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Swedish stock market owner OMX has agreed one of the country’s largest international mergers in recent years after accepting an offer to join forces with US technology bourse Nasdaq. The deal will see Nasdaq pay US$3.7 billion to acquire OMX, which controls around 80 percent of stock market trading in the Nordic countries and Baltic states. Stockholm-based OMX is one of the world’s largest developers and suppliers of electronic trading technology as well as the operator of exchanges in seven north European capitals. “This combination provides our organizations with the ability to grow and accelerate the global flow of equity...

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...

US drops plan to open up airlines Experts say there is room for further mergers in the airline industry The US has withdrawn a plan to give foreign investors more control over domestic airlines, a move likely to delay an "open skies" treaty. The European Union had said it would only allow the US freer access to its airspace if it approved the changes. Unions and members of Congress had been lobbying against the plans, which hoped to boost investment and promote greater competition in the US industry. Convincing critics would take longer, said Transport Secretary Mary Peters. "We need...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - AT&T plans to abandon the Cingular brand name for its cell phone service as early as 2007, according to a magazine report. The company says it is making the change to reduce customer confusion about its brands, and will rename the division "AT&T Wireless," according to Advertising Age. AT&T wants to sell customers bundled landline, Internet and wireless services under the same brand. Advertising experts say the move could bring heavy marketing costs, as much as $500 million each year for several years, the report said. AT&T first announced plans to shed the Cingular name after...

I heard about, and later read, David Brooks article about Harriet Miers' writing titled In Her own Words. It seems she is getting slammed hard for poor writing quality and people are laughing and joking about how terrible it is based on passages quoted by Brooks. I wondered if Brooks had presented only certain passages that were not representative of her actual writing ability. I found two other articles she has written, both for the magazine Texas Lawyer. The first one was written in 1992 when she was President of the Texas Bar. This 1992 article concerned a murder spree...

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...

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.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The nation's largest public pension fund will lead a drive to rein in lucrative severance packages designed by and for corporate executives and that are triggered by they mergers they engineer, officials said Friday. California Treasurer Phil Angelides and other members of the California Public Employees' Retirement System board plan to recruit other pension systems and shareholder groups nationwide to fight the recent escalation by targeting selected merger proposals for defeat next year. The initiative is the latest in a series of steps by CalPERS and the nation's third-largest pension system, the California State Teachers Retirement System,...

<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>

The liberal media and the Democratic presidential candidates jumped all over the latest jobs report, which showed a rise in unemployment to 6.4 percent. Screaming for President Bush's head, liberals are trying to make the case that failure in the economy will lead to the president's re-election defeat next year -- the same fate suffered by his father over 10 years ago. But this group of harpies -- the gang that can't shoot straight -- is overlooking a number of market-oriented signs that point to a robust economic recovery. This resurgence is likely to begin in the second half of...

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...

Media consolidation and the free marketJonah Goldberg (archive) June 4, 2003 | Print | SendIt's funny: I've been reading articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the major newsweeklies about how the FCC's decision to relax some media ownership rules -primarily the part allowing companies to own TV stations and newspapers in the same market -will hurt American journalism by making it "too corporate." What's funny about this is that the corporations that own these publications are generally in favor of the FCC's decision but don't even have enough influence with their employees to make them stop...

The 12 largest U.S. bankruptcies, ranked by assets: - WorldCom Inc., July 21, 2002; $103.9 billion - Enron Corp., Dec. 2, 2001; $63.4 billion - Conseco Inc., Dec. 18, 2002; $52 billion - Texaco Inc., April 12, 1987; $35.9 billion - Financial Corp. of America, Sept. 9, 1988; $33.9 billion - Global Crossing Ltd., Jan. 28, 2002; $25.5 billion - UAL Corp., Dec. 9, 2002; $25.2 billion - Adelphia, June 25, 2002; $24.4 billion - Pacific Gas and Electric Co., April 6, 2001; $21.5 billion - MCorp., March 31, 1989; $20.2 billion - Kmart Corp. Jan. 22, 2002, $17.0 billion...

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Northrop Grumman to Acquire TRW for $60 Per Share in Stock $7.8 Billion Transaction Positions Northrop Grumman As Nation's Second Largest Defense Contractor Adds Significant Strengths in Satellite Systems, Missile Defense and Systems Integration Capabilities TRW's Board Achieves Goal of Enhancing Shareholder Value Northrop Grumman Confirms 2002 Financial Guidance; Says It Will Achieve Double-Digit Growth for 2003; and Projects Double-Digit Growth for 2004 2003 Sales Expected to Be $26 to $27 Billion LOS ANGELES and CLEVELAND, July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and TRW Inc. (NYSE: TRW) jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger...

Reuters Technology Hewlett Says H-P Lied on Merger, Tainted Vote By Caroline Humer WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG's 11th-hour decision to back Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (NYSE:HWP - news) takeover of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) stemmed from its concerns for its investment banking relationship with H-P, lawyers contesting the merger charged on Tuesday. Top executives of the computer and printer maker, including Chairman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, faced off in a wood-paneled Delaware courtroom against Walter Hewlett, a dissident board member and son of the company's co-founder, who has fought the merger in a proxy battle. Asking...

The US Defense Department has backed down from its proposal to mandate a secretive, national security review of all large foreign acquisitions of American companies, bowing to pressure from within the Bush administration and across the Atlantic. According to people familiar with the dispute, Pentagon officials grudgingly agreed to withdraw the provision - which it had inserted into a draft of the annual defence authorisation bill circulated within the administration - late last week after several agencies, particularly the Treasury and Commerce Department, vehemently objected. The Pentagon wording, which it drafted without consulting other departments, would have required all overseas...