Apple will release the iPad 3 early in March (AllThingsD)

Alibaba will take its online unit private as it buys shares back from Yahoo! (Reuters)

Senior House member Spencer Bachus will be probed over insider trading charges (WaPo)

Google is testing a wireless home entertainment device (WSJ)

Douglas A. McIntyre

What is interesting is that Taleo was not even part of this cloud ETF, and many of the ETFs components are not exactly all cloud space players.  Is it fair to lump in all cloud players as targets when one is software and one is hardware?  Be advised, there are some stocks which have had buyout rumors in the past listed below but there are no current rumors we have heard.

Here is the weighting of the cloud ETF’s more cloud-centric companies, with the most recent weightings and some commentary on some of the names:

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) 3.80%…probably too expensive to acquire now on valuation metrics and with a $6.1 billion market cap.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:: AKAM) 3.72%… surged after earnings, now unlikely to be bought on the cheap by would be acquirers.  

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE: RAX) 3.39%… has been called a buyout candidate before but the company’s line is that it wants to remain independent.

Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) 3.35%… still considered a special situation by some investors but no buyout rumors have proven true, and shares are up big after earnings.

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) 3.22%… “The one that got away.”  This used to be a buyout dream stock, but valuation got in the way.  Now at over $14 billion the time may have come and gone.

Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) 3.08%… way too expensive to acquire on a valuation basis.  Cloud is everywhere here in effect as a great benefit, but this one is diversified into CRM and SaaS.

Where this gets interesting is that Taleo is a human resources software maker and perhaps not just cloud software as some of the media headlines would have suggested.  The 18% premium also suggests that paying up for the cloud players is only a limited value.

Just because one buyer buys a loose cloud play in software does not translate to buyouts in hardware. 

JON C. OGG

The US and state attorneys general are close to a settlement with five majors banks which include Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo over accusations of improper foreclosure practices The amount of the settlement will be $26 billion (WSJ)

The US will sue six large banks for the sales practices they employed with mortgage backed securities, often blamed for the start of the credit crisis (WSJ)

Greece has reached a final agreement with creditors (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

40 state attorneys general and the government are close to the settlement of rob0-sign charges against several major banks (CNN Money)

The FBI is looking further into payments made by News Corp to people outside the US (Reuters)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Spain will press its large banks to merge as their losses grow (various)

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) may buyout Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) Bloomberg

Samsung will make a large investment in Olympus (Reuters)

Regulators will press charges against former Credit Suisse managers for inflating the cost of mortgage securities (WSJ)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Our take is that Mark Zuckerberg has been holding out to achieve a $100 billion market valuation for the IPO.  Even if Facebook does not deliver on its IPO paperwork next week, the IPO is coming soon.  The company is going to have to disclose its financials sooner or later due to its large base of shareholders.

GSV Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GSVC) already owns shares of Facebook and its share have popped by 3% to $15.60 on this news.  As a reminder, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) invested in this and now should have exponential implied valuation gains on what sounded silly at the time.

Don’t forget about iShares KLD 400 Social Index Fund (NYSE: DSI).  It will end up being a holder as well and this should increase the trading volume of that ETF whether it is up or down in share prices.

Facebook is ONE OF OUR TOP 17 IPOs FOR 2012

Until an SEC filing hits the tape, we are treating this as a rumor.  One of many rumors.  Supposedly the Facebook IPO will create over 1,000 new millionaires.

JON C. OGG

The IMF has circulated a private document among EU leaders which shows the Greek financial situation worse than thought. (NYT)

GM (NYSE: GM) will quicken the pace of its Opel restructuring (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Investors have agreed to take less than a 4% yield on new Greek paper (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sony (NYSE: SNE) may make a $1.3 billion investment in troubled Olympus  (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is about to sell its London headquarters for $468 million to China’s Gaw Capital. (Reuters)

The ECB will try to avoid a 55 billion euro loss on Greek bonds (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre