A Deeper Look at Facebook's Earnings Report  | So. Facebook has reported its first earnings report as a public company. And investors apparently didn't like what they saw.
Even though the company essentially met analyst estimates for revenue and adjusted earnings per share, the social network's shares tumbled more than 10 percent in after-hours trading, falling at one point below $24 a share. That's an all-time low in Facebook's two-month existence as a publicly traded corporation.
What gives? There are a couple of interesting items from the earnings announcement, but one pattern that emerges is that Facebook's once-vaunted growth is slowing down.
DealBook '
Barclays' Profit F alls Amid Rate-Rigging Scandal  | Barclays reported on Friday a 76 percent drop in its net profit during the first six months of the year after the British bank took an accounting charge on its own debt and other one-off costs.
The results come a month after Barclays announced a $450 million settlement with American and British authorities in connection to the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. A number of the bank's top executives, including its former chief executive, Robert E. Diamond Jr., resigned in the wake of the scandal, which involved some of the firm's traders and senior executives altering Libor submissions for financial gain.
Barclays disclosed on Friday that it was facing a number of class action lawsuits in the United States related to the manipulation of both Libor and the Euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor. The most recent lawsuit was filed at the beginning of July.
DealBook '
Romney Addresses a Financial Crowd in London  | In remarks at a fund-raiser at the Mandarin Oriental in Hyde Park, Mitt Romney avoided mentioning the scandal over the rigging of interest rates and called the Dodd-Frank law “unnecessary†and “overly burdensome,†The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Greenwich to Assess Economic Impact of Hedge Funds  | Officials in Greenwich, Conn., have called for a study of the impact that the financial industry has on the local economy, after the departure of a prominent hedge fund for Miami, The Stamford Advocate reports. “We're not taking these people for granted,†said Peter Tesei, Greenwich's top elected official. “It's easy to vilify (them) based upon an image.â€
STAMFORD ADVOCATE
Europe's Central Banker Offers Assurances on the Euro  | A comment by Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, buoyed markets, but analysts warned the lift could be short-lived. Mr. Draghi said: “Within our mandate, the E.C.B. is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough.â€
NEW YORK TIMES
Universal Considers Selling Prized Division  | To help secure approval for its $1.9 billion takeover of EMI, the Universal Music Group may sell Parlophone Records, a move once considered unthinkable, the Med ia Decoder blog reports.
NEW YORK TIMES MEDIA DECODER
Korea Says It Received No Bids for Woori Stake  | South Korea is encountering challenges in trying to sell a 57 percent stake in Woori Finance Holdings valued at $4.3 billion, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Icahn Posts Win as CVR Energy Says It Had No Offers  | Carl C. Icahn will get to keep - and run - CVR Energy, an oil refining company based in Texas, after a 60-day sale process failed to yield any credible bids.
DealBook '
United Technologies Closes $16.5 Billion Takeover  | After agreeing to sell certain noncore assets, Unite d Technologies closed its acquisition of the Goodrich Corporation on Thursday, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Airline Integration Weighs on United's Profit  | United Continental Holdings said the combination with Continental Airlines contributed to a fall in second-quarter profit, as the chief executive conceded that the company “added new stress to the system†by implementing various changes at once, The Associated Press reports.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senator Raises Concerns Over Cnooc Deal  | Senator Charles Schumer plans to tell Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, that the United States should challenge Cnooc's deal to acquire the Canadian firm Nexen, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Boston's WGBH Acquires Public Radio International  | The deal unites two of the country's largest public broadcasters, The New York Times writes. Financial terms were not disclosed.
NEW YORK TIMES
Sanford Weill Flips the Script  | The New York Times editorial board writes: “Sometimes, in a great national debate, the most powerful voices can be those of the converted. Think of Nixon to China or, more recently, President Obama's declaration of support for same-sex marriage. Now add to the list Sanford Weill, the financier who led the charge for the repeal of the 1933 law that separated commercial banks from investment banks.â€
NEW YORK TIMES
Wall Streeters Challenge Comments by Weill  | “I don't buy it,†said William Harrison, the former head of JPMorgan Chase. “It gets back to management and risk-taking, and you can screw that up at a small bank or a large bank.â€
REUTERS
Major Deals Help 2 Banks Outperform Larger Rivals  | Lazard and Evercore Partners reported Thursday that their core mergers advisory businesses had held up well on the strength of several major transactions.
DealBook '
Evercore Profit Rises 19% on Advisory Gains  | Evercore Partners' profit rose 19 percent in the second quarter, as the investment bank's core advisory business posted s trong results.
DealBook '
Nomura Chief Quits Amid Insider Trading Scandal  | The Japanese bank's chief executive, Kenichi Watanabe, and one of his top lieutenants resigned on Thursday in response to recent revelations that their employees abetted insider trading.
DealBook '
Nomura's Rank Among Deal Makers  | Despite the distraction of an insider trading scandal that has resulted in the resignation of Nomura's chief executive, the investment bank has risen three places this year in the worldwide merger league tables.
Jefferies and Goldman Have Highest Pay on Wall Street  | Jefferies set aside money in the first half of the year to pay employees an average of $228,407, and Goldman set aside an average of $225,789 for its workers, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Fidelity Expands Into Securities Lending  | The Wall Street Journal reports: “Mutual fund company Fidelity Investments is setting itself on a collision course with rivals by rolling out a pricing service designed to make the roughly $800 billion market for securities lending more transparent, according to people familiar with the firm's plans.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wells Fa rgo Plans to Expand Headcount in Asia  | The bank said it would increase its workforce in Asia by at least 10 percent over the next three years, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Greek Banks Hope Time Heals  | Bloomberg News notes that a strategy by Greek banks brings to mind the ancient playwright Euripides.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Chinese Funds Said to Be Near Deal for Dexia Unit  | Two Chinese private equity funds, Hony Capital and GCS Capital, are approaching a deal to buy the asset management arm of Dexia for about 500 million euros ($613.7 million), The Financial Times reports.
FINANCIAL TIMES
China Invests $500 Million With Blackstone  | An arm of China's central bank that oversees currency reserves has committed $500 million to a real estate private equity fund managed by the Blackstone Group, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Formula One's Uncertain Future  | A legal scuffle surrounding the chairman of the Formula One Group has created a risk for the private equity firm CVC Capital, which sold a stake in the business in May, The Economist writes.
economist
Owner of Friendly's Plays Two Roles  | The private equity firm Sun Capital Partners kept ownership of Friendly's parent company even after it filed for bankruptcy - because the firm was also the chain's biggest lender, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
British Buyout Firm Says It Is Cutting Costs  | In a quarterly announcement on Friday, 3i said it was making progress with a cost-cutting initiative, as it tries to win back dissatisfied investors, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Investors Press Hedge Funds Over Libor  | Some of the world's biggest hedge funds are responding to concerns from investors by conducting internal investigations to show they were not involved in an effort to rig majo r interest rates, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
A Paulson Holding Suffers  | NovaGold Resources, which is 13 percent owned by John A. Paulson's firm, fell 25 percent on Thursday after comments by the Barrick Gold Corporation, Bloomberg News reports. The decline may have translated into a $48.9 million loss for Mr. Paulson's firm.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Hedge Funds Can't Figure Out Europe's Crisis  | The Economist asks why the crisis in the euro zone has “not produced a Monsieur Paulson of its own? Despite more than two years of disarray, funds with double-digit returns are rare; those with triple-digit returns are unheard of.â€
ECONOMIST
Church of England's Pension Commits to Hedge Funds  | The $1.7 billion pension fund of the Church of England has tapped Winton Capital, Bridgewater Associates and BlackRock Advisors to manage assets, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Japanese Firm Pitches Pensions on Hedge Funds  | Mizuho Global Alternative Investments, which offers clients access to overseas hedge funds, is trying to encourage Japanese pension funds to invest, at a time when pensions are cautious in the wake of a scandal at AIJ Investment Advisors, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Not Quite an I.P.O. Comeback  | The Wall Street Journal w rites: “A trio of firms put in largely lackluster showings Thursday as they hit the exchanges, demonstrating that the market can still be fickle.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Singaporean Trust Moves Little on Debut  | The Ascendas Hospitality Trust of Singapore traded at roughly the same value as its initial offering price, despite strong demand for the I.P.O., Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Steakhouse Company Reduces Size of I.P.O. Â |Â The Del Frisco's Restaurant Group reduced the number of shares it sold in its I.P.O. and priced them below its expected range, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Twitter Experiences Another Outage  | The Bits blog writes: “A few short weeks after a software bug knocked Twitter offline, the service was unavailable to the majority, if not all, of its 140 million users for several hours on Thursday.â€
NEW YORK TIMES BITS
Forerunner Ventures Raises a $40 Million Fund  | Forerunner, a venture capital firm whose employees are all female, said it attracted $40 million for its first institutional fund, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Online Learning Platform Raises $43 Million  | Open English, which teaches English to non-native speakers, raised a financing round led by Insight Venture Partners, Tec hCrunch reports.
TECHCRUNCH
Scandals May Cost Banks Their Clout  | Banks recovered their self-confidence and influence quickly after the financial crisis. But Floyd Norris of The New York Times says that they may fare worse after JPMorgan Chase's hedging losses and the Libor scandal.
DealBook '
Geithner Faces Senate on Rate-Rigging Scandal  | Timothy F. Geithner, the United States Treasury secretary, vowed that authorities would forcefully pursue crimin al investigations into some of the world's biggest banks.
DealBook '
Lloyds Receives Subpoenas Over Interest Rates  | The British bank Lloyds became a focus of the investigation into the rate-rigging scandal, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Proposed Settlement Asks Dewey's Former Partners for Cash  | The Wall Street Journal reports: “On Thursday the team shutting down the firm briefed hundreds of former partners on a new, $90.4 million settlement plan intended to get ex-partners to fork over some of the cash they were paid in 2011 and 2012 as Dewey headed toward bankruptcy.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Capital One Penalized Over Lending to Military Families  | Capital One agreed to pay $12 million to resolve claims of violations in lending to military borrowers, Bloomberg News reports. The bank was also fined recently over claims it misled credit card customers.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Trustee Disputes Fees in Lehman Bankruptcy  | The Wall Street Journal reports: “Some Wall Street banks and hedge funds asking Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to chip in for their legal fees aren't entitled to make such claims in the biggest Chapter 11 case of all time, a government bankruptcy watchdog is arguing.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Madoff Trustee Looks to Distribute More Money  | Irving H. Picard is requesting permission from a New York c ourt to distribute an additional $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion to investors who lost money in Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme, The Associated Press reports.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
