Plan B Is Considered to Curb Money Market Funds  | After the failure of one effort to overhaul a major part of the mutual fund industry, top government officials worked on Thursday to find alternative ways to rein in what they see as a systemic threat to the financial system.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and other top regulators were given sweeping powers after the 2008 financial crisis that would allow them to force new rules on money market funds, a popular type of mutual fund that has taken some of the blame for the crisis. On Wednesday evening, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary L. Schapiro, announced unexpectedly that she was calling off her agency's long-running effort to change rules for money funds.
Mr. Geithner and fellow regulators had urged the S.E.C. to act and could now use their new authority to shift oversight of the money market fund industry away from the S.E.C., a move that has few precedents. But after being surprised by the suddenness of the S.E.C.'s decision, numerous agencies were huddling to discuss whether they could carry out such bold moves or would have to rely on more modest alternatives, people with knowledge of the deliberations said.
Regulators and advocates of change were also dealing with the likelihood that an overhaul will now be much more difficult to achieve.
DealBook '
Europe Turns Once Again to Debating Aid for Greece  | The negotiations are seemin gly never-ending. This time, as European leaders decide how to provide more aid to Greece, political pressures have introduced the possibility that a third bailout of the struggling nation may not be an option, The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES
Lehman Brothers T-Shirt Becomes a Collector's Item  | A line of canary yellow t-shirts dating to a tennis tournament hosted by Shearson Lehman in 1985 has commanded prices above $60 on eBay, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK
Kodak to Sell Legacy Film Units As Part of Bankruptcy Plan  | Eastman Kodak said on Thursday that it planned to sell several legacy film units a nd focus on commercial printing as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
DealBook '
Qatar Fund Raises Stake in Xstrata  | Qatar Holding, the sovereign wealth fund, has increased its stake in the mining company Xstrata to above 12 percent, as it continues to oppose the planned $30 billion takeover of Xstrata by Glencore International.
DealBook '
What the Sound and Fury Over Best Buy May Signify  | Behind the squabbling between Best Buy and its founder, Richard M. Schulze, there is a mystery, the Deal Professor writes. What exactly is Mr. Schulze's strategy? And why is this fight public?
DealBook '
Permira to Buy Japan ese Restaurant Chain for $1 Billion  | The European private equity firm Permira has agreed to buy Akindo Sushiro, a large Japanese sushi restaurant chain, for $1 billion including debt, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Olympus to Sell Mobile Business for $676 Million  | Olympus said it would split a subsidiary in two and then sell the mobile phone retailing business to Japan Industrial Partners, an investment fund, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Australian Mogul Abandons Bid for Whitehaven  | Nathan Tinkler, the Australian mining magnate, walked away from a planned $5.5 billion bid for Whitehaven Coal on Friday after being unable to line up financing, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Share Offering Stirs Speculation of Interest From Slim  | The Polish fiber optic company Hawe said it would raise about $107 million by selling shares to an investor, fueling speculation that the billionaire Carlos Slim may be seeking a stake, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Morgan Stanley Mutual Funds Bet on Facebook  | Mutual funds run by Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter of Facebook's I.P.O., have a disproportionately high amount of exposure to the social network, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing the research firm Morningstar.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bank of America Adds 4 Directors  | Bank of America on Thursday appointed four new directors to its board in anticipation of several current board members stepping down after they reach retirement age.
DealBook '
JPMorgan's Former Leader Makes a Case for Big Banks  | William B. Harrison Jr., a primary architect of the modern-day JPMorgan Chase, writes in an op-ed in The Times that the breakup of big banks would not prevent risky behaviors.
DealBook '
Swiss Private Bank Pushes Into Emerging Markets  | With a deal to buy the non-American business of Merrill Lynch's International Wealth Management division, the Swiss bank Julius Bär is “changing the face of the once rather staid, f amily-dominated†institution, The Economist writes.
ECONOMIST
Small Banks Turn to Credit Cards  | More small banks are issuing credit cards, putting excess deposits to work amid new regulations that make debit cards less profitable, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Private Equity Firms Stimulate Earnings and Deals in Egypt  | Last year, a number of private equity-owned businesses in Egypt, in sectors like health care and power, increased their earnings by 40 percent or more, driven by surprising consumer spending.
DealBook '
Romney's Lessons From Bain Capital  | In an op-ed essay in The Wall Street Journal, Mitt Romney describes his investments in Staples and other companies as leader of Bain Capital. He writes, “I'm not sure Bain Capital could have grown or turned around some of the companies we invested in had we faced today's anti-business environment.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bain Capital Documents Show Details on Romney's Wealth  | Internal documents from Bain Capital that were published by Gawker.com on Thursday include annual financial statements and investor letters distributed to limited partners in more than 20 Bain and related funds. Though the documents don't specify the stakes the Romney family held in the funds, they highlight the complexity of the presidential candidate's investments, The New York Times reports.
Private Equity Boss in China Strikes an Upbeat Tone  | Paul Song, managing partner at the Beijing Capital Growth Fund, who is trying to raise $100 million from foreign investors, says he isn't fazed by a fund-raising environment that has capital leaving China at its fastest pace since the financial crisis, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Citigroup Private Bank Said to Ask Paulson for Its Money  | The private bank of Citigroup is redeeming about $410 million from Paulson & Company, which recently has been contending with a disappointing run of losses, Bloomberg News reports, c iting two unidentified people familiar with the matter.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Ackman Urges Mall Owner to Consider a Sale  | William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management, the second-largest shareholder of General Growth Properties, urged the mall operator to consider selling itself, and said in a regulatory filing that he had discussed the possibility of an acquisition with the Simon Property Group, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Activist Fund Pushes for a Sale of Ralcorp  | Corvex Management, a hedge fund run by a former lieutenant of Carl Icahn, disclosed on Thursday a 5.13 percent stake in the food company Ralcorp and urged the company to put itself on the block, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Macro Fund Defies a Broader Slump  | The BTG Pactual Global Emerging Markets and Macro Fund has returned 16 percent this year, drawing a sharp contrast with the other firms that invest in large economic trends, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Facebook Tries to Make Money in a Small-Screen World  | Facebook has “retooled and focused the company around mobile,†in the words of Mike Schroepfer, vice president for engineering for the social network. The move entails risks - mobile ads bring in less money than standard Web ads - and Wall Street is paying close attention to the company's ability to reorient itself, The New Y ork Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES
Facebook Strikes a Deal for Payments on the Go  | The social network is partnering with Bango, a British company, in a payment tool that could help Facebook in its effort to make money from mobile devices, the Bits blog writes.
NEW YORK TIMES BITS
UBS Also Urges S.E.C. to Reject Nasdaq's Proposal  | UBS is the latest financial firm to shoot down Nasdaq's $62 million proposal to compensate customers who lost money during Facebook's bungled initial public offering.
DealBook '
Groupon Executive to Leave the Company  | Lee Brown, who oversees national sales at Gr oupon, plans to follow other senior executives out the door, Reuters reports, citing an internal memo.
REUTERS
Santander Said to Plan Mexican Listing for September  | Banco Santander of Spain has set a date of Sept. 25 for the I.P.O. of its Mexican unit, looking to raise between $3 billion and $4 billion, Reuters reports, citing an unidentified person close to the deal.
REUTERS
New York Sets Up an Entity to Oversee Tech Projects  | The New York Times reports: “Scalded by scandal, cost overruns and embarrassments in some of its most ambitious computerization efforts, the Bloomberg administration has hit upon on a new remedy: outsourcing such projects to a new quasi-governmental entity that will operate free of the usual city procurement rules, salary limits and legislative oversight.â€
NEW YORK TIMES
Start-Ups Gain Favor as Technology Vendors  | Businesses in need of technology are finding that start-ups can be more responsive to customers and quicker to embrace new models than the giants of the industry, The Wall Street Journal writes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Venture Capitalist Affirms a Focus on Mobile  | John Lilly, a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, told The Deal, “there will be more and more companies that get bought that are mobile-first or mobile-only.â€
THE DEAL
Fallout Continues at Vietnamese Bank  | The arrest of a second former executive of Asia Commercial Bank is the latest twist in a banking scandal that has prompted Vietnam's central bank to help fend off a run on deposits.
DealBook '
New York Fed Sells Off Last A.I.G.-Related Holdings  | The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday that it had wound down the final remnant of its rescue of the American International Group, generating a multibillion-dollar profit in the process.
DealBook '
More Bad Marks for Auditors  | Floyd Norris writes in his column in The New York Tim es: “Are audits getting worse? Or are the inspectors getting pickier? Those would seem to be two possible explanations of a trend that looks very bad.â€
NEW YORK TIMES
Latinos in Queens Claim to Be Victims of Ponzi Scheme  | A group of about 400 investors in Queens, mostly immigrants from Latin America, say they were betrayed in a Ponzi scheme that robbed them of at least a combined $10 million, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Creditors of Bankrupt City Challenge Sanctity of Pensions  | Creditors of the city of Stockton, Calif., are arguing that the city is not treating all of its bankruptcy creditors equitably because it is still funding its workers' pensions, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Apple and Samsung Penalized by South Korean Court  | A court in South Korea ruled on Friday that Apple and Samsung Electronics both infringed on each other's patents, and ordered a ban of some of their products in the country, The Associated Press reports.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
