Frontrunning: July 15

  • Microsoft to announce biggest round of job cuts in 5 years (BBG)
  • Palestinian rocket fire persists, Israel warns truce at risk (Reuters)
  • China tells U.S. to stay out of South China Seas dispute (Reuters)
  • Merkel Resists Sundering U.S. Ties Over Spying Affair (BBG)
  • BES slide, tumbling German sentiment hit markets (Reuters)
  • Top 1 Percent Is Even Richer Than Surveys Say, ECB Paper Finds (BBG)
  • Puerto Rico Utility May Default on January Interest Payment (BBG)
  • Can’t Get a Job From an Algorithm, or So It Seems as Hot Resumes Go Nowhere Fast (BBG)
  • Bank of China-CCTV drama may reveal power struggle in Beijing (SCMP)
  • Quid pro quo: Qatar Air CEO Moves Toward Boeing 777X Sign-off, Slams A380 (BBG)
  • Iraq army launches Tikrit offensive, politicians elect speaker (Reuters)
  • Billionaire’s breakup plan would chop California into six states (Reuters)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* U.S. drugmaker AbbVie Inc is close to clinching a deal to buy Dublin-based Shire Plc for more than £31 billion ($53 billion), in what would be one of the largest so-called inversion deals through which U.S. companies are seeking a lower corporate tax burden. (http://on.wsj.com/1zDiEQ2)

* On Monday, the Citigroup Inc agreed to pay $7 billion, including a $4 billion civil penalty to the Justice Department, $500 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and several states, and $2.5 billion earmarked for “consumer relief,” to settle the U.S. government’s allegations it knowingly sold shoddy mortgages ahead of the financial crisis. (http://on.wsj.com/1sWCQb3)

* On Tuesday, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd <IPO-BABA.N> announced a deal with U.S. production studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp to make available on Alibaba set-top boxes offerings such as the “Twilight” hit vampire movie series and the TV show “Mad Men.” The partnership beefs up Alibaba’s entertainment menu as China’s Internet-savvy consumers are increasingly going online to watch TV shows, videos and movies. (http://on.wsj.com/1p0uo7T)

* Pilot Flying J, the nation’s largest truck-stop chain, accepted responsibility for the criminal conduct of its employees and agreed to pay $92 million in penalties in a settlement with the federal government. (http://on.wsj.com/1n4XYw5)

* The National Basketball Association is seeking to double the TV-rights fees it receives from ESPN majority owner Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Inc’s Turner Broadcasting, as the league looks to lock up deals for nationally televised games in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/1rmQJzc)

* Lou Eccleston, who led the fast-growing S&P Capital IQ division at McGraw Hill Financial Inc departed Monday to pursue other opportunities, according to an internal company memo. (http://on.wsj.com/1nBcafn)

* The Justice Department is investigating possible pricing coordination among music publishing companies as it reviews the decades-old rules that govern the cost of licensing songs, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/Uaeo9W)

 

FT

AbbVie is close to clinching a 31 billion pound ($52.75 billion) takeover of Shire, which sells drugs for rare diseases, in what would be the latest example of a U.S. company buying a European rival motivated by tax benefits.

Citigroup Inc posted second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and agreed to pay $7 billion to settle a U.S. government probe into the sale of mortgage-backed securities.

U.S.-based generic drugmaker Mylan said it would pay $5.3 billion for Abbott Laboratories’ generic drugs unit, giving Mylan access to more than 100 generic medicines in developed markets outside of the United States.

Airbus Group revealed plans on Monday for a new version of its popular A330 aircraft featuring more fuel-efficient engines, hoping to challenge Boeing Co’s dominance in long-range passenger jets.

Change Capital Partners is buying Italian luxury linens maker Frette, hoping to revive the 150-year-old company that supplied the Titanic and the Orient Express, according to a person familiar with the deal.

 

NYT

* The $7 billion deal that Citigroup Inc agreed to strike with the Justice Department involves one of the largest cash penalties ever paid to settle a federal inquiry into a bank suspected of mortgage misdeeds. (http://nyti.ms/1qbJo8t)

* Audit firm Ernst and Young LLP agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it violated independence rules by lobbying on behalf of two of its audit clients. (http://nyti.ms/WebVgn)

* Yahoo Inc will live stream Dave Matthews Band’s concert at The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday night, which will be the first in its ambitious partnership with Live Nation Entertainment Inc to supply free live video streams of a different concert each day for an entire year. (http://nyti.ms/1nqRQJ2)

* IAC/InterActiveCorp has acquired parts of HowAboutWe, a Brooklyn-based start-up. Representatives for the Match Group and HowAboutWe confirmed the deal but would not disclose the price. HowAboutWe hosts a handful of online romance sites; its marquee offerings are HowAboutWe Dating, a matchmaking and date-suggestion service for singles, and HowAboutWe Couples, a date-suggestion service. (http://nyti.ms/1n55Ttp)

* Twenty-First Century Fox Inc said that it was combining its broadcasting company and studio group into one business, reflecting the broader changes sweeping across the television landscape as global and digital outlets for programming proliferate. (http://nyti.ms/1zE01vq)

* Three former top executives at Dewey & LeBoeuf, charged by New York prosecutors with breaking the law in a failed bid to keep the struggling law firm afloat, contend they always intended to pay back the firm’s lenders and bond investors. (http://nyti.ms/1mcXe26)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** The Ontario Liberals are promising to build more transit, dole out grants to businesses, create a new provincial pension plan and develop the Ring of Fire mineral deposit – all while balancing the budget in three years. (http://bit.ly/1ylcvX0)

** A new wave of court actions has been filed in relation to the Northern Gateway project, adding to the legal challenges dogging the C$7.9 billion ($7.36 billion) proposal and raising more questions about if and when it will proceed. (http://bit.ly/1qCDSri)

Starting near Edmonton, Alberta, Enbridge Inc’s Northern Gateway would run 1,177 km (730 miles) – mostly through the wilderness of northern British Columbia – to Kitimat, a deepwater port on the Pacific Coast.

Reports in the business section:

** As mobile gaming becomes increasingly popular in China, Baidu Inc, China’s biggest search engine company, is visiting Vancouver and Toronto to see if it can strike productive relationships with Canadian game developers. (http://bit.ly/1oD4828)

NATIONAL POST

** The New Democratic Party’s appeal for the Federal Court of Canada to overturn a decision by the House of Commons’ governing body has been blasted by a Conservative backbencher as an attempt to take away power from Parliament and turn it over to the judiciary. (http://bit.ly/WetOvJ)

** Calgary police have arrested a suspect who is facing murder charges in the disappearance of Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents Alvin and Kathryn Liknes, but one relative says the family still hopes they are alive. (http://bit.ly/Weu0ee)

FINANCIAL POST

** The dramatic rise of U.S. crude oil and natural gas production is disrupting even long-established trade flows inside Canada, as Alberta producers are increasingly finding themselves competing for – and losing – market share to American petroleum suppliers, even in their home province. (http://bit.ly/1r0LvtG)

** More than five years after the global recession kicked the legs out from under business jet demand, sales are gradually improving in the hardest-hit parts of the market, according to the head of Bombardier Inc’s business aircraft division. (http://bit.ly/1zEqLfd)

 

Hong Kong

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

— New World Development Co Ltd plans to open its K11 Art Malls in 11 mainland cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Tianjin. It expects the shopping malls could rake in annual sales of 20 billion yuan ($3.26 billion) when they become operational, said Executive Director Adrian Cheng. (http://ift.tt/1ylLHWD)

— Peach, Japan’s first budget airline, will receive its tenth aircraft next month but continue to limit its network to a four-hour flying zone in order to maximise resources. The carrier would increase its fleet to 17 by 2015, said Chief Executive Shinichi Inoue. (http://ift.tt/1ylLHWH)

— Sales at two new residential property projects in Yuen Long over the weekend exceeded expectations, showing that buyers are becoming active again after a standstill due to the government’s measures to cool the property market. (http://ift.tt/1nCM9ME)

THE STANDARD

— Wheelock and Co Ltd has become the biggest developer in Tseung Kwan O South with the clinching of its latest site adding four plots worth nearly HK$10 billion ($1.29 billion) into its land bank. The company would invest up to HK$8.5 billion in the latest plot it acquired, said Managing Director Ricky Wong. (http://ift.tt/1ylLHWN)

APPLE DAILY

— China All Access (Holdings) Ltd would continue to focus on the smartphone market and is participating in pilot production with TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd , said Chief Executive Director Shao Kwok Keung.

— Beijing Jingneng Clean Energy Co Ltd expects net profit for the first six months to increase by more than 35 percent from a year earlier, as gas-fired power and heat energy generation capacity grows.

 

Britain

The Times

WILLIAM HAGUE STANDS DOWN AMID BLOODY CABINET PURGE

William Hague is standing down as British foreign secretary it was announced last night as Prime Minister David Cameron carried out a bloody cabinet purge. (http://thetim.es/1qb5yrk)

SHIRE FINALLY TEMPTED BY 1 BLN STG MEGA-MERGER WITH U.S. RIVAL

The blockbuster merger between Shire and AbbVie took a big step closer after the British drugs company announced it is willing to recommend a sweetened 31.4 billion pound ($53.43 billion) bid. (http://thetim.es/1qb5DLB)

BRITISH BANK SUES TYCOON FOR 35 MLN STG AMID FRAUD CLAIMS

Standard Chartered has launched a legal attack on the Chinese tycoon at the centre of a “missing metals” fraud scandal that has hit commodities trading at one of the world’s busiest ports. (http://thetim.es/U5nvZp)

The Guardian

CO-OP BANK CHAIRMAN JOINS ALLIED IRISH BANK

Veteran banker Richard Pym has been appointed chairman of Allied Irish Bank, the lender that received a 21 billion euro ($28.65 billion) bailout from the Irish taxpayer. (http://bit.ly/1npFEYN)

CHINA CHARGES GSK FOREIGN CONSULTANTS WITH ILLEGAL INVESTIGATION

Chinese prosecutors have formally indicted a British-U.S. couple on the charge of “illegally obtaining private information on Chinese citizens”, one year after they were detained in connection with an increasingly murky bribery case against the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. (http://bit.ly/1yj1qpA)

INTEREST RATE FEARS PUT BRAKES ON SALES

Shoppers put the brakes on spending last month amid concerns over the potential for higher interest rates, a retail industry report suggests. (http://bit.ly/1oW0OlE)

The Telegraph

CABLE BLOCKS 1 BLN STG SALE OF LAND REGISTRY IN WAKE OF BOTCHED ROYAL MAIL DEAL

Britain’s government has scrapped plans to privatise the Land Registry after Vince Cable vetoed the deal in the wake of Royal Mail’s controversial flotation. (http://bit.ly/1wmVlp7)

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE COULD SEE STERLING FALL 10 PCT, SAYS MORGAN STANLEY

Scottish independence could see the value of sterling drop by up to 10 percent, leave the rest of the UK more exposed to financial risks and delay a decision on increasing interest rates beyond the general election. (http://bit.ly/1qaOoKy)

KIDDICARE SOLD FOR 2 MLN STG TO ENDLESS PRIVATE EQUITY

Supermarket group Morrisons has sold its childrenswear business, Kiddicare, for 2 million pounds to private equity firm Endless after a brief, but disastrous ownership. Morrisons bought Kiddicare for 70 million pounds in 2011 but suffered a 163 million pound write down on its investment. (http://bit.ly/WdgYh6)

Sky News

CITY WATCHDOG TO UNVEIL PAYDAY LOAN CAP

Britain’s financial regulator will unveil plans on Tuesday for a lower-than-expected cap on the cost of payday loans in a move that will create one of the world’s most stringent regulatory regimes for the fast-credit industry. (http://bit.ly/1mbuaYI)

The Independent

BANK OF ENGLAND URGED TO RESOLVE JOBS ‘CRISIS’ BEFORE RAISING RATES BY TUC

The Trades Union Congress will today seek to send a shot across the bows of hawks on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee by warning that unemployment is still too high to contemplate a rise in interest rates. (http://ind.pn/1knB4ud)

 

 

 

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