Euro Economy » 2012 » April

Blackstone notifies Cohen's SAC it intends to pull money: pension consultant

By Matthew Goldstein (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen is losing the financial support of Blackstone Group Inc, the largest outside investor in his embattled SAC Capital Advisors, which is yanking much of its client money, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters. A pension consultant, in a May 21 letter to clients, said Blackstone has notified Cohen that it intends to "fully redeem" a significant portion of the roughly $550 million the investment firm has invested with the $15 billion hedge fund. ...

News Corp to take charge of up to $1.4 billion this quarter

By Jennifer Saba (Reuters) - News Corp said on Friday it will write down the value of its Australian and U.S. publishing assets by up to $1.4 billion, as the company prepares to split its business between its newspaper and entertainment operations. The company said the goodwill impairment charge was primarily for its Australia newspapers though it gave no more details. It also said it expected reduced cash flows in the future. The charge will be taken in the quarter ending June 30 and could effectively wipe out News Corp's profit. ...

Lobbying in American-US Airways deal focuses on small cities

By Karen Jacobs (Reuters) - US Airways Group and American Airlines , seeking approval for a merger that would create the world's largest airline, are warning lawmakers that a requirement to divest certain airport slots would lead to less service for small and medium-sized cities, sources close to the effort told Reuters. The airlines may be required to shed slots Washington's Reagan National Airport to prevent market domination. There is concern that those slots could go to rivals, such as JetBlue Airways , which would likely use them for flights to major cities. ...

Exclusive: In surprise, General Growth eyes New York office tower

By Ilaina Jonas NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc has paired with Brookfield Office Properties Inc to bid for an expensive New York building in what could mark the No. 2 U.S. mall owner's entry into a new segment of the retail real estate market, according to two sources familiar with the deal. Bids for the 27-story office and retail building at 650 Madison Avenue, one of the toniest shopping and office districts in Manhattan, could exceed $1.3 billion, the sources said. Other bidders include Vornado Realty Trust , one of the sources said. ...

Visa, Mastercard ask U.S. court to declare card fees are lawful

By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, opening another front in an eight-year battle over credit card fees paid by retailers, on Friday asked a federal judge to declare that the fees do not violate antitrust law. The lawsuit seeks to give the card companies legal ammunition against some retailers who are trying to opt out a proposed settlement under which they would receive a share of $7.2 billion in cash and fee discounts from the card companies. ...

Yahoo joins growing list of bidders for Hulu: sources

By Ronald Grover and Greg Roumeliotis LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc has submitted a formal proposal to buy Hulu, joining a growing list of bidders for the video service owned by News Corp and Walt Disney Co, two sources with knowledge of the bid told Reuters on Friday. Yahoo just this week announced a $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr. It now joins rival bidders for Hulu, including Time Warner Cable Inc, DirecTV, former News Corp president Peter Chernin and Guggenheim Digital Media, sources have said. It is unclear how much the Internet company bid. ...

Chinese premier criticizes EU move on trade measures

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang criticized the European Union over its plans to investigate alleged anti-competitive behavior by Chinese mobile telecom equipment makers and to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China, state media reported. The official Xinhua news agency reported late on Friday that Li had told business leaders in Switzerland such measures would "harm others without benefiting oneself". Li is the most senior Chinese official to comment on the troublesome issue so far. ...

Ex-Virginia bank executives guilty in financial crisis case

(Reuters) - The former chief executive of a failed U.S. bank in Norfolk, Virginia, and three others were convicted Friday of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges in connection with a scheme to conceal loan losses that contributed to the bank's collapse in 2011. Edward Woodard, the former chief executive of Bank of the Commonwealth, was found guilty along with two other executives by a federal jury in Norfolk following a multi-week trial, the U.S. Justice Department said. Federal prosecutors are pursuing several cases stemming from the U.S. ...

U.S. audit regulator reaches deal with China on document access

By Dena Aubin and Sarah N. Lynch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators will get access to Chinese companies' audit documents under a deal announced on Friday, opening the way to probes of bungled audits after a two-year stand-off between China and the United States. The nonbinding deal is only a partial victory for the United States, which has been blocked from investigating accounting scandals at dozens of Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. It applies only to enforcement cases against auditors, not against China-based companies suspected of accounting fraud. ...

Rebuilding rules as rain soaks Jersey shore

MANASQUAN, N.J. (AP) — Saws and sledgehammers joined beer and barbecues — under covered porches — as a fixture of the first Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey shore since Superstorm Sandy roared through.