| Market Summary |
Mergers and positive news from foreign markets helped drive gains in the major markets today. Concerns about the subprime mortgage market continue to linger, but for now the performance of financial markets seems to be encouraging. Investors are awaiting the two-day Fed meeting that will start tomorrow. For today's mergers, Barclays (BCS: Charts, News, Offers) announced their in the early stages of talks for a merger with ABN AMRO (ABN: Charts, News, Offers), a Dutch bank. Servicemaster (SVM: Charts, News, Offers) has agreed to be taken private in a $5.5 billion deal. Take-Two Interactive (TTWO: Charts, News, Offers) said today that it might put itself up for sale, which caused shares to climb by $1.76 to $22.61.
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| Market News |
Lawn care and pest control provider ServiceMaster Co. agreed Monday to be bought by an investment group in a cash deal valued at $4.5 billion, as the company tries to recover from years of declining financial results. Bowing to shareholder pressure, the owner of TruGreen Lawn Care, Terminix pest control and Merry Maids cleaning service announced a deal with an investment group led by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. (Source: Yahoo! Finance) Full Story
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Dutch bank ABN AMRO and British bank Barclays are in exclusive talks for a possible $160 billion merger that would be Europe's biggest financial services deal, they said on Monday.
Shares in ABN AMRO hit a record high earlier on Monday after sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday that Barclays approached ABN AMRO with a merger blueprint. (Source: Reuters) Full Story
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A federal appeals panel in New Orleans said on Monday that a lower court judge improperly granted class-action status in a $40 billion lawsuit by Enron Corp. investors, a big victory for the investment banks Merrill Lynch and Co Inc. and Credit Suisse Group that sought to have the ruling overturned.
The banks had argued that Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston federal court wrongly allowed investors to allege Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse were primary participants in the fraud that eventually led to Enron's collapse. (Source: CNN Money) Full Story
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| Market Analysis |
Paul Hitch has spent his entire life raising cattle and hogs on a stretch of the Oklahoma panhandle he says is "flat as a billiard table." His great-grandfather started the ranch in 1884, before Oklahoma was a state, and now Hitch, 63, is preparing to pass the family business on to his two sons.
But he worries that they'll face mounting pressures in the industry, particularly because of the soaring price for corn, which the business depends on to feed the livestock. In the past year, corn prices have doubled as demand from ethanol producers has surged. (Source: BusinessWeek) Full Story
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Bill Gates has a plan for improving U.S. education and competitiveness.
``We cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless our citizens are educated in math, science and engineering,'' Gates said. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nation's largest, has contributed $3 billion since 1999 to educational programs and scholarships.
The Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: Charts, News, Offers) chairman and world's richest man outlined his ideas before a U.S. Senate labor and education committee on March 7, yet it's like a new version of Windows without the full operating-system programming. (Source: Bloomberg) Full Story
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For many Americans, tax refund day is a holiday on par with their birthday or Christmas. Some people are so anxious to receive the check from Uncle Sam that they spend it before it even arrives. However, taking on debt in anticipation of a tax return is not a decision to be made lightly. (Source: TheStreet) Full Story
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