Shares of electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) are up $1.60, or 6%, at $27.95, a combination of a positive note today from Pacific Crest’s Erik Olbeter, and also word that the U.S. Department of Energy said it will cooperate with Tesla and other firms to accelerate the development of energy-efficient vehicles.

Pacific Crest’s Olbeter started the stock at Outperform and a $38 price target, writing that it is “well positioned to be a highly profitable, niche luxury car company.”

Everything, he writes, rests on a successful introduction of Tesla’s “Model S” and “Model X” cars, beginning in mid-2012.

“Tesla’s primary advantage, and part of the reason they are considered an innovator in this nascent market, is its proprietary battery and powertrain system,” writes Olbeter. The choice of a familiar form factor for the battery — it’s about the size of a AA battery — means the company should have much lower development costs than it would otherwise, on the order of $400 million to develop the Model S, he thinks.

The Model S, which may cost $60,000 to $90,000, depending on subsidies, “is very appealing and the price is within the range of luxury ICE competitors,” writes Olbeter. He expects it may become, “the new ‘green status symbol‘ in places like Northern California and elsewhere.” Question is, even if venture capitalists buy ‘em, will the broader public. The question is not how well the initial 20,000 units of the Model S do next year, but what comes after, whether, as he puts it, “the executives in Shanghai, Beijing and Vancouver, B.C., be driving them.”

The financial performance of the company for the next five quarters, until the Model S comes out, is irrelevant, he writes, because only then will the Street get a good handle on what Tesla may be able to sell in high volume.

As for the DOE announcement, it said the Department will form something called “U.S. Drive,” combined what had been “FreedomCAR” and “Fuel Partnership” programs in one, in order to “bring together top technical experts,” and identify “critical R&D needs.”

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Today’s funding announcements include services that oversee mobile employees and energy use:

TOA Technologies gets $17.2M for mobile employee management: The developer of mobile workforce management software for large businesses has raised a fourth round of funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from Intel Capital, Draper Triangle Ventures and others. Based in Beachwood, Ohio, the company helps clients deliver a positive customer experience by helping mobile employees with tasks like scheduling, customer appointment management and prediction of how long tasks will take to perform.

Smart grid startup GridGlo gets $1.2M: The Delray Beach, Florida-based company, which publicly launched today, has raised seed funding from research firm CUBRC. The company has developed software that helps utilities identify and predict energy consumption. One of its first applications, called the Energy People Meter, gives consumers scores based on their energy consumption, efficiency, engagement and predictability.

Alta Analog brings in $1.7M for LCD panel semiconductors: The designer and manufacturer of analog semiconductor devices for LCD panels has raised $1.7M of an expected $4.3M in equity funding, according to a filing with the SEC. The San Jose-based company, which develops products for televisions, notebook displays and monitors, helps LCD panel manufacturers deliver high color performance at a lower cost.

Companies: Alta Analog, CUBRC, Draper Triangle Ventures, GridGlo, Intel Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, TOA Technologies

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Shares of First Solar (FSLR) continue to trade down this morning following an 8%-or-so drop last night after a Q1 report that beat estimates but saw the push-out of a project in Q2 and some cautious comments about solar energy subsidy regulation in Europe.

First Solar shares are down $8.66, or 6.4%, at $126.

None other than hedge fund titan Jim Chanos was on CNBC yesterday afternoon talking down the stock, predicting the price could drop to “the mid double-digits.” Note that Chanos’s remarks came in the context of his warning to get the heck out of China, where he thinks the growth path of the economy is unsustainable.

There’s a real easy part of the story: Insiders are selling lots and lots of stock over the past year, and insiders are leaving the company. That’s never a good sign. Whether you should be short, we have some issues with some of their accounting, we have some issue with some of their subsidized markets. And quite frankly, solar, still, is at a point where it does not compete with natural gas. we cannot rely on wind and solar for base load. We’re still looking for the magic bullet for solar and wind. I think the stock certainly could earn a lot less than the $9 run-rate the bulls are looking at.

(See the video below.)

Eric Rosenbaum of TheStreet.com today offers some thoughts on what he says are Chanos’s repeat appearances on CNBC with bad things to say about FSLR.

I see three downgrades this morning — I missed one earlier, from Credit Suisse — and one upgrade in the Street’s initial assessment, but also a deep divide between those who don’t like how much emphasis has been put on the latter half of the year to make the $9 profit mark, and those who see plenty of levers for First Solar to pull:

Bullish!

Mark Bachman, Auriga Securities: Raised his rating on the shares to Buy from Hold, with a $160 price target. “First Solar modules remain in high demand given the combination of low price and high energy yield,” writes Bachman. Bachman observes that while subsidy reductions create uncertainty, as long as investors can obtain debt financing and as long as First Solar’s modules offer investment returns that are “above project hurdles,” then there will actually be a “dramatic increase” in solar investment as projects rush to get going before the next subsidy adjustment. First Solar has the ability to increase project installations in the U.S., and to get into new Asian markets. “We also recognize management’s historical accuracy of forecasting both sales and profitability, thus the reiteration of 2011 guidance speaks volumes to us.”

Robert Stone, Cowen & Co.: Reiterates an Outperform rating. The project push-out woes, the hand-wringing over Europe, and the back-end-loaded year outlook make for a buying opportunity in the stock, he thinks, as this is just a “pause” for the company.

Ramesh Misra, Brigantine Advisors: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $170 target. Today is a buying opportunity, as the North American utility-scale projects provide a buffer to European troubles. The projects push-outs and the tariff issues were “not entirely unanticipated,” he writes. “While any revenue push-out [from the company’s Agua Caliente project] is a negative development, we are not overly concerned about this. The company’s EPC business will, almost by definition, tend to be lumpy based on the timing of revenue recognition.” Misra also offers that any rise in the Chinese renminbi could have an adverse impact on Chinese competitors to First Solar.

John Hardy, Gleacher & Co.: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $165 price target. He’s keeping his 2011 estimate of $3.8 billion in revenue intact, while trimming his EPS estimate to $9.66 from $9.70. “Stock and sector are likely to remain under pressure until Italy is sorted out and poly module pricing begins to solidify, but we continue to view FSLR as an outperformed given project flexibility in the U.S.

Mark Wienkes, Goldman Sachs: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $190 price target, saying that he likes “the risk-reward in the stock, particularly given increased strategic interest in solar companies (Total, GE, Hanwha), cost cuts are tracking on plan and are allowing for constructive ASP declines, larger markets, and fewer variable competitors, and 2011 production is allocated, with the pipeline buffer offering a profitable source of demand in both the second half of 2011 and 2012 should European markets remain soft.”

Bearish!

Ben Pang, Caris & Co.: Cut his rating on the stock to Average from Above Average and cut his price target to $139 from $172. “We think there is much higher risk to estimates due to growing uncertainty regarding renewable energy programs in Europe.” With Europe accounting for 70% of shipments, by his estimate (I’m assuming he means industry shipments), Pang sees increasing political gridlock in Europe as being not fully compensated for by First Solar’s “buffer” in North America. Pang cut his full-year estimates to $3.74 billion in revenue and $9.38 in EPS from a prior $3.79 billion and $9.43.

Dan Ries, Collins Stewart: Cut his rating to Neutral from Buy, with a $144 price target from $180, and cut his 2011 estimates to $3.75 billion and $9.36 per share in earnings from a prior $3.79 billion and $9.60 per share. “Given that the Department of Energy process [which is part of the Agua Caliente ramp-up] is an unknown to investors, we expects First Solar’s P/E multiple to contract while the risk of additional delays is present,” writes Ries. He cut his own P/E to 12 times from 15 times. “We will reconsider our rating if the stock approaches $100 or if we get greater clarity on the construction schedule for its large systems backlog.”

Satya Kumar, Credit Suisse: Cut his rating to Neutral from Buy and cut his price target to $115 from $137. “Our view has been that the stock is not interesting until it is closer to the $100 to $125 range.” Kumar’s sum-of-the-parts valuation of the stock assumes $90 of value for the panel business; $11 for the system business; and $14 worth of value for the cash on the balance sheet and “management premium.”

Gordon Johnson, Axiom Capital: Reiterates a Sell rating. “First Solar’s guidance implies an acute recovery in the second half. We believe this year will be defined by multiple estimate revisions for First Solar.” Johnson thinks First Solar is implying it can double or triple the build-out rate of the Agua Caliente project to meet the $9.50 earnings target. That would imply, he argues, 50 megawatts per month for the project, when project terms as agreed to were for just 20 megawatts per month. “While this is admittedly possible … we believe there has been a fundamental change in the story,” given the implied cut to Q2 outlook, a lower outlook on module sales for Q2, which he thinks implies a build-up of inventory; and an average cost for modules that is flat, year over year, implying “the business of selling modules is becoming less profitable,” he believes.

Weston Twigg, Pacific Crest: Reiterates a Sector Perform rating. Twigg sees a “ramp-up” of the utility-scale solar business as a buffer for First Solar in the second half of the year against lower module prices caused by competing silicon products. Twigg is concerned, however, by the recent departure of Bruce Sohn, who was the company’s “manufacturing guru,” in his view. While there’s upside potential for $182 per share, he writes that he has “little conviction” in the stock hitting that.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

An update to my post yesterday previewing First Solar‘s (FSLR) Q1 report, due this evening. Again, analysts on average are expecting $544 million in revenue and $1.16 per share in earnings.

Gordon Johnson of Axiom Capital, argues, contrary to some of the sentiment expressed yesterday about FSLR being protected by long-term contracts, that there is, in fact, some risk to contracted deals for First Solar in the outlook for the second quarter. Although First Solar has long-term contracts in place that should mitigate shipment risk, Johnson argues those deals are in the process of being renegotiated, meaning, they may not turn up the volume of shipments expected, he implies.

In particular, Johnson cites the annual report of Germany’s Colexon Energy AG, which says that it has negotiated with its “main module supplier” regarding quantities and “critical aspects of the pricing terms.” Colexon was 9% of First Solar’s volume of module shipments in 2010, Johnson notes, and had agreed back in August of last year for a 65% increase in volume it would take this year. He takes the language of the annual report, then, as a sign the deal may not deliver the volumes promised.

Moreover, First Solar needs to get 1.6 gigawatts of its projected 2 gigawatts of shipment this year from the “merchant market.” He sees First Solar’s forecast for an average module selling price of $1.43 per watt being unrealistic given that spot prices for silicon modules are at $1.50 per watt today. Johnson sees 20 cents downside to that estimate, and therefore $3.20 per share in downside to the company’s projected full-year EPS. He models $4.66 per share in earnings this year, well below the average Street estimate of $9.44.

Johnson reiterates a Sell rating on First Solar and a $69.96 price target.

In a different vein, Citigroup’s Timothy Arcuri late last night reiterated a Hold rating on First Solar and a $150 price target. He has been modeling $579 million in revenue and $1.11 per share in earnings, though he thinks the company may meet the Street view of $1.16 given the stronger Euro-Dollar exchange rate in the quarter. As for Q2, he sees $827 million in revenue and $1.76 in EPS, versus the Street at $803 million and $1.99, given that he expects the favorable dollar-exchange ratio may be offset by “a sizable module inventory build for Agua Caliente.”

Nevertheless, Arcuri notes that First Solar doesn’t explicitly offer quarterly forecasts, and it may actually raise its year forecast by 25 cents per share. He sees lower module pricing overall possibly presenting upside the latter part of the year as the Agua Caliente project delivers higher module prices, on the order of $2 per watt.

First Solar shares today are down $3.55, or 2.6%, at $134.03.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Nasdaq, ICE, Make NYSE Bid (WSJ)
Nasdaq OMX and ICE said Friday that they are proposing to buy NYSE Euronext for $42.50 in cash and stock per NYSE Euronext share, or about $11.3 billion, based on the respective Nasdaq OMX and ICE closing share prices on Thursday.

Berkshire’s Abel Advances in Buffett’s ‘Top 4’ After Sokol Exit (Bloomberg)
Buffett introduced Abel to Berkshire shareholders in the billionaire’s 2002 annual letter, calling the manager Sokol’s “key associate.” In subsequent letters, Abel’s name always followed Sokol’s as Buffett praised “Dave and Greg” for their work expanding the energy business. Sokol said in an interview last year that Abel began working with him at MidAmerican in the early 1990’s when the company was independent. Sokol, previously MidAmerican’s CEO, sold the company to Buffett for about $9 billion. Sokol said it was his idea to promote Abel three years ago. “I went to Warren and said, ‘Greg is doing a fantastic job,’” Sokol said on Aug. 16 at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “Warren said ‘If that’s what you think is the right thing to do, then that’s fine.’ So I turned the CEO title over to Greg.”

U.S. Payrolls Grew 216,000 in March; Unemployment at 8.8% (Bloomberg)
Payrolls increased by 216,000 workers last month after a revised 194,000 gain the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Economists projected a March gain of 190,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The jobless rate dropped from 8.9 percent in February, the fourth straight decrease.

Warren Buffett’s Halo Tarnished, By Charlie Gasparino (TDB)
“I can tell you that this entire episode shows why investors and the media should stop portraying Warren Buffett as a saint, who never lies, cheats or equivocates and surrounds himself with similar heavenly characters. Instead, Buffett should be seem for what he is: A great investor and businessman motivated by greed and ambition and like his unheavenly deputy.”

Morgan Stanley Venture Struggles (WSJ)
A joint venture between Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley will likely report an extraordinary loss of about ¥80 billion ($956 million) for the just-ended fiscal year, due to unrealized losses from bond trading, people familiar with the matter said Friday. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. was set up by MUFG and the U.S. investment bank in May last year by merging Morgan Stanley’s Japanese investment banking operations, including its merger and acquisition business, with Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

Subprime Bonds Are Back (WSJ)
The prices on a representative slice of the subprime bond market have doubled from 30 cents on the dollar at the low point of the crisis to roughly 60 cents today.

TPG to Sell Stake to Kuwait, Singapore (WSJ)
TPG Holdings has reached a deal to sell nearly 5% of itself to sovereign-wealth funds operated by Kuwait and Singapore. The deal values the firm at about $11 billion and allows it to raise several hundred million dollars, according to people close to the matter.

Marc Faber: Still a Bear, and He Has His Reasons (CNBC)
“I know I will die, but I’m still living,” Faber says. “What do you want me to do about it? Should I kill myself in anticipation of certain death in 10 or 15 years time?” The same kind of logic applied to his run on Wall Street, which began in 1970 at the firm White Weld & Co. with a role summarizing economic research to send to overseas offices, in the pre-Internet days. He got to know future U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who gave a briefing to the firm every two weeks. “At the end I was the only person attending because all he did was summarize the Wall Street Journal of the previous day,” Faber says.

Roubini: Banks Risk Breaking Back Of Irish Government (CNBC)
“They cannot keep on socializing losses and eventually having sovereign risk becoming banking risk and banking risk becoming sovereign risk, that’s not the right approach.”

RBS Expects To Triple India Banking Assets (Bloomberg)
The U.K.’s biggest government-controlled bank, which manages $1 billion of assets for private banking clients in India, plans to increase its wealth management employees by 54 percent to 100 in two years, Gupta said. The bank will also add 20 more relationship managers in the country, taking the total to 45 in that period, he said.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Jefferies & Co. solar analyst Jesse Pichel this morning picks through some of the data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) report from earlier this month on U.S. demand for solar.

Pichel notes that photovoltaic installations in the U.S. last year doubled from 2009, to 878 megawatts, with installations in the States set to rise double the market rate of 16% to 24% this year, according to SEIA.

Out of a total expected 18 gigawatt market, by Pichel’s estimate, that would give the U.S. 10% of global demand, up from about 5% in 2010.

More important, Pichel sees “steady demand” in the U.S. thanks to a broadening of the market to include not just utilities but also residential and commercial. Residential and utility should be “strong” this year, with “some weakness” in commercial installations, he writes.

Pichel notes that such growth depends on the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Loan Guarantee program” getting financed. He adds, “The Treasury Cash Grant program is also expiring at the end of 2011, furthering concerns that 2012 may be weak,” though his belief is, “efforts are underway to extend the Cash Grant program, or to even make it permanent as a cash refund.”

Pichel notes President Obama’s prominent support for solar and renewables in a talk just yesterday at Georgetown University.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

As I wrote earlier today, stocks of companies supplying solar energy technology have gotten a big lift from the sense that nuclear energy policy may be re-examined based on the terrible destruction in Japan last week and over the weekend.

Analysts continue to parse the company-specific implications. Piper Jaffray’s Ahmar Zaman today cut his ratings on several solar names, arguing that they will be hit with two negative consequences: some shortfall in demand in Japan, and a shortfall in supply of critical materials, especially polysilicon.

Zaman cut his ratings on Canadian Solar (CSIQ) and Suntech Power Holdings (STP) to Underweight from Neutral; and he cut SunPower (SPWRA), JA Solar (JASO), Trina Solar (TSL) and Yingli Green Energy (YGE) to Neutral from Overweight. Zaman reiterated an Overweight rating on First Solar (FSLR) and Satcon Technology (SATC), Daqo New Energy (DQ), the Hong Kong-listed shares of Shanghai-based Comtec Solar Systems, LDK Solar (LDK), and GT Solar (SOLR).

With Japan accounting for 19,000 metric tons of polysilicon manufacturing capacity, and a collective 650 megawatts of wafer capacity, Zaman sees the rolling blackouts and other factors affecting the supply chain disrupting production and driving up polysilicon prices to $70 per kilogram. That should help DQ, LDK, SOLR, and Comtec, he believes.

Although Japan is not a big market for non-Japanese firms, in terms of solar demand, Zaman writes that there’s some risk that Kyocera and Sharp will export solar energy modules to other markets to make up for a shortfall in domestic demand.

“This could put pressure on near term module pricing,” writes Zaman. “More importantly, we had been counting on Japan to be one of the markets with upside in 2011 to offset any decline in Italy…now with demand in Japan in question, we believe module oversupply concerns will likely be amplified near term. “

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Jefferies & Co.’s Jesse Pichel today reiterated a Buy rating on shares of Yingli Green Energy (YGE) and a $19 price target, writing that the China-based maker of solar energy technology should be able to meet its forecast of 1.7 gigawatts to 1.75 gigawatts worth of shipments this year, with or without shipments into Italy in the second half of this year.

Ongoing deliberation about the implications of Italy’s review of its solar energy subsidies continues to be a source of rising and falling views of individual solar shares, such as today’s downgrade of LDK Solar (LDK) by Collins Stewart.

In contrast, Pichel’s not too worried as concerns YGE. About 30% of the shipment forecast for this year is expected to come from Italy in 2011, Pichel estimates. However, shipments to Italy are “heavily first-half-loaded (mostly before April),” he observes, and so “we believe a good portion of the Italy shipment is secure,”

Moreover, Pichel says he took a tour of Yingli’s manufacturing facility in Baoding, where he “walked the line” where 300 megawatts of “Panda” product is being made, and was “impressed by the level of automation.” The company is on track to reach 1.7 gigawatts of production by the end of this year, he reports.

YGE stock today was unchanged at $10.93.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang believes that the revolution in mobile computing electronics, driven by demand for smartphones and tablets, will eventually disrupt both the PC and server markets as well.

By engineering chips for mobile computing, graphics chip maker Nvidia is focusing on energy efficient computing so that mobile devices can be both powerful and have long battery lives. That kind of computing is exactly the kind that will be necessary in the PCs and servers of the future, Huang said.

“We expect if we focus on mobile, it will come back and disrupt the PC industry and come back and disrupt servers,” said Huang, speaking at the company’s analyst meeting today in Santa Clara, Calif.

Huang articulated many of these ideas during our recent Q&A with him. But he elaborated on them at the analyst meeting. The mobile computing shift is why Nvidia has invested so heavily in its Tegra mobile computing chips in the past five years and paid particular attention to parallel computing, where many small cores — or brains — can operate much more power efficiently than a single big core. As an analogy, Huang said that a multiple-cylinder car engine running at a reasonably fast RPM (revolutions per minute) is much more efficient than a single-cylinder engine running extremely fast.

Over the next four to five years, Tegra will go from eight cores now to more than 100 in a single chip, Huang said. That gives a good clue as to how Nvidia is approaching the design of Project Denver, the code-name for a high-performance ARM microprocessor that the company revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Project Denver is expected to be able to run Windows, which Microsoft is adapting to run on ARM chips in addition to the x86 Intel-compatible chips that they have run on in the past. Microsoft demoed a future version of Windows running on Nvidia Tegra processors at CES.

Project Denver is clearly the path that Nvidia will pursue as it uses mobile chips to disrupt the PC chip market.

“That’s a wonderful opportunity for us,” Huang said. “You will have a PC that is thin and light, has a long battery life, and has the productivity capability of Windows.”

Huang said servers will be disrupted because of rising energy costs. “If your energy bill is $10 million a year,” Huang said. “Then you would rather move from 20,000 server cores to more than 20 million if it means it will increase performance and reduce your energy bill at the same time.”

By moving into the mobile market, Huang said that Tegra boosted Nvidia’s total available market by six times. Nokia shifting from Symbian to Windows software will be a “fabulous opportunity” for Nvidia, Huang said. He noted that upcoming four-core Kal El chip, which now has working prototypes, has five times the performance of the previous-generation Tegra chips.

Huang said that the software makers are moving to smartphones and tablets because that is where the opportunity for bigger sales is. Those software makers are moving very quickly to the best operating systems and hardware, because the shift toward mobile computing is happening faster.

It took PCs about 15 years to fully disrupt the minicomputer and mainframe business. But mobile computing is changing the world faster and will likely disrupt the PC and server markets in a much shorter time, Huang said.

“The mobile computing revolution is a seismic shift,” he said.

Asked how Nvidia can compete with Intel and Qualcomm in manufacturing technology, Huang said Nvidia relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a contract chip manufacturer known as a foundry, for its manufacturing firepower.

Huang said Nvidia is working with almost every single computer maker now to get their first-generation tablets to market. Huang said that the company will launch new Tegra chips on a regular cadence, much like it did in the early days of the PC revolution, when new chips came out every six months or every year. “We have to keep that rhythm,” he said.

One analyst noted that the Motorola Xoom, an Android tablet that has a Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia, costs $800 while the Apple iPad 2 will cost less ($499 to $829). But Huang said the Xoom is not the only competitor to the iPad 2 and that users should be careful to compare the technical specifications of the tablets before rushing to judgment that one machine is more cost-effective than another.

Tags: Kal-El, Project Denver, Tegra

Companies: Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, TSMC

People: Jen Hsun Huang

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Goldman Sachs Sees Danger In US Budget Cuts (FT)
The Republican plan to slash government spending by $61bn in 2011 could reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year, a Goldman Sachs economist has warned. The Goldman analysis also points out that a potential compromise deal with $25bn in spending reductions this year – a more likely scenario – would lead to a smaller drag on growth of 1 percentage point in the second quarter. Thereafter it would fade, with “negligible” impact on US output by the end of the year.

RBS Earnings Disappoint (MarketWatch)
RBS said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit of 12 million pounds ($19 million) from a loss of £765 million a year earlier. The net loss for the year shrank to £1.13 billion from £3.61 billion, but was still worse than the £700 million loss analysts had been expecting. The bank said total impairment losses for the quarter were £2.14 billion. The charges were down 31% compared to a year earlier, but were up by £188 million from the third quarter due to rising losses at its Ulster Bank unit.

Obama Vows to Put Pressure on Qaddafi, Sends Clinton for Talks (Bloomberg)
In his first remarks on the uprising that has split the North African country and prompted a deadly response from Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and his loyalists, Obama described “the suffering and bloodshed” as “outrageous” and said those responsible must be held accountable. “These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency,” Obama said yesterday at the White House after meeting with Clinton.

JP Morgan Raises $1.2 Billion For Digital Growth Fund (WSJ)
According to a regulatory filing, J.P. Morgan’s asset management unit raised $1.22 billion for a fund called J.P. Morgan Digital Growth Fund LP.

Bonuses on Wall Street Declined 8% in 2010, N.Y.’s DiNapoli Says (Bloomberg)
“Cash bonuses are down, but that’s not an indicator of a weakness on Wall Street,” DiNapoli said yesterday in a statement. Wall Street is changing its compensation practices in response to regulatory reforms adopted in the aftermath of the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression. Past practices rewarded short-term gains at the expense of long-term profitability.”

Silver Lake Partners Starts Clean Energy Fund (Dealbook)
The private-equity firm, which focuses on investments in the technology industry, has started Silver Lake Kraftwerk, a unit that will take stakes in companies in the energy and resource sectors. The move highlights the popularity of “cleantech” businesses — companies that use technology to improve energy efficiency. Silver Lake’s partners in the new venture are Soros Fund Management, which will invest in the fund, and Adam Grosser, a West Coast technology executive and venture capitalist who will will run the business. Joining Mr. Grosser will be Cathy Zoi, who recently served as the Obama administration’s Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Ex-Yanks Fight Wipe Swap Film (NYP)
Former Yankee Mike Kekich is desperate to block Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s movie “The Trade,” based on the huge scandal when he and fellow pitcher Fritz Peterson swapped wives in the 1970s. Die-hard Red Sox fan Affleck and his brother, Casey, are rewriting a second version of the script and have hired veteran sportswriters to help reach out to Yankees from that era. But Kekich, who’s believed to have created a completely new life and family in New Mexico, is refusing to participate.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Buoyed by Insurance ‘Float’ (WSJ)
Berkshire is likely to report improved fourth-quarter earnings and an increase in book value, a performance yardstick Mr. Buffett uses to measure the company’s growth…Of importance, Berkshire’s pool of funds from insurance—something known as “float”—could have swelled to roughly $67 billion at the end of 2010 from $63 billion a year earlier. It is poised to rise further in 2011 despite challenging insurance-market conditions amid the slow economy, analysts say.

GM Posts First Full Year Profit Since ’04 (Reuters)
The automaker reported fourth-quarter net income of $510 million after paying dividends on preferred shares, or 31 cents per share, down from the pace of earnings in the first three quarters of 2010 on higher costs to launch new vehicles and a continuing drag from losses in its European operations. After adjusting for a loss of 21 cents per share on the purchase of preferred shares that had been held by the U.S. Treasury, adjusted earnings per share were 52 cents.

UK Court Orders Assange Extradited (WSJ)
A U.K. court ordered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault allegations, dealing a serious blow to the document-leaking site and its founder. The decision ensures that Mr. Assange’s efforts to build and promote WikiLeaks will be to some degree detoured in coming months by the possibility that he will face criminal sex charges.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker