “sector perform” at Pacific Crest Securities Inc.

Sohu.com Inc. (SOHU) fell 13 percent to $55. The owner of China’s third-biggest search-engine posted an unexpected 39 percent decline in profit as the company incurred a charge from acquisitions, eroding higher advertising and games sales.

SureWest Communications (SURW) rallied 9.1 percent to $17.01. Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. (CNSL US) is agreed to buy the operator of an integrated network of communications products for $23 a share.

TiVo Inc. (TIVO) climbed 6.9 percent to $12. The digital-video recording pioneer may rise to $18 or higher as patent-lawsuit settlements boost income and its digital- recording technology attracts takeover bids, Barron’s reported.

Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY) declined 2.2 percent to $20.84. The U.S. lumber producer and home builder was cut to “sell” from “neutral” at UBS AG.

Zogenix Inc. (ZGNX) retreated 10 percent to $2.45. The specialty pharmaceutical company filed a plan to sell as much as $75 million of securities. Proceeds will be used to help fund the commercialization of its Sumavel DosePro and Zohydro drugs and develop new product candidates.

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AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Aetna, Inc. (NYSE: AET) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Sell at S&P Equity Research.
Ann Inc. (NYSE: ANN) Cut to Underperform at Barclays.
Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) Reiterated Buy with $52 price target at Argus.
Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.
Polypore International Inc. (NYSE: PPO) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (NYSE: SKX) Raised to Neutral at Stern Agee.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA) Cut to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.
Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) Reiterated Buy with $90 target at Argus.
Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) Cut to Sell at UBS.

Gapping up

HCA +2.6% , DEPO +6.4%, TIVO +6.9%,  RVBD +3.5% , GOLD +3.3%, NBG +1.7%, SURW +9% , THLD +12.7%, DEPO +7.0%, GM +2.3%,  CFX +3.5% ,  PPO +2.4%,

FDX +1.0%, GLW +1.5% ,  KRA +0.6%,

Gapping down

ZGNX -12.1%, ANR -4.3%, DB -3.6%, MT -3.5%, TS -2.8%, MU -1.9%, RIO -1.1%, OHU -11.2%, CYOU -6.2%, HUM -3.2%, HAS -2.4%, : DB -2.9%, BCS -2.9%, ING -2.1%,

CS -1.9%, C -0.9%,  WY -2.3% ,  ABB -2.3%, MGM -1.9%,

In Play

On the Wires

Fidelity National Financial announces agreement to acquire O’Charley’s for $9.85 per share in cash

Ticker: CHUX

The company earned $0.65 per share vs $1.07 a year ago 

Along with good earnings the company reported a special $2 dividend…

Higher food costs helped to dampen better than expected revenues…

Nikon popped 13% on guidance of $939 million in profits…

By Juliet Eilperin

John Doerr was crying. The billionaire venture capitalist had come to the end of his now-famous March 8, 2007, TED talk on climate change and renewable energy, and his emotions were getting the better of him. Doerr had begun by describing how his teenage daughter told him that it was up to his generation to fix global warming, since they had caused it. After detailing how the public and private sectors had so far failed at this, Doerr, who made his fortune investing early in companies that became some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names—Netscape, Amazon.com, and Google, among others—exhorted the audience and his peers (largely one and the same) to band together and transform the nation’s energy supply. “I really, really hope we multiply all of our energy, all of our talent, and all of our influence to solve this problem,” he said, falling silent as he fought back tears. “Because if we do, I can look forward to the conversation I’m going to have with my daughter in 20 years.”

As usual, Doerr’s timing was perfect. Just weeks earlier, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had won an Oscar for best documentary. (Gore is now a partner in Doerr’s green tech team at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.) Interest in climate change had never been higher. And as the economy recovered from the dual shocks of the Internet bubble and 9/11, Doerr’s fellow Silicon Valley VCs were already looking to clean technology as the next big thing. What followed was yet another Silicon Valley gold rush, as the firms on Sand Hill Road were pulled along by the promise of new fortunes and the hope that they would be the ones to wean America off of fossil fuels. The entrepreneurs and tech investors who had transformed media and communications were ready to make Silicon Valley the Saudi Arabia of clean energy.

Never mind the fact that green technology had been struggling to achieve critical mass for decades. “You had folks who came in with the hubris to say, ‘I know these guys have been working on this for 50 years,’” says Andrew Beebe, chief commercial officer for Suntech, the Chinese solar manufacturer. “‘But I’ve got $50 million and I can blow the doors off this thing.’”

In 2005, VC investment in clean tech measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The following year, it ballooned to $1.75 billion, according to the National Venture Capital Association. By 2008, the year after Doerr’s speech, it had leaped to $4.1 billion. And the federal government followed. Through a mix of loans, subsidies, and tax breaks, it directed roughly $44.5 billion into the sector between late 2009 and late 2011. Avarice, altruism, and policy had aligned to fuel a spectacular boom.

Anyone who has heard the name Solyndra knows how this all panned out. Due to a confluence of factors—including fluctuating silicon prices, newly cheap natural gas, the 2008 financial crisis, China’s ascendant solar industry, and certain technological realities—the clean-tech bubble has burst, leaving us with a traditional energy infrastructure still overwhelmingly reliant on fossil fuels. The fallout has hit almost every niche in the clean-tech sector—wind, biofuels, electric cars, and fuel cells—but none more dramatically than solar.

Read the rest here.

FRAUD..really ?

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