Glencore Increases Offer in Bid to Secure Deal  | Glencore, the world's biggest commodities-trading company, has potentially saved its mega-merger with the mining company Xstrata by sweetening the terms of the all-share deal at the last minute as it seeks to gain shareholder support.
The commodities trader is trying to win over investors, including Qatar Holding, Xstrata's second-largest shareholder, which had threatened to block the deal.
Under the terms of the revised deal, Glencore has proposed to increase its offer to 3.05 shares for every Xstrata share. The commodities trader had initially offered 2.8 of its own shares for every Xstrata share.
For months, Qatar Holding had held out for a ratio closer to 3.25. Qatar, which owns 12 percent of Xstrata shares, was poised to vote against the deal at a shareholder vote on Friday. Within minutes of the vote, Glencore increased its offer in return for Ivan Glasenberg, the chief executive of Glencore becoming the chief executive of the merged company.
DealBook '
Huge Step Taken by Europe's Bank to Abate Crisis  | The European Central Bank has taken its most ambitious step yet toward easing the euro zone crisis, throwing its unlimited financial clout behind an effort to protect Spain and Italy from financial collapse. The move may relieve investor pressure on troubled countries, but also effectively spreads responsibility for repaying national debts to the euro zone countries as a group, Jack Ewing and Steven Erlanger report in The New York Times.
DealBook '
Markets Soa r on European Announcement  | The benchmark American stock index rose to a four-year high after the European Central Bank announced a plan to support the euro zone by buying bonds. Such rallies have been fleeting in the past, but investors suggested that this enthusiasm may last, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Europe's Crisis Touches Germany  | After long avoiding the worst of the Continent's crisis, Germany is now expected to fall into recession in the second half of this year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
NEW YORK TIMES
Defunct Law Firm Keeps Its Troubles Off the Softball Field  | The softball team of Dewey & LeBoeuf, the b ehemoth firm that went bankrupt this year, is 10-1 and is defending its league championship from last season, Elizabeth A. Harris reported for The New York Times.
DealBook '
News Corp. Nears a $2 Billion Deal in Australia  | Consolidated Media Holdings, the television business of the Australian billionaire James Packer, agreed to back a revised takeover offer from the News Corporation, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Facebook Officially Owns Instagram  | Facebook has closed its acquisition of Instagram, The New York Times Bits blog reports. When the deal was announced, it was worth $1 billion, but at Facebook's midday trading price on Thursday of $18.97 a share, the deal would be worth $736 million.
DealBook '
2 Real Estate Firms Strike $2.9 Billion Deal  | The Realty Income Corporation agreed to acquire American Realty Capital Trust on Thursday, a $2.9 billion deal involving hundreds of retail and commercial properties.
DealBook '
A.I.G. Raises $2 Billion in Share Sale  | A.I.G. priced its offering of A.I.A. Group shares at a premium, raising $2.02 billion to finance a buyback of its own shares from the United States government, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Canada Says It Will Scrutinize Cnooc's Bid for Nexen  | Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada said the government would take a close look at Cnooc's $15.1 billion deal to take over Nexen, to determine whether the tie-up would benefit Canada, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
MasterCard Bolsters Consumer Offers With Truaxis Deal  | MasterCard on Thursday agreed to buy Truaxis, a Silicon Valley-based company that provides targeted offers to consumers, in an effort to expand its customer loyalty products, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
DealBook '
Goldman and Morgan Stanley Reach Out to Bond Investors  | For the first time this summer, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley held conference calls with bond investors as the firms seek new buyers for their debt, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Investors Expect a Replacement for Libor  | Bloomberg News reports: “A key interest rate for more than $500 trillion of securities worldwide will be replaced by a benchmark subject to greater government control, according to a plurality of global investors.â€
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Nomura Looks to Buy an Asian Firm  | Nomura's chief executive, Koji Nagai, said his firm was considering buying an Asian investment bank or brokerage, as it increases its focus on Asia, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Investment Banks Prepare to Cut Jobs in Europe  | Firms including Nomura, Credit Suisse and UBS are preparing job cuts in Europe that industry experts say are “shaping up as the deepest since the start of the financial crisis after a disappointing summer dashed hopes of a business revival,†The Financial Times reports.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Bankers in Charlotte Take Cover Behind Fences  | Bloomberg News reports: “Bankers in Charlotte, North Carolina, had prepared for the worst, bracing themselves for attacks from the Democratic Party's convention stage and fencing in the entrances to guard their high-rise office towers against protests. What they got was mostly muted complaints from the Time Warner Cable Arena's podium and sparsely attended weekend demonstrations.â€
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Morgan Stanley Traders to Join Merchant Firm  | Three gasoline traders at Morgan Stanley are leaving the firm to join Mercuria, a Swiss commodity trading house, Reuters reports, citing an unidentified person.
REUTERS
Carlyle to Acquire Power Plant Developer From Goldman  | The Carlyle Group agreed to buy Cogentrix Energy from Goldman Sachs, gaining five power plants in a deal whose terms were not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Buyouts Focus on an Energy Industry Niche  | Private equity firms have committed at least $5.1 billion this summer to midstream energy companies, which do business in the gathering, distribution and processing of oil and gas, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pension Funds Take a Hard Look at Private Equity Investments  | A new report by a consultant to a California p ension fund raises doubts about investing with private equity, showing that returns from the biggest buyout firms are falling short of many pensions' internal benchmarks, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Blackstone Appoints Head of European Buyouts  | Lionel Assant is becoming the leader of the Blackstone Group's European private equity operations, a move that comes on the heels of Joseph Baratta's promotion to head of global private equity, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Buyout Deals Become Smaller in Britain  | Smaller deals constitute a growing share of buyouts in Britain, in part because smaller transactions have performed relatively well, The Financial Times writes.
FIN ANCIAL TIMES
Select-Service Hotels Draw Private Equity Interest  | Firms like the Starwood Capital Group and Clearview Capital have helped push up the prices of select-service hotels this year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Man Group Hires a Former Pimco Executive  | Sudi Mariappa, who worked with Bill Gross at Pimco as its global head of portfolio management, is headed to the Man Group, the British hedge fund giant contending with disappointing returns, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Bell Point Hedge Fund to Shutter  | Bell Point Capital Management, a credit hedge fund founded by a former Citadel executive, is closing up shop by year's end, Bloomberg News reports, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Study Finds Hedge Funds Strengthening Risk Management  | The industry is focusing more on risk management and communicating more with investors, according to a study by the Managed Funds Association, BNY Mellon and HedgeMark.
HEDGE WEEK
LightSquared Lenders Oppose Extending Hedge Fund Manager's Control  | A group of lenders to LightSquared, the bankrupt wireless company, objected to a request to extend for 150 days the control of Philip A. Falcone, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Trulia Aims to Raise Up to $100 Million in I.P.O. Â |Â The real estate Web site is offering 6 million shares at an expected price range of between $14 and $16 a share, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Banks in Asia Fight Over Shrinking Pool of Fees  | Reuters Breakingviews writes that a drought of I.P.O.'s in Asia “has prompted an unseemly scramble to work for the few companies still coming to market.â€
REUTERS
Pandora Gets a Challenger in Apple  | After rising to dominate digital music through its iTunes store, Apple is now developing an Internet radio service that would compete with Pandora Media, three people briefed on the plans told The New York Times.
NEW YORK TIMES
Zynga Expands Its Stable of Games  | The social games company announced four new games on its own Web site, Zynga.com, a platform it has been building in addition to its presence on Facebook.
INSIDE SOCIAL GAMES
Andreessen Horowitz Invests in Consumer Products Company  | The venture capital firm led a $68 million financing round in Quirky, a start-up that uses an online community to refine ideas that are then turned into consumer products, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company is v alued at more than $150 million in the deal, according to the newspaper.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Venture Capitalist Explains a Focus on India  | Naren Gupta, a co-founder of the Mumbai-based Nexus Venture Partners, predicted India would develop billion-dollar start-ups within a few years, but he said young companies in India “need more hand-holding than they need in the U.S.,†The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Russian Travel Site Raises $9 Million  | OneTwoTrip, a Moscow-based air travel booking company, attracted $9 million from Phenomen Ventures, TechCrunch reports.
TECHCRUNCH
Visas-for-Dollars Program a Boon to Hotel Developers  | A federal program that grants so-called EB-5 visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in an American business has become a popular source of cheap financing for hotel companies.
DealBook '
Appeals Court Revives Insider Trading Case Against Obus  | A Federal Appeals Court has revived a decade-old insider-trading case brought against Nelson Obus, a New York hedge fund manager, by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
DealBook '
Senate Panel Said to Seek Testimony From JPMorgan Staff  | The Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations is stepping up its investigation in to JPMorgan's multibillion-dollar trading loss, Bloomberg News reports, citing three unidentified people briefed on the inquiry.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
UBS Sued Over Sale of Mortgage-Backed Securities  | A United States regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, has accused the Swiss bank of violating federal and state laws in how it represented mortgage-backed securities it sold to two credit unions, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Former UBS Trader to Begin Trial  | Kweku Adoboli, who was accused of rogue trades that lost UBS $2.3 billion, faces charges of fraud and false accounting when he goes on trial next week.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Judge Approves Settlement Over E-Book Pricing  | A judge signed off on a deal between the Justice Department and three publishers that were accused of conspiring with Apple to raise e-book prices, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Rhode Island City to Emerge From Bankruptcy  | A judge on Thursday approved a plan for Central Falls, R.I., to leave bankruptcy, making sure that the city repays bondholders largely by raising taxes and cutting from pensions and other employee benefits, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
