| CATEGORY: INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES |
US paper round-up: General Motors, TARP, Cisco Systems |
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Mon 16 Nov 2009
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - General Motors will begin paying back $6.7 billion in US government loans by the end of 2009 and could pay off that full amount by 2011, four years ahead of schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter, writes USA Today.
The Obama administration is leaning towards extending the troubled asset relief programme into next year, retaining part of the $700bn war chest in case of another financial emergency, says the FT.
Cisco Systems said Monday it is raising its bid offer for Norway's Tandberg ASA to 170 Norwegian kroner ($30.35 ) per share, in a deal valuing the company at $3.39 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US Federal Reserve is fuelling “speculative investments” and endangering global recovery through loose monetary policy, a senior Chinese official warned on Sunday just hours before President Barack Obama arrived in China for his first visit, reports the FT.
A year ago, the financial system was tottering and government officials arranged a $2.3 billion emergency cash infusion into CIT Group, a troubled lender to small businesses. Today, CIT is in bankruptcy court, and the taxpayers' investment is on the brink of being wiped out. It would be the largest loss so far from the government's massive rescue of the financial system, but it isn't likely to be the last, says the Washington Post.
With the nation's unemployment rate at a 26-year-high of 10.2%, more Americans are hunting for, and landing, work overseas, according to staffing companies and executive search firms. Jeff Joerres, CEO of Manpower, the No. 1 US staffing company, says about 500 clients are seeking jobs abroad, up from a few dozen six months ago, writes USA Today.
The financial crisis hasn't been kind to General Electric. Its stock has lost almost half its value, the government has stepped in to prop up its enormous financial arm, and sales have slumped in core industrial businesses. But Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt now has his eye on a huge new pool of potential revenue: Uncle Sam's stimulus dollars, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Barack Obama conceded on Sunday that next month’s Copenhagen summit would not produce a legally binding agreement to tackle global warming, but left the door open to a substantive deal at the climate change conference, according to the FT.
Citigroup said Sunday that it is selling its controlling stake in Japan's leading call center operator, Bellsystem24, to private equity firm Bain Capital Partners in a deal that values the operation at $1.1 billion, says the Chicago Tribune.
Bristol-Myers Squibb said it is moving to split off its nutritionals business in a deal valued at up to about $6.5 billion, an unusual bid to focus the drug maker on its core medicine business. The unit, Mead Johnson Nutrition, is best known for its Enfamil infant formula. Bristol-Myers Chief Executive James Cornelius has wanted to concentrate the company on pharmaceuticals, writes the Wall Street Journal.
In a move to allay its critics and the Justice Department, Google filed in federal court a revised legal settlement that would allow it to distribute millions of digital books online, according to the Washington Post.
Eight decades after pioneering the concept of broadcasting, NBC is on the verge of a startling move that illustrates broadcast television's decline. Cable TV operator Comcast is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, bringing the network of Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Tom Brokaw under the corporate control of the company that owns the Golf Channel and E! Entertainment Television, says the Chicago Tribune.
Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years. In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts, writes the NY Times.
It might appear small change compared with the billions lost through Bernard Madoff’s $65bn Ponzi fraud but the scheme’s victims are at least set for a small piece of payback. Nearly 200 items belonging to Madoff and his wife Ruth were auctioned in New York on Saturday by the US government, with the proceeds going towards compensating the victims. The auction raised about $1m, reports the FT.
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