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My 40-year-long career as a scientist in a federal research laboratory has left me with an almost inexhaustible source of topics. Today I discuss some of the absurdities of the Federal Acquisition Regulations. Put simply, the Federal Acquisition Regulations, affectionately known as the FAR, is a body of rules governing how federal employees procure goods and services to carry out the tasks set out for them by the powers that be. The purpose of the FAR is unassailable: it exists to protect the taxpayer from waste, fraud, and abuse. Folks who work in the federal government have an obligation to...

China’s communist regime has moderate to heavy influence over 40 percent of European businesses acquired by Chinese companies in the last decade, research has found.Datenna, a Dutch consulting firm specializing in screening Chinese investments, looked at data for hundreds of European companies that have sold most or all of their shares to Chinese firms to find out how much influence the Chinese state has over the companies as a shareholder.The data is presented as the China–EU FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) Radar—an interactive map that illustrates levels of state influence.The FDI Radar, based on Datenna’s analysis of the acquisitions’ ultimate...

Since President Donald J. Trump took office on January 20th, almost 3,100 merger or acquisition (M&A) deals have been announced, per recently released data from Thomson Reuters. 2017 continues to be the art of the deal as there have already been 13 deals valued at over $5 billion dollars since the Trump administration took charge. Cross-border deals are also at record highs. As the mainstream media continues to decry the mounting political and economic uncertainty around the world as a result of the hard-to-predict Trump administration, the global economy centered around the vibrant U.S. market appears to be doing just...

With three banks that were shuttered Friday, there have been 133 U.S. bank and thrift failures this year, more than five times as many as in 2008. Tougher regulations may accelerate the pace next year. The implosion of several large residential mortgage lenders in 2008 gave way to troubled community lenders, which were hobbled by commercial-construction and real-estate loans that soured. During 2009, many failed institutions were sold to healthier banks, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreeing to share in losses on acquired assets. Holding companies taking advantage of generous terms include New York Community Bancorp(NYB Quote), which took...

LONDON (Reuters) - A consortium of Middle Eastern investors and American buyout firms is preparing a $50 billion approach for Dow Chemical Co. (DOW.N: Quote, Profile , Research) in what could be the world's biggest ever leveraged buyout, a paper said on Sunday.

Oracle announced a deal today to acquire Hyperion Solutions, which makes software that allows corporations to analyze and track their performance, for about $3.3 billion. The deal is the latest trophy in a long string of acquisitions by Oracle, the database software giant that has been struggling to grow from within. In December, Oracle posted strong earnings growth for its second fiscal quarter, but its growth in license sales disappointed investors. The company said at the time that it had failed to close some crucial licensing deals during the quarter. License sales rose 28 percent in the quarter, but that...

NEW YORK - The stock market's big 2006 advance gave a boost to more than investment portfolios - it fueled a frenzied pace of mergers and acquisitions, with hedge funds and private equity shops sending the total value of acquisitions to a staggering $4 trillion. This set a record for M&A, besting the dot-com boom in 2000, when the value of deals totaled $3.3 trillion, according to M&A tracking firm Dealogic. It gave Wall Street bankers a lot to smile about, especially given the astronomical bonuses doled out this year. But, the little guy wasn't exactly left out either. All...

IBM is to acquire security tools and services firm Internet Security Systems in an all-cash deal valued at $1.3bn, or $28 per share. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006, subject to approval by regulators and ISS' shareholders. ISS markets a range of intrusion detection and vulnerability assessment tools and services designed to secure corporate networks. It competes with firms such as Symantec and Counterpane. NEC Computers, your accredited Catalist IT supplier IBM said bringing ISS into its fold will boost its IT services business, particularly in the area of managed security services. Following the...

U.S. appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. (WHR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Sunday proposed to acquire smaller rival Maytag for $17 a share in a deal worth $2.3 billion, sparking a bidding war for the maker of Hoover vacuums. Maytag, whose products include Amana and Jenn-Air appliances, agreed in May to be acquired by Triton Acquisition Holding, an investment vehicle led by New York private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings, for $14 a share. Maytag said on July 13 that the Triton deal was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, and set an Aug. 19 shareholder vote in Newton, Iowa, where it is...

The last thing Chevron wanted when it made its $16.8 billion offer for Unocal back in April was to be pitted in a takeover battle against the Chinese government. After all, one of the main reasons it went after Unocal, a California-based independent oil company with vast resources in Asia, was to sell oil and gas to the fastest-growing energy market in the world, China. But on June 22, when the state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or Cnooc, countered with a higher bid for Unocal, Chevron found itself in a delicate position. Since then, Chevron's managers have gone into...

The Texas Department of Transportation held one of its 27 public meetings at NT's Gateway Center Wednesday, concerning the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, a highway that will run from Oklahoma to Mexico. The highway is estimated to cover an area approximately 800 miles long and will include 77 counties. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a long-term project. Its estimated completion date will not be for another 30 to 60 years. The corridor will come with a price tag of somewhere between $145.2 billion and $183.2 billion. Paying for the highway was one of the major concerns addressed at the meeting. Obtaining funds...

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The fact is that Hewlett-Packard before Carly Fiorina (nee Cara Carleton S. Sneed) was probably less dynamic than it is today. She managed to bring some marketing savvy to the company and managed to shake up that stodgy corporate culture known as "the H-P way." That said, H-P slowly evolved from an engineering-centric company to one that makes many of its products offshore and has become a commodity provider too ensnared in the world of humdrum PC's when companies like IBM have bailed out of the business as Dell continues to effortlessly dominate. While there will...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Kmart Holding Corp. on Wednesday said they would merge in an $11 billion deal to form the third-largest U.S. retailer. The companies said in a joint statement that the new company, Sears Holdings, will have about $55 billion in annual revenues, 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores, and 1,100 specialty retail stores.

<p>Bank of America Agrees to Buy Fleet for $47 Billion (Update4) Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. agreed to buy FleetBoston Financial Corp. for $47 billion in stock, creating the second-biggest U.S. bank and signaling a revival in corporate acquisitions.</p>

Connecticut's attorney general got the market's attention when he announced his intention to file an antitrust suit against Oracle (ORCL) on Wednesday. But he'd better enjoy it while he can. Making the case stick won't be easy. "It sounds as though Connecticut's criticism is that, as a customer, the successor to his supplier is not as desirable as the one he has now. That's a fair concern for a customer to raise, but it's not an antitrust issue. It's a matter of contract rights," said Emmett Stanton, an antitrust specialist and partner in the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick...

Microsoft cancels a video game deal The company tried to invest cash in Sega so that the Japanese video game publisher could rival game publisher Square.By Dean Takahashi July 16, 2002 Microsoft hasn't bought any game publishers to bolster the fortunes of its Xbox video game console, but not through lack of trying.This spring the Redmond, Washington, software giant almost struck a deal with Sega Enterprises to buy a controlling stake in the Japanese game publisher. But the deal turned out to be too complicated to pull off before the industry's big trade show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which took...