Barclays Beat Earnings Expectations (MarketWatch)
The bank reported a net profit of 3.56 billion pounds ($5.7 billion) for 2010, beating earnings expectations as recently appointed Chief Executive Bob Diamond said the bank will step up its efforts to increase profitability. Profit rose 36% from the £2.63 billion reported in 2009, excluding a £6.77 billion one-off gain in the year-earlier period from the sale of the group’s asset management division. Including that year-earlier gain, profit fell 62%. The euro has started the week under a little pressure, but, with a data avalanche to come, it’s not likely to remain in the unwelcome spotlight much longer. Pretax profit rose 32% to £6.07 billion and was ahead of the £5.78 billion consensus forecast of analysts.

Bernanke Would Defend Lehman Actions To His ‘Deathbed’ (Bloomberg)
“I will maintain to my deathbed, that we made every effort to save Lehman, but we were just unable to do so because of a lack of legal authority,” Bernanke said.

Wall Street Missed Out On Commodities Boom (WSJ)
At J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which made an aggressive push into commodities during the past few years, revenue from the business shrank by 43% in 2010 compared with a year earlier, according to people with knowledge of the results. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its commodities business suffered “significantly lower results.” Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group AG, among the few to announce its commodities revenue, last week reported a 42% drop. The problem: The biggest banks in commodities by revenue, including Morgan Stanley and Barclays PLC, all are focused on the large and liquid energy markets of oil and natural gas. Both had a lackluster 2010. Price swings, which help Wall Street traders make money, were near record lows for oil and gas, while trading levels fell sharply.

Tiger Woods to Be Fined by European Golf Tour for Spitting on Dubai Course (Bloomberg)
“The Euro Tour is right — it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better,” Woods said in the Twitter post, which was confirmed in an e-mail from his agent, Mark Steinberg. “Just wasn’t thinking and want to say I’m sorry.”

Einhorn Buys BP, Paulson Jumps Into Energy (Reuters)
Greenlight Capital Monday disclosed new stakes in half a dozen companies ranging from telephone company Sprint Nextel to energy company BP. Meanwhile, John Paulson jumped into shares of top energy producers in the fourth quarter, while holding steady with his big bets on gold and financial service firms.

Berkshire Hathaway Beefs Up In Wells Fargo (WSJ)
Berkshire’s $52.6 billion U.S. equity portfolio now includes just 25 companies, the fewest in several years. At the end of the third quarter, Berkshire held $48.6 billion in stocks after exiting from investments in firms including CarMax Inc., Home Depot Inc. and NRG Energy Inc., stocks that were in Geico’s accounts. The fourth-quarter increase in the size of the portfolio reflects substantial increases in the value of major holdings, including Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co.

‘Jeopardy!’ pits man against computer in Round 1 (AP)
In the “Jeopardy!” battle of man vs. machine, man and machine were neck-and-neck on Monday. Human player Brad Rutter and the supercomputer named Watson ended an initial round tied at $5,000. The other challenger, human Ken Jennings, was far behind with $2,000. Rutter (the show’s all-time money-winner with $3.25 million) and Jennings (who has the longest winning streak at 74 games) are the most successful players in “Jeopardy!” history. Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is powered by 10 racks of computer servers running the Linux operating system. “You are about to witness what may prove to be an historic competition,” host Alex Trebek told viewers at the top of the show.

D.Boerse, NYSE near deal but dodging thorny issues (Reuters)
Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext are expected to sidestep thorny political issues in announcing a deal later on Tuesday to create the world’s largest exchange operator, as the wave of global stock exchange consolidation gathers pace.

Budget Battle Lines Drawn (WSJ)
If Congress accepted all the president’s proposals—which is unlikely—and the economy recovered, the federal deficit would fall from 10.9% of GDP this year to 3%, Mr. Obama’s goal, in 2017.

Goldman’s Shumway Deal Shows Peril of Buying Hedge Fund Stakes (Bloomberg)
“Stakes in hedge funds are generally not good investments,” said Sussman. “They are particularly high-risk given the many moving parts, such as employee turnover, a decline in assets under management and decaying returns.”

Mayor’s Unorthodox Style Of Drinking Gets Icy Reception (NYP)
Standing inside the just-expanded Brooklyn Brewery yesterday, the mayor revealed that his unorthodox approach to drinking beer requires ice. “I actually put ice in my beer,” the mayor said. “Most people don’t.” Hearing a gasp from the crowd, he explained: “I know. I’ve always done it. I don’t think it comes from Boston.” Brewery President Steve Hindy was too polite to set the mayor straight on the correct way to savor his popular suds. But Julie Johnson, editor of All About Beer magazine, was more than willing to offer Bloomberg some drinking tips.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

New Yorkers Told To Stay Home As Snowfall City (Bloomberg)
While the storm was over in time for the morning commute, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said heavy snowfall had left streets too treacherous to travel. New York City almost never takes a snow day, but today is one of those rare days,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “People should stay at home and off the roads.” The storm broke New York’s 86-year-old record for January snowfall. A total of 36 inches (82 centimeters) had fallen in Central Park this month as of 1 a.m., compared with 27.4 inches in 1925, the National Weather Service said.

Snowstorm Wallops Northeast, Piling On Mercy (AP)
Run for your lives!

Goldman President Warns On Bank Rules At Davos (FT)
At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gary Cohn, Goldman’s president, criticised regulators’ focus on traditional institutions and urged them to look at the effects of new rules on the whole financial system. “In the next few years, the unregulated sector will grow at an exponential rate,” he said. “Risk is risk. My concern is that … risk will move from the regulated, more transparent banking sector to a less regulated, more opaque sector.”

McDonald’s No Match For KFC In China As Colonel Rules (Bloomberg)
On the edge of Tiananmen Square, just across the street from Mao Zedong’s tomb, He Yingying munches on a piece of chicken and gazes at the benign-looking figure beaming down at her. “We love him,” she says, bursting into an impish smile. The 21-year-old student from Beijing’s Capital University of Economics and Business isn’t referring to Mao, whose iconic official portrait dominates the square. She’s talking about a long-dead, white-bearded Kentucky colonel on the logo of the KFC restaurant where she’s feasting on her favorite fast food.

Fed Closes Ranks As Improving Economy Won’t Derail QE2 (Bloomberg)
“They’re trying very hard in their statement to get people to stop jumping the gun” with an expectation that the record stimulus will end before the planned conclusion in June, said Ethan Harris, head of developed-markets economic research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. The Fed is saying, “we’re continuing our buying program and we’re not going to move for a long time,” he said. Harris put the odds of completing the purchases at 95 percent.

Pot-firing catapult found at Arizona-Mexico border (AP)
National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening.

GM Drops Request For Loans (WSJ)
General Motors Co. is withdrawing its request for billions in Department of Energy loans aimed at making its vehicle fleet more fuel-efficient, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday. GM and the DOE had been negotiating loan terms under the $25 billion lending program. The amount GM was in line to get hasn’t been disclosed.

Allen Stanford Headed To Prison Hospital To Get Fit For Trial (Bloomberg)
“The court finds Stanford is incompetent to stand trial at this time based on his apparent impaired ability to rationally assist his attorneys in preparing his defense,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston said yesterday in his ruling. “The court’s finding that Stanford is incompetent, however, does not alter the court’s finding that Stanford is a flight risk.”

Worries About Greece Scenario Muted In Japan (WSJ)
Japan’s debt problem is, by far, the worst in the developed world—expected to surpass 200% of gross domestic product this year, according to some projections. That’s well above Greece’s 137%. But unlike Greece and the other countries suffering from market runs on their sovereign borrowing, Japan has been largely immune to the dictates of global hedge funds and other demanding investors who look askance at the razor-thin yields offered for Japanese government-issued debt.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

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

Shares of Chinese solar technology provider Yingli Green Energy Holding (YGE) closed down 5 cents, or half a percent, at $10.09 today after Credit Suisse analyst Satya Kumar intiated coverage of the stock with a Neutral rating and a $12 price target.
25 gigawatts of potential industry solar supply in 2011 [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

GT Solar (SOLR) this morning said it has agreed to buyback 26.5 million shares now held by GT Solar Holdings, which is controlled by the company’s private equity investors, GFI Energy Group and Oaktree Capital Management.  Terms call for SOLR to buy back the stock for $7.66 a share, or [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS) shares are trading sharply lower on Street disappointment with the power and control equipment company’s Q3 results.
For the quarter, Advanced Energy reported revenue of $141 million, ahead of the Street at $137 million, but with profits of 40 cents a share, below the Street consensus at [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Angel investors and venture capital firms are finding  teaming up to find the best deals as early as possible, new data released today shows, with investors paying particular attention to startup companies active in the IT and business technology space

The statistics released by Dow Jones VentureSource showed that during the first three-quarters of 2010, angel and VC co-sponsored deals put $282 million into 68 separate deals.

That’s a significant uptick year-over-year, when the same period in 2009 saw only 59 co-investment deals garnering a total of $236 million.

Technology or online networking startups are seeing the bulk of this investment, said Dow Jones, as the white-hot environment for web-based social media continues to draw both investors’ interest and their infusions of money.

“As venture capitalists scout younger companies, especially in the consumer and Internet spaces, we are seeing them tap into and co-invest with angel groups,” said Jessica Canning, global research director for Dow Jones VentureSource.

Over the last quarter, investors been particularly keen on business and financial services, and put more than $1 billion dollars into software companies alone.

Renewable energy also has caught the eye of many angel-VC partnerships, as “renewable energy deals continue to drive investment in the energy industry,” said Dow Jones.

The recent stats showed that median size deal has grown slightly, weighing in at around $5 million since the beginning of 2009, as VCs and angels pick and choose where to put what cash where they think they are most likely to turn startups into powerhouses.

Still, angel investors continue to account for a relatively small part of over all investment across the market: Dow Jones’ statistics—which they’ve been compiling since 2007–said total venture capital investments accounted for only $5.5 billion in the third quarter.

Those numbers could likely skyrocket in the coming few quarters, however, with has many investors panting on the sidelines for many currently privately-held companies like Facebook and Twitter to take their businesses public.

Tags: angel investors, deal, Social Media, social networking, Social networks, Venture Capital

Companies: Dow jones, Facebook, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Raymond James solar analyst Pavel Molchanov this morning cut his ratings on both Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) and First Solar (FSLR), while upgrading Suntech (STP). Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank analyst Eric Cheng also upgraded STP, while Brigantine Advisors analyst Ramesh Misra picked up coverage of FSLR, STP and SunPower (SPWRA).
“If you [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Oppenheimer analyst Gary Hsueh this morning cut his ratings on both Yingli Green Energy (YGE) and JinkoSolar (JKS) to Perform from Outperform.
Hsueh notes that in early September, the bullish view on the solar stocks turned on the ability of Italy and France to offset a slowdown in Germany, as well [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

A-Power Energy Generation Systems (APWR) late yesterday said it has signed a three-phase, six-year contract worth $279 million with Baishan Long Run Water Conservancy for a series hydro-power projects.
The first phase of the contract is a 12.8 MW water control project in Baishan, in China’s Jilin province; that will be [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily