Deal Makerâs 3-Day Tally: $37 Billion
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This weekâs $37 billion in acquisitions and a new $12 billion fund have catapulted Apollo Group and its founder, Leon Black, into the upper echelons of private equity.
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The U.S. sale of airwaves for  advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion when  it ended on Monday, and spectrum-hungry wireless carrier  T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and a group of cable companies  were the highest bidders.
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Three signs can reveal a superstar stock.
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Merger proposals worth at least $82  billion were announced around the world on Sunday and Monday as  the record year for M&A Values continued apace.
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Thanks to a decline in Microsoft shares, the stock portion of the company's offer has dropped. That means that as of now Microsoft is offering less than it was four days ago. To match its original $31 per share offer, Microsoft would have to boost the exc
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On Wednesday, the company&#39;s shares (NYSE: DWA) were priced at $28, according to media reports. That was above the $23 to $25 range predicted.
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ACQUISITION fever gripped markets on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday including a Â£1.3-billion-pound takeover approach for the mid-cap London Stock Exchange from its rival Deutsche BÃ¶erse.
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Facebook will sell a $240 million minority stake to Microsoft, which as part of the deal will also expand the advertising services it provides to the social networking phenom, the companies said Wednesday in a statement.The size of the ownership stake Microsoft will take during Facebook&#39;s next round of financing puts Facebook&#39;s valuation at a whopping $15 billion.&#160;Google had reportedly been courting Facebook as well.In addition to the ownership piece, Microsoft will also extend its existing agreement to provide banner ads to Facebook in the U.S. With this deal, Microsoft will become Facebook&#39;s exclusive third-party ad platform as well as provide Facebook ads internationally.Facebook will likely devote the cash influx from its next financing round to bankroll the torrid growth it is expecting in the coming 12 months in usage and headcount.With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said last week at the&#160;Web 2.0 Summit.Meanwhile, the site is growing its usage at breakneck speed with about 250,000 new users registering every day.Founded in 2004, it currently has about 49 million active users today, up from 12 million in December. More than half of its active members return to the site daily. Some 59 percent of its users are outside the U.S.Earlier Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post reported that Facebook was in the final stages of making a decision on whether to do this deal with Microsoft or Google.For Microsoft, which hasn&#39;t attained as strong a position in online advertising as it had hoped and lags behind Google, landing this deal could be a major win, as long as Facebook proves to be as attractive an advertising vehicle as expected.The Journal reported later on Wednesday that Facebook expects a profit of about $30 million this year, on revenue of $150 million.Google and Yahoo provide ads for Facebook rival MySpace.Still, questions remain about social networking sites&#39; full potential for advertising, since most of their content is largely unregulated and created by millions of individuals, resulting often in material that is vulgar and objectionable.Facebook plans to share more ideas for revving up its advertising business on Nov. 6, at an event in New York to which it has invited what it calls &quot;its closest advertisers.&quot;&quot;As part of [the event], Facebook executives will discuss new approaches for advertising online,&quot; a Facebook spokeswoman said. &quot;We are not sharing any further details.&quot;Facebook, MySpace, and others are also under close scrutiny from law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad because sexual predators use social-networking sites to stalk and victimize people, in particular minors.The Journal first reported Google&#39;s and Microsoft&#39;s pursuit of the Facebook investment a month ago.
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Driving the companyâs loss, which amounts to $31.85 a share, was a $5.21 billion write-down on its portfolio of credit derivatives.
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As stagnant sales end a streak of record profits, the company said it expected about 300 workers to take buyouts.
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Thumbs up: Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) on Tuesday said investors paved the way for a one-time-only $3 dividend. Shareholders in the software colossus OK&#39;d amendments to the company&#39;s stock plans
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Merger proposals worth at least $82 billion were announced around the world on Sunday and Monday as the record year for M&A Values continued apace.
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The U.S. sale of airwaves for   advanced wireless services grossed a record $13.9 billion when   it ended on Monday, and spectrum-hungry wireless carrier   T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and a group of cable companies   were the highest bidders.
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Private equity firms are setting records in the size of Asian buyout funds, adding to an existing pool of more than $35 billion that is waiting to be invested in deals in the region.
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Bain Capital, a U.S. equity investment firm, declined to comment Wednesday on news reports that a U.S. government panel reviewing a proposed acquisition of networking vendor 3Com plans to extend its review.Bain would get an 83.5 percent stake in 3Com, and Chinese networking giant Huawei Technologies would get the remaining piece in the $2.2 billion deal. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), part of the U.S. Department of Treasury, is investigating whether the investment by Huawei poses a risk to U.S. national security after Bain voluntarily submitted the deal for review in October.Normally, a CFIUS review runs for 30 days, but the interagency committee can take another 45 days. The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that CFIUS this week would likely take the additional time.A Bain spokesman declined to comment on the news report Wednesday, saying the CFIUS review was a &quot;confidential process.&quot;&quot;Bain Capital is working closely with CFIUS to provide U.S. officials with information about the proposed transaction,&quot; the company said in a statement. &quot;As stated previously, we believe CFIUS will conclude that the company will remain firmly in the control of an American firm, has only a small minority foreign shareholder, and that the deal presents no risks to national security.&quot;Some critics have disagreed. U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican, has called on CFIUS to reject the deal. Huawei&#39;s take in 3Com, which markets intrusion detection systems, would &quot;gravely compromise&quot; U.S. national security, he said in a House floor speech in October.The U.S. Department of Defense uses 3Com intrusion detection products, and Chinese hackers have targeted the agency, McCotter said. &quot;Given this and other instances of communist China&#39;s persistent cyber warfare against us, approving this sale would be an abject abdication of CIFUS&#39; duty to protect America&#39;s vital defense technologies from enemy acquisition,&quot; he said.
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Consolidation in Europe's drugs   sector gathered steam on Thursday as Germany's Merck unveiled a   $13.3-billion deal to buy Europe's top biotech firm Serono, and   Denmark's Nycomed won the drugs unit of Altana.
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Brokerage Edward D. Jones & Co. disclosed it was paid &#36;82.4 million from seven mutual fund companies, including those run by Goldman Sachs Group and American Funds, to recommend their funds over others.