$$$ Bill Gross: Debt Solution ‘A Few Years Away,” Dollar ‘At Risk’ [CNBC]

$$$ Fire your hedge fund, hire your Congressman [Barron's]

$$$ RIL-DE Shaw venture to offer entire spectrum of services [Business Standard]

$$$ In Brazil, The Bikini Wax Is A Harbinger Of Inflation [BusinessWeek]

$$$ Pickens: We’re fueling terror by paying OPEC [CNBC]

$$$ That’s it for us today. We’re off Monday for the holiday, enjoy the long weekend and see you on Tuesday!

$$$ Roubini Sees Stock-Correction ‘Tipping Point’ [Bloomberg]

$$$ Shadow Banking Makes A Comeback [DealBook]

$$$ HSBC Shareholder Vent Anger [WSJ]

$$$ William Ackman said he found Harvard College “a pretty WASPy place.”
“So what did I do? I joined the crew team to meet some other Jewish kids.” The chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management LP gave a rather intimate biography last night — beginning with his circumcision, ending with marrying a Jewish girl (to his parent’s delight) — as the keynote speaker of the Hillel Renaissance Award dinner. [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

U.S. May Pursue More Lenders After Suing Deutsche Bank on Loans (Bloomberg)
“We go where the evidence takes us, and if it takes us to the larger players on Wall Street, so be it,” Kanovsky said. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said it wouldn’t be a “fantastical stretch” for prosecutors to scrutinize other lenders.

Steep Drop Tarnishes Big Bets On Silver (WSJ)
George Soros’s big hedge fund, a firm operated by high-profile investor John Burbank and some other leading firms have been selling gold and silver, according to people close to the matter, after furiously accumulating precious metals for much of the past two years…Some others with stellar records—including Mr. Burbank, of Passport Capital, and Alan Fournier, of Pennant Capital—also have been passionate about precious metals, giving encouragement to individual investors to follow. Now they are selling, in each case for distinct reasons…[John] Paulson told investors Tuesday morning that gold prices could go as high as $4,000 an ounce over the next three to five years, as the U.S. and U.K. flood the money supply…Andrew Hall, a former star trader at Citigroup who runs hedge fund Astenbeck Capital Management LLC and trades for Phibro, a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp., told his clients last month that gold and silver will continue to “march higher” unless evidence emerges of “an imminent rise” in interest rates.

Official: Portugal bailout to be $115 billion‎ (BusinessWeek)
“The government got a good deal, one that safeguards Portugal,” Prime Minister Jose Socrates said in a televised address to the nation. He did not take questions.

Portugal aid terms likely to spark 2-year recession (Reuters)
An official source told Reuters the austerity measures to be included in the deal, such as higher taxes, point to a “contraction of 2 percent in gross domestic product in 2011 and in 2012″. That will make it yet more challenging for the heavily indebted country, which has had some of the lowest growth rates in Europe for a decade, to ride out its crisis and return to financial health. The source told Reuters taxes will rise on cars and property and there will be cuts in deductions on health, education and housing.

US Becomes Net Exporter of Fuel (FT)
The US has become a net exporter of fuel for the first time for nearly 20 years as drivers struggle with high petrol prices.

4 Billionaires at Glencore (BBC)
When Glencore publishes its full flotation prospectus later this morning, it will show that there are four billionaires working for the world’s leading commodities, minerals and energy trader. These are led by the chief executive Ivan Glasenberg, who will be shown to be worth around $10bn. But it is the quartet of billionaires, plus many others worth more than $100m each, and hundreds who are millionaires, that makes Glencore quite extraordinary.

U.S. Regulators Face Budget Pinch as Mandates Widen (NYT)
On a recent trip to New York to tour a trading floor, a group of employees from the commodities watchdog rode Mega Bus both ways, arriving late to their meeting despite a 5:30 a.m. departure. The bus, which cost $30 a person round trip, saved the agency roughly $1,000 over Amtrak…The money squeeze comes as Wall Street regulators take on added responsibilities in the wake of the financial crisis, including monitoring hedge funds, overseeing the $600 trillion derivatives market and other tasks mandated by the Dodd-Frank law.

Euro Approaches 18-Month High Versus Dollar Before ECB Decision (Bloomberg)
The 17-member common currency strengthened against all but one of its most actively traded peers as a report showed European services and manufacturing growth accelerated in April. The Dollar Index declined toward the lowest level since July 2008. New Zealand’s dollar dropped to a two-week low after a government report showed the nation had the biggest net outflow of residents in more than 10 years. The pound slumped to the weakest in more than a year against the euro.

Foreign Banks Get Scrutiny in Britain (WSJ)
The Financial Services Authority’s goal is to prevent certain companies from exploiting European rules to set up banking and brokerage operations that the agency views as potentially risky because they use a structure that doesn’t face tough local supervision. But the move by the FSA is controversial. Some observers said the pressure conflicts with Europe’s “passporting” rules, under which financial institutions from anywhere in the 30-country European Economic Area are allowed to open outposts in other member countries. Those “branches,” which can house a range of business activities, face limited oversight by local regulators. Instead, they primarily are the responsibility of regulators in their home countries.

KKR and TPG look to move into Brazil (FT)
KKR and TPG are hunting for a senior figure to lead their offices in Brazil, who will then recruit start- up teams, people in the industry said.

At Nasdaq, a Pitch and Woo (WSJ)
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. has rolled out the red carpet to hedge funds, racing to persuade them to buy up shares of NYSE Euronext to derail the Big Board’s planned tie-up with Deutsche Börse AG…Some merger arbitragers and hedge-fund investors have met with Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld three times in the last few weeks, people familiar with the matter said. They also are being offered private meetings with Mr. Greifeld and special tours of Nasdaq headquarters, these people said.

Southampton’s Former Goldman Sachs Party Pad Sells for $4.1M (Curbed)
In 2009, the New York Post caught wind that Goldman Sachs exec Richard Kimball Jr. was in hot water with the Southampton Police. Turns out Kimball, the ex-husband of Holly Peterson, was throwing pretty rowdy pool parties at his Southampton rental. But while Kimball was partying, the rental was trying to find itself a more permanent buyer.

Wall Street’s Cult Calculator Turns 30 (WSJ)
Thirty years after the launch of the 12c, it’s still commonplace for financial analysts filing into a conference room to set down their calculators next to their papers and cellphones. Indeed, the 12c, which costs $70 on H-P’s website, is H-P’s best-selling calculator of all time, though the company won’t reveal how many units it has sold over the years. (A standard calculator costs about $10.) Its chief competitor is Texas Instruments’ $28 BA II Plus, which is the only other calculator test-takers are permitted to use on the official CFA exam.

Florida woman, Gloria Esther Perez, busted for hiding knife in her ‘private area’ (NYDN via Daily Intel)
Perez was searched and found to be hiding dozens of prescription pills, police said. Perez then “became ill,” the police report states, and was taken to a hospital. Once there, it was discovered she was concealing two knives. One was tucked within the folds of her fat while the other was “hidden in her vagina.”

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Intel said that its net income for the first quarter was $3.3 billion, up 34 percent from $2.4 billion a year ago. Revenue was $12.9 billion, up 25 percent.

The record results show that a full-blown tech recovery is in high gear despite worries about the state of various regional economies. And it also shows that smartphones and tablets — two markets where Intel doesn’t have huge business — aren’t taking away sales in the core PC market.

Intel is the world’s biggest chip maker and its results are a bellwether for the PC market and the tech economy as a whole.

Earnings per share were 59 cents, compared with 43 cents a share a year earlier. Analysts had expected 46 cents a share on revenue of $11.6 billion.

“The first-quarter revenue was an all-time record for Intel fueled by double digit annual revenue growth in every major product segment and across all geographies,” Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said in a statement. “These outstanding results, combined with our guidance for the second quarter, position us to achieve greater than 20 percent annual revenue growth.”

Intel credited the strength of enterprise server and PC sales for the big improvement. Data center chip revenue was up 32 percent compared to a year ago, while PC client division revenue was up 17 percent. Intel Atom revenue was up 4 percent. Average prices for microprocessors, which are the brains of personal computers, were up compared to the previous quarter.

For the second quarter, Intel projects revenue to be flat at $12.8 billion, plus or minus $500 million. It is also targeting a gross profit margin of 61 percent. For the full year, Intel expects to spend $10.2 billion on capital spending, such as new chip factories. Uncertainties include the situation in post-quake Japan, where a market slowdown could have an effect on Intel’s business.

Intel got a boost of $496 million in revenue during the quarter from its acquisitions of Infineon Wireless and McAfee. Both deals closed during the quarter. Interestingly, even though Intel spent more than $7.6 billion in cash on McAfee, the company still has $11.5 billion in cash after today’s report. That’s what you call a cash-generation machine. Intel also benefited from an extra week in the first quarter, compared to the usual 13 weeks. Intel’s goal is to grow earnings by double digit percentages this year.

Intel’s stock price rose 5 percent in after-hours trading. Intel now has 93,500 employees, compared with 79,900 a year ago.

While the consumer markets were slow in Europe and the U.S. in the first quarter, the enterprise strength and the growth of consumer markets in emerging regions made up for that. Emering markets such as China and Brazil now have more than 2 billion consumers who could buy a PC at a cost of one or two months of income.

Intel also had its best launch ever with the debut of its Sandy Bridge chip, which combined a microprocessor and graphics in the same chip. There was a flaw in the Cougar Point chip set that accompanied Sandy Bridge, but Intel said it recovered from that flaw more quickly than it anticipated.

[picture credit: world2do]

Tags: chips, microprocessors

Companies: Intel

People: Paul Otellini

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Intel said its net income for the first quarter was $3.3 billion, up 34 percent from $2.4 billion a year ago. Revenue was $12.9 billion, up 25 percent.

The record results show that a full-blown tech recovery is in high gear despite worries about the state of various regional economies. They also show that smartphones and tablets — two markets in which Intel doesn’t have huge business — aren’t taking away sales from the core PC market.

Intel is the world’s biggest chip maker and its results are a bellwether for the PC market and the tech economy as a whole.

Earnings per share were 59 cents, compared with 43 cents a share a year earlier. Analysts had expected 46 cents a share on revenue of $11.6 billion.

“The first-quarter revenue was an all-time record for Intel fueled by double digit annual revenue growth in every major product segment and across all geographies,” Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said in a statement. “These outstanding results, combined with our guidance for the second quarter, position us to achieve greater than 20 percent annual revenue growth.”

Intel credited the strength of enterprise server and PC sales for the big improvement. Data center chip revenue was up 32 percent compared to a year ago, while PC client division revenue was up 17 percent. Intel Atom revenue was up 4 percent. Average prices for microprocessors, which are the brains of personal computers, were up compared to the previous quarter.

For the second quarter, Intel projects revenue to be flat at $12.8 billion, plus or minus $500 million. It is also targeting a gross profit margin of 61 percent. For the full year, Intel expects to spend $10.2 billion on capital spending, such as new chip factories. Uncertainties include the situation in post-quake Japan, where a market slowdown could have an effect on Intel’s business.

Intel got a boost of $496 million in revenue during the quarter from its acquisitions of Infineon Wireless and McAfee. Both deals closed during the quarter. Interestingly, even though Intel spent more than $7.6 billion in cash on McAfee, the company still has $11.5 billion in cash after today’s report. That’s what you call a cash-generation machine. Intel also benefited from an extra week in the first quarter, compared to the usual 13 weeks. Intel’s goal is to grow earnings by double digit percentages this year.

Intel’s stock price rose 5 percent in after-hours trading. Intel now has 93,500 employees, compared with 79,900 a year ago.

While the consumer markets were slow in Europe and the U.S. in the first quarter, the enterprise strength and the growth of consumer markets in emerging regions made up for that. Emerging markets such as China and Brazil now have more than 2 billion consumers who could buy a PC at a cost of one or two months of income.

Intel also had its best launch ever with the debut of its Sandy Bridge chip, which combined a microprocessor and graphics in the same chip. There was a flaw in the Cougar Point chip set that accompanied Sandy Bridge, but Intel said it recovered from that flaw more quickly than it anticipated.

[picture credit: world2do]

Tags: chips, microprocessors

Companies: Intel

People: Paul Otellini

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Citi Profit Falls 32 Percent (Reuters, Citi)
Citigroup’s first-quarter profit fell 32 percent as the bank lost less money on bad loans but struggled to grow its business. The bank said this morning it earned $3.0 billion, or 10 cents per share. That compared with $4.4 billion, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

Geithner Says GOP Prepared To Lift Debt Limit (WSJ)
In interviews aired on the Sunday talk shows, Mr. Geithner said House Speaker John Boehner and other senior Republicans told President Barack Obama in discussions last week that they were aware of the risk of a credit default and were open to lifting the limit even in the absence of a comprehensive deal to slash the country’s debt load.

Greenspan Says US Should Let Bush-Era Tax Cuts Expire (Bloomberg)
We should “allow the Bush tax cuts to expire,” Greenspan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today, calling the economic crisis “imminent and dire.” We should “put the rates back to where they were during the Clinton administration,” he said.

Hedge Funds Bounce Back (WSJ)
Total hedge-fund assets are approaching $2 trillion and are soon expected to surpass their peak in early 2008, according to industry analysts. Even start-ups and smaller funds, which were shunned by many investors in the wake of the crisis, are benefiting.

Emerging Nations Reject Capital Plan (WSJ)
The IMF’s plan would have encouraged nations to treat capital controls as a last resort, after they had first tried use other tools, such as policies on interest rates, currency values and government budgets. But ministers of developing economies resisted vehemently, viewing the proposal as an effort by advanced economies to hamstring their policies. Brazil, Turkey, South Korea and several other developing countries have adopted capital controls over the past year to limit surging inflows. “We oppose any guidelines, frameworks or ‘codes of conduct’ that attempt to constrain, directly or indirectly, policy responses of countries facing surges in volatile capital inflows,” Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, told the IMF’s steering-committee meeting.

Robot Does Hazardous Duty At Nuclear Plant (WSJ)
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said Sunday that the PackBot, a small robot that scoots around on tank-like treads, would monitor radiation and oxygen levels to find out whether conditions were safe enough to allow human workers to go in to try to bring the nuclear crisis at the plant under control.

FDIC Eyes Tougher Rules For Big Banks (FT)
Sheila Bair warned that regulators now had the authority to demand that US banks break themselves into smaller parts — and it “could and should be used.”

Is Sitting Lethal? (NYT)
Over a lifetime, the unhealthful effects of sitting add up. Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, tracked the health of 123,000 Americans between 1992 and 2006. The men in the study who spent six hours or more per day of their leisure time sitting had an overall death rate that was about 20 percent higher than the men who sat for three hours or less. The death rate for women who sat for more than six hours a day was about 40 percent higher. Patel estimates that on average, people who sit too much shave a few years off of their lives…Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.”

Ferrari Should Be Valued at $7.3 Billion in IPO, Marchionne Says (Bloomberg)
Fiat SpA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said he’s told bankers pushing him to pursue an initial public offering of Ferrari that the division may be worth more than 5 billion euros ($7.3 billion).

Greece Denies Restructuring Plan As Traders Raise Bet Default (Bloomberg)
“Restructuring is not an issue we’re discussing,” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in an April 16 interview in Washington. “The pain and the cost” of doing so would be greater than repaying lenders, he told reporters the same day.

Greek Default Would Mean Pain All-Around (WSJ)
Economists at the Brussels think tank Bruegel calculate that roughly 20% of Greece’s debt at the end of 2010 was held by domestic banks. They are in difficult straits, and forcing losses on them may simply require the country’s rescuers to come up with more money to help.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames iPad For American Unemployment (HP)
On Friday, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. addressed the United States’s current unemployment crisis and claimed the iPad was “probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs.” Jackson, himself an iPad owner, expanded on his statement by pointing to the recent bankruptcy of Borders Books. “Why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes and Noble? Just buy an iPad and download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine,” the Congressman said.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson today reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of Netflix (NFLX), while raising his price target to $280 from $240, writing that the company may find it easier than he’d expected to take its streaming video service overseas.

Olson did a survey of 50 respondents in each of four countries, Mexico, Brazil, the U.K. and Germany. He said 33% of respondents said they’d heard of Netflix, even though the company’s service has only been made available in the U.S. and Canada.

More surprising, 61% of the respondents already had some kind of device/gadget that is capable of supporting Netflix streaming content (e.g., an Xbox 360, etc.), he writes. On the downside, 47% of respondents said they watch pirated movies, suggesting to Olson that pirate video is one of the biggest “competitors” to Netflix overseas.

Olson raised his 2012 EPS estimate to $6.22 from $6, after concluding that the subscriber acquisition costs could be lower than he originally expected given the high brand awareness. Olson estimates that each 1 million of overseas subs could add 21 cents to 25 cents to earnings annually, assuming a gross margin in a range of 35% to 40% on those subs.

Also this morning, Oppenheimer & Co.’s Jason Helfstein had a brief positive note on Netflix, reiterating an Outperform rating and opining that a speed-up in Netflix’s program purchasing and some strong data on video streaming in January suggest the company’s Q1 went well.

Looking out, he expects Netflix will get a higher average revenue per user by partnering with Facebook to make personalized video service. He also thinks cable operators look like they won’t be much competition. The recent spat between Time Warner Cable (TWC) and various cable networks indicates that the “video everywhere” effort of the cable operators is constrained by what networks will allow. That leaves Netflix to be “the leading mobile offering,” in his opinion.

Netflix shares today are down 71 cents, or 0.3%, at $244.01.

Previously: NFLX: Pushing The $7.99 Proposition, April 4th, 2011.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Kan Seeks Calm as Japan Tries to Contain Meltdown, Panic Buying (Bloomberg)
Japanese stocks fell after reports of today’s explosion and fire, sending the Topix 9.5 percent lower at the close in Tokyo, the largest one-day slide since October 2008. The gauge has dropped 18 percent since the quake. The central bank injected 8 trillion yen ($98 billion) into the financial system today, on top of a record 15 trillion yen yesterday. “We are in uncharted waters now,” said Kirby Daley, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist with Newedge Group’s prime brokerage business.

Hedge Funds Had Bets Against Japan (WSJ)
In recent years, a chorus of voices has warned that Japan is facing an inevitable crisis to be brought on by a stagnant economy, a shrinking population and the worst debt profile of any major industrialized country. Hedge-fund managers from Kyle Bass of Hayman Advisors LP in Dallas to smaller firms like Commonwealth Opportunity Capital have made money since the earthquake on long-held bets on Japan’s government and corporate bonds.

Marc Faber: If Markets Keep Falling, Fed Will Keep Printing (CNBC)
“We may drop 10 to 15 percent. Then QE 2 will come, (then) QE 4, QE 5, QE 6, QE 7—whatever you want. The money printer will continue to print, that I’m sure,” said the author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report. Later in the interview, he added, “Actually I made a mistake. I meant to say QE 18.”

Pandit Picks Emerging Markets as Citigroup Future in New Risk (Bloomberg)
Citigroup now earns more than half its profit from developing countries, Chief Executive Officer Pandit said at a March 9 conference in New York. The bank increased assets in Latin America and Asia by 16 percent to more than $470 billion last year, adding customers in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and India…“If it grows like a weed, maybe it is a weed,” said Mike Mayo, who recommends investors sell Citigroup shares. “They’ve had risk- management mishaps. We’re not convinced the culture has changed enough to prevent similar mishaps from occurring.”

Gaddafi Says European Friends Betrayed Him (Reuters)
“I was really shocked by the attitude of my European friends,” he told the newspaper. “They have damaged and endangered a series of major accords on security that were in their interests and the economic cooperation that we had.”

Fed’s Next Steps Divide Economists as Asset Purchases Slow (Bloomberg)
Of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News last week, 49 said the Fed will buy the full amount of bonds in a bid to boost the economy. Thirty-one said the central bank won’t adjust the pace or duration of the purchases, as it did in the first round of so-called quantitative easing in 2009-10. Respondents were further divided over how long the Fed will keep its bond portfolio stable after the purchases end, with a plurality of 16 betting on a period of four to six months.

Banking’s Scourge On Charm Offensive (WSJ)
A wall map of the U.S. in the Consumer Protection Bureau’s offices tracks Ms. Warren’s methodical campaign with colored push-pins. Each blue pin records an “in-person meeting w/[Elizabeth Warren], while a red pin means a “one-on-one EW call” and a white pin a “group meeting w/EW.” The map has 47 pins so far.

EU Agrees On Economic Overhaul (WSJ)
Mr. Trichet said the changes aren’t ambitious enough. “We continue to think that the improvement in governance that is presently envisioned is, in our opinion, insufficient to draw the lessons from the crisis we had to cope with,” he said.

Roubini: Yen Will Further Weaken In The Long Run (CNBC)
“Japan is going to need significant depreciation of the yen to increase its net exports because domestic demand is going to be anemic for a while. Therefore on a fundamental basis, the yen is going to be much weaker rather than stronger because you need improvement of external balance given the shock to the domestic economy,” he said.

Japanese Nuclear Plan Radiation Recedes As Engineers Restore Water Level (Bloomberg)
Water supply at reactors No. 1 and No. 3 stabilized and radiation readings at the front gate of the plant dropped to a level that isn’t “harmful to the human body,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said this afternoon in Tokyo. Separately, Tokyo Electric said it hadn’t decided whether to bring workers after the utility evacuated 750 of its 800 employees following this morning’s blast.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Tokyo Exchange Plans Merger Talks With Osaka, IPO (Bloomberg)
Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc., which runs the world’s second-largest equity market, plans to hold merger discussions with Osaka Securities Exchange Co. The 133-year-old exchange is interested in acquiring Osaka Securities, which operates a derivatives trading system with Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures, President Atsushi Saito said in an interview today. The Tokyo Stock Exchange will also start preparing an initial share sale after reporting its earnings for the period ending March, he said.

Lawyers Make First Pitches To Jurors (WSJ)
Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam used a “corrupt network” of consultants, company insiders and associates to obtain inside information, generating tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits, a U.S. prosecutor said. In an opening statement at a packed courtroom in New York federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter said the defendant used corrupt insiders to get “tomorrow’s business news today.” Gesturing toward Mr. Rajaratnam, who wore a gray suit and a blue tie, Mr. Streeter said the case centers on “greed and corruption.” John Dowd, a lawyer for Mr. Rajaratnam, said his client did nothing wrong and traded only on publicly available information and research by his hedge-fund firm. The government has it wrong and “failed to do its homework,” Mr. Dowd told jurors.

Moody’s Downgrades Spain (AP)
The agency reduced Spain’s rating by one notch to Aa2 and warned that a further downgrade is possible if indications emerge that Spain’s fiscal targets will be missed, and if the public debt ratio increases more rapidly than currently expected. Moody’s also warned that concerns could rise if funding requirements for Spain’s troubled savings banks end up greater than anticipated.

China Posts Largest Trade Deficit In 7 Years (Reuters)
It was China’s first trade deficit since March last year and its biggest since February 2004. Economists had expected a small surplus of $4.95 billion. “Both imports and exports are lower than expected, and seasonal factors alone can’t explain the sharp monthly drop,” said Xu Biao, economist with China Merchants Bank in Shenzhen. “It is definitely not a good sign. The size of imports is already read as a measure of domestic demand. But now imports have dropped significantly, and it points to a serious weakening in domestic economic activity,” he said.

Fortress Said to Start Asia Macro Hedge Fund Run by Levinson (Bloomberg)
Fortress started an Asia- focused macro hedge fund that it aims to grow to $500 million, three people with knowledge of the plan said. The fund is set to attract more money starting in April, when investors make their allocations, the people said.

China and Russia drive growth in world’s billionaires (Reuters)
Rising steel and oil prices in Russia, more honest disclosure in Brazil and booming economies in China and India have fueled a spike in billionaires in the so-called BRIC countries. Moscow is now home to the most billionaires with 79, followed by New York with 58, Forbes said in its annual list of the world’s richest people.

Charlie Sheen gets more than 74,000 applications for internship (NYP)
Charlie Sheen received more than 74,000 applications from candidates interested in his eight-week social media internship, according to a new report. Earlier this week, Sheen got his first paid Twitter gig — pitching for Internships.com as part of his efforts to cash in on his fast-growing presence on Twitter. His paid message, which appeared Monday, featured a posting for a full-time, summer “social media intern” for the troubled actor. “I’m looking to hire a #Winning INTERN with #TigerBlood,” read Sheen’s tweet.

HCA Holdings Raises $3.79 Billion in Initial Public Offering (BW)
HCA, based in Nashville, Tennessee, sold 126.2 million shares at $30 each, the top of the proposed range, the company said yesterday in a statement. The underwriters may exercise an overallotment option to buy as many as 18.9 million additional shares within 30 days, the company said. HCA sold 87.7 million shares, while existing investors sold 38.5 million.

More Grandmothers Working During US ‘Man-cession’ (CNBC)
4.3 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 54 no longer consider themselves part of the work force. At the same time, nearly 2 million Americans 55-years or older have tuned in and joined the workforce. Inside this latter group, more than half a million women between the ages of 62 and 64 have joined the workforce. Over the time period we looked at (from October, 2008 to February, 2011) this was the fastest growing demographic.

Man cut haircut short to use scissors in stabbing (Stamford Advocate via DI)
A 21-year-old man sitting down for a haircut allegedly grabbed scissors and slashed another in the back Tuesday in the South End, police said. David Davis, pictured above, was arrested shortly after the incident when Stamford patrol officers and a police dog found him in a nearby Henry Street apartment. Officers took him into custody when they initially found he was wanted on a warrant for failing to appear in court and later charged him in the stabbing after an investigation, Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said. The victim, identified as a 21-year-old Stamford man, was taken to Stamford Hospital to receive treatment for his wound. In a statement, police said Davis was getting a haircut at 126 Henry St. when the victim approached in what Davis called an “aggressive manner,” so he picked up scissors to protect himself. Davis slashed the man in the back, police said.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

The second wave of e-commerce is coming, buoyed by a flood of fresh cash. European flash-sales site operator Privalia, which offers short-term, steeply discounted fashion deals in Spain, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico, is expanding to Germany with a $280 million acquisition of rival Dress-For-Less.

The deal is funded in part by $123 million in fresh cash from General Atlantic, Highland Capital Partners, Index Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners, as well as debt and newly issued shares.

Those are big numbers, and they come on top of a $95 million round just last October from General Atlantic and Index.

Privalia is a private-sales site that offers members deep discounts on apparel and other items for a short period of time. Others in the flash-sales category include Rue La La, now owned by GSI Commerce; Gilt Groupe, which offers deals in apparel and travel; and One Kings Lane, a home-décor site. The limited time horizon for offers, combined with a curated array of merchandise and new social tools, serves to drive demand from consumers looking to buy something new.

That customer base — those who view shopping as entertainment and largely made up of women — is potentially much larger than the hardcore online shoppers who became loyal online shoppers a decade ago.

The first wave of e-commerce, transactional and efficient, did catalogs one better by offering a nearly limitless array of merchandise and selling it cheaply and quickly. It satisfied demand, rather than creating it.

Private-sales sites, daily deals purveyors like Groupon, and other new forms of e-commerce promise to do something much bigger and more difficult: create demand. Successful traditional retailers excel at this, turning their stores into showcases of consumer delight and convincing people to reach for their pocketbooks for something they had no intention of buying when they walked into the store.

Privalia seems to have an edge in fast-growing overseas markets. Gilt currently operates in the U.S. and Japan. GSI, which is publicly traded, spent $350 million acquiring Rue La La and could expand quickly. A lot of capital is flowing into the sector. But unlike earlier waves of e-commerce, which required building and stocking warehouses to guarantee the availability of those vast virtual shelves of merchandise, the new e-commerce tends to move products quickly, making it an appealing investment to venture capitalists who might shy away from plowing their capital into inventory.

Instead, the money in this second wave of e-commerce is going into customer acquisition, technology, and some financial maneuvers — like Privalia’s rollup of Dress-for-Less.

Tags: e commerce, e-commerce 2.0, flash sales, private sales, social shopping

Companies: Dress-for-Less, General Atlantic Partners, Index Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Privalia

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Stranded Airport Travelers Face ‘Long’ Wait After Storm (Bloomberg)
Get comfortable because no one’s going anywhere! “The time needed to accommodate affected passengers will depend on the length of the shutdowns, Ed Martelle said. “It’s a moving target. I don’t know how fast we can get them on planes.”

Out of Lehman’s Ashes Wall Street Gets Most of What It Wants (Bloomberg)
“We continue to listen to the same people whose errors in judgment were central to the problem,” said John Reed, 71, a former co-chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., who estimated only 25 percent of needed changes have been enacted. “I’m astounded because we basically dropped the world’s biggest economy because of an error in bank management.”

This Is A Picture Of 50 Cent Shoveling Snow (TwitPic)
He’ll do the neighbors’ driveways for $100 a pop.

M&A King Is…Not Yet Decided (WSJ)
Which is another way of saying Citi still has a shot.

BSE Hopes to Score With Shariah Index (IRT)
Get it while it’s hot: “The Bombay Stock Exchange, Asia’s oldest trading floor, along with the Mumbai-based Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions on Monday launched an index comprising shares, of India’s top 50 companies that meet the legal code of Islam. The BSE TASIS Shariah 50 index was formed using the guidelines of an Indian Shariah advisory board. The barometer consists of the 50 largest and most liquid Shariah-compliant stocks within the BSE 500 Index. The new index was last trading up 0.5% at 1,233.49 outpacing the benchmark Sensex’s 0.4% rise this morning. Islamic law doesn’t permit Muslims to invest in companies that derive significant benefits from interest, since usury is considered sinful in the Islamic faith, or from the sale of goods and services that are deemed sinful within the Islamic faith, like alcohol, tobacco and weapons. The index can be used for the construction of Shariah-compliant financial products, such as mutual funds.”

Dog Rescued After Getting Head Stuck in Wall (KLTA)
An 8-month old German shepherd puppy learned a hard lesson Monday about sticking his nose where it didn’t belong when he got his head stuck in a hole in a wall. A friend of the dog’s owner discovered the pup in distress Monday morning and when she was unable to free the dog herself, she called animal control officers for help. “My initial reaction was, ‘Wow, how’d he get in there?’” Riverside County Animal Services Sgt. James Huffman said. “And why is there a hole that big in the wall?”

Amid Inquiries, Expert Networks Get a Cold Shoulder (Dealbook)
A few people get arrested in connection with the government’s massive insider trading probe and all of a sudden no one wants to sit with you.

Lives Of Energy Traders: High Stakes, High Cholesterol (WaPo)
McMeel worked for 13 years in the energy markets, and he revels in juicy descriptions and office anecdotes, which have the unmistakable feel of insider lore. He colorfully describes the denizens of this all-male world (one has “a skull the size of a pony keg”) and their meals (“a haiku of fat.”). But as on-point as these descriptions might be, the men and their meals begin to blur; when everyone is larger than life, no one is.

Chris Christie: Fat Chance (NYP)
Chris Christie admitted yesterday that he doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight anymore because he never sticks to them…Christie said that he has resolved to shed the extra baggage about 35 times in his life but has only had “varying degrees of success.” Christie, who was nicknamed “Big Boy” by former President George W. Bush when he was the US attorney in Newark, tries to work out three times a week, a friend told The Post.

Holiday Sales Return To Pre-Recession Level (NYT)
High-fives all around.

GM Shares Rise After High Marks From Wall Street (Reuters)
Everyone wants a piece of this: “Barclays said GM is ‘relatively attractive’ for three reasons — strong positions in emerging markets China and Brazil; strong earnings in North America due to price discipline; and even a conservative estimate of its financial position suggest $42 per share price target. JPMorgan sees the ‘potential for significant additional appreciations beyond year-end 2011.’”

China Property Market Limps Into New Year (Reuters)
“The first half of next year will be a hard time for the property sector,” said Chen Dongqi, deputy chief of the Macroeconomic Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s powerful economic planning agency. Property prices will fall in the first six months of 2011, though by less than 10 percent, said Liu Shiqing and Xu Shengli, analysts at Essence Securities in Beijing. “Under the impact of the macro policies, shares in developers face high risks in the next two quarters,” they said in a note to clients.

Hot Trade In Private Shares Of Facebook (WSJ)
Facebook has accounted for 48% of private-company transactions on SecondMarket this year and 40% of those on SharesPost, the exchanges say.

The 2010 Blizzard In 40 Seconds (WSJ)

Relive it like it was two days ago.

President Obama praises Michael Vick’s turnaround in call to Eagles owner (NYDN)
“He said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance. He was … passionate about it,” Lurie told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. “He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

Programming Note: We’re on an abbreviated vacation-esque schedule ’til Monday (opening/closing wraps and limited updates whenever the urge to reach out and touch you moves us). We still want to hear from you, though, so if someone gets nailed for insider trading, Vikram announces he’s quitting to join Stomp in 2011, or anything else happens that you think might tickle our fancy, do not hesitate to let us know.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker