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Lost Opportunities Haunt Final Days of Bear Stearns
Twelve hours after agreeing to sell Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE:BSC) for $2 a share, Alan Schwartz wearily made his way to the company gym for a much-needed workout. It was 6:45 a.m., March 17, and Bear Stearns’s chief executive had slept little since hammering out the ugly details of his fire-sale deal with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)
S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home-Price Index Fell 14.4% in March
Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most on record, pointing to continued weakness in the housing market that will further drag on the economy.
Vodafone CEO Sarin to Retire
Arun Sarin is retiring as CEO of Vodafone Group (NYSE:VOD) at the end of July, to be replaced CEO Deputy CEO Vittorio Colao. The Britain-based telecommunications company, which owns a 50% stake in Verizon Wireless with Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), said the company mor than doubled its customer base in Sarin’s five years at the helm to 260 million.
Crude Oil Trades Near $133 After Attack on Nigerian Pipeline
Crude oil rose, trading near $133 a barrel in New York, after a militant attack in Nigeria disrupted supplies from Africa’s largest producer.
Lofty Prices for Fertilizer Put Farmers in a Squeeze
At a time when food prices are soaring world-wide, so is the price of fertilizer, producing huge profits for leading fertilizer makers and stirring anger among farmers in the U.S. and India.
U.S. Stock Futures Rise, Led by Oil Shares; Halliburton Gains
U.S. stock-index futures gained as an advance in oil prices boosted energy shares, overshadowing predictions Wall Street banks will report more credit losses.
LG Looking at GE Appliance Unit
LG Electronics Co. is taking a close look at General Electric Co.’s (NYSE:GE) appliance unit, which has been put up for sale, according to its chief executive officer.
Lehman, Goldman, Morgan Estimates Lowered by Analysts
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) had their second-quarter profit estimates cut by Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Sanford C. Bernstein analysts on the risk of further asset writedowns.
XM-Sirius Success Hinges on Concessions
If special interest groups get their way, a joined XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) may never resemble the satellite juggernaut Wall Street is expecting the merger to create.
TeliaSonera to Sell iPhone In Nordic, Baltic States
Telecom operator TeliaSonera (STO:TLSN) Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to bring the iPhone to the Nordic and Baltic markets. The Stockholm-based operator said it would bring the handset to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.
Blackstone and Apollo Are In Talks to Buy Chemtura
Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) and Apollo Management LP are in talks to acquire specialty-chemicals company Chemtura Corp. (NYSE:CEM), according to a person familiar with the situation.
Vitec Sales Shift Snares Gates Foundation as Investor
Bill Gates’s $37 billion foundation is buying shares of Vitec Group Plc (LON:VTC), the U.K. broadcast-equipment maker helping NBC cover the Beijing Olympics, as the century-old company transforms itself from a tripod vendor to a one-stop shop for TV studios.
SABMiller Rises as FT Says InBev Considering Merger
SABMiller Plc (LON:SAB), the world’s third- largest brewer, rose the most since 2005 in London trading after the Financial Times reported InBev NV is weighing a merger between the companies.
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