- Buyout, Hedge-Fund Managers Could Pay $24 Billion More in Taxes
- JPMorgan warns of more consumer woe
- In President's Budget Plan, Broad Agenda and a Few Gaps
- Fannie to draw further $15bn
- As GM losses deepen, bankruptcy fears grow
- GM’s Wagoner Meets With Auto Panel for Six Hours
- General Motors Cuts NCAA Promotional Spending by 60%
- Merrill Expands Japan Equity Research; Rivals Retreat
- Dell 4Q Net Down 48% On Sales Woes, Margin Drop
- New Yahoo CEO ushers out CFO in executive shake-up
- Sears wants Congress to ease pension rules
- Saks Open to Offers, Won’t Go Bankrupt, Chief Says
- Rocky Mountain News to Publish Final Edition Tomorrow
Buyout, Hedge-Fund Managers Could Pay $24 Billion More in Taxes
- Bloomberg
Executives at buyout, venture-capital and hedge-fund firms will pay an estimated $24 billion more in taxes over nine years if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama’s 2010 budget proposal, released today, proposes raising taxes on the managers by treating carried interest, the portion of profits they take from successful investments, as ordinary income instead of capital gains. That change would boost the tax rate, starting in 2011, to 39.6 percent for most executives from the 15 percent they now pay….
JPMorgan warns of more consumer woe
- Financial Times
JPMorgan Chase has issued a downbeat diagnosis of the financial health of the US consumer, warning its mortgage business would suffer quarterly losses of up to $2.3bn in 2009 while defaults on credit cards could almost double this year.
But JPMorgan executives told the bank’s annual outlook meeting on Thursday they would keep a tight rein on costs, increase prices whenever possible and try to gain market share from struggling rivals to continue to outperform the rest of the sector….
In President's Budget Plan, Broad Agenda and a Few Gaps
- Washington Post
President Obama's spending plan is built on the assumption that lawmakers can resolve some hugely contentious issues — and it relies on a few well-worn budget tricks.
The request he will deliver to Congress today proposes to provide what administration officials are calling a "down payment" on a major expansion of health care coverage for the uninsured. It identifies $634 billion in tax increases and spending cuts to cover the cost of part of the program, but does not say how the administration hopes to raise the rest of the money — hundreds of billions of dollars more. "TBD" has been penciled into categories for cost savings and benefit reductions….
Fannie to draw further $15bn
- Financial Times
Fannie Mae said on Thursday it would draw more than $15bn of assistance from the US Treasury after a sixth consecutive quarterly loss – $25.2bn in the fourth quarter – drove its net worth below zero.
Fannie predicted more red ink in the future: “We expect the market conditions that contributed to our net loss for each quarter of 2008 to continue and possibly worsen in 2009, which is likely to cause further reductions in our net worth.”….
As GM losses deepen, bankruptcy fears grow
- Detroit Free Press
GM Chairman Rick Wagoner pressed Thursday to convince Washington to provide more aid as the company revealed a massive loss coupled with a warning that its auditors are likely to question the automaker's viability.
It was a further sign that the century-old automaker is teetering on bankruptcy, a scenario that General Motors Corp. is desperately trying to avoid.
Now Washington will have to decide whether it makes sense to loan more money to GM after the company reported an annual loss of $30.9 billion. Company executives met with the Obama administration's auto task force for about six hours, outlining the need for as much as $16.6 billion that it has been seeking — in addition to the $13.4 billion already given…..
GM’s Wagoner Meets With Auto Panel for Six Hours
- Bloomberg
General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner pressed his case for as much as $16.6 billion in U.S. aid to a White House auto task force in a session that ran almost six hours, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Meeting today for the first time with a panel of government officials and advisers that has the authority to push the biggest U.S. automaker into bankruptcy, Wagoner, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young and Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson provided additional details of the company’s plans to trim its brands to four and eliminate 47,000 jobs worldwide, according to the person….
General Motors Cuts NCAA Promotional Spending by 60%
- Bloomberg
General Motors Corp. is cutting on- site spending at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament by at least 60 percent and might end its 25-year-old sponsorship when the contract expires after this season, the company said.
Even though this year’s Final Four will be played in Detroit, blocks from GM’s headquarters, the company is trimming dealer-incentive trips to the championship rounds and billboards downtown, said Steve Tihanyi, who oversees GM’s sponsorships…..
Merrill Expands Japan Equity Research; Rivals Retreat
- Bloomberg
Merrill Lynch & Co., the securities firm bought by Bank of America Corp., will expand equity research in Japan as rivals including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. retrench.
Merrill hired Masaaki Kitami from Deutsche Bank AG last week, increasing headcount at the local equity research team to 23, said Yohei Osade, head of research at Merrill Lynch in Japan. The firm plans to expand coverage 10 percent to 330 Japanese companies this year, he said…..
Dell 4Q Net Down 48% On Sales Woes, Margin Drop
- Dow Jones / CNNMoney
Dell Inc.'s (DELL) fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell 48% as shipments fell globally and the economic slowdown continued to hurt information-technology spending.
Despite the disappointing quarterly performance, a new cost-cutting promise from Dell lifted shares 2.5% in after-hours trading to $8.42, from the Thursday close of $8.21. The company said Thursday it will cut $4 billion in costs by the end of its fiscal 2011. That is $1 billion more than it initially targeted last March…..
New Yahoo CEO ushers out CFO in executive shake-up
- AP
After spending six weeks diagnosing Yahoo Inc.'s troubles, new Chief Executive Carol Bartz started to prescribe a cure Thursday with a management shake-up that will usher out the Internet company's chief financial officer.
Besides pushing CFO Blake Jorgensen out the door, the overhaul will expand the responsibilities of Yahoo's chief technology officer, Ari Balogh, and the company's top advertising executive in the United States, Hilary Schneider…..
Sears wants Congress to ease pension rules
- Financial Times
Sears Holdings, the third largest US retailer, on Thursday highlighted the growing pressures it will face this year from mandatory payments to its pension plan, following the steep decline in asset values seen last year.
The retailer said that it had made cash contributions of $224m to its pension plan in its financial year ending on January 30, as it seeks to meet federal requirements to ensure that pensions are fully funded by 2011…..
Saks Open to Offers, Won’t Go Bankrupt, Chief Says
- Bloomberg
Saks Inc., the U.S. luxury chain partly owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, jumped 13 percent in New York trading after Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sadove said the company would consider any offers and wasn’t headed for bankruptcy.
The New York-based retailer will “always listen to anything” and could choose not to exercise its so-called poison pill limiting holdings “if for some reason it’s not appropriate,” he said on a conference call with investors and analysts. It also has “unencumbered real estate” it could sell and perhaps lease back, he said…..
Rocky Mountain News to Publish Final Edition Tomorrow
- Bloomberg
The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, will put out its final edition tomorrow after publisher E.W. Scripps Co. failed to find a buyer.
Scripps began seeking offers for the 150-year-old Denver daily in December after declining advertising sales made the publication its only unprofitable newspaper. Shutting down the Rocky, which lost $16 million last year, leaves the Denver Post as the city’s only major newspaper.
The closure signals other publishers seeking to sell newspapers, including Hearst Corp. and Gannett Co., may have difficulty finding buyers. Hearst and Gannett said they may shut down their respective San Francisco Chronicle and Tucson Citizen, in Arizona, if they can’t sell the publications…..
