Three of America’s largest firm announced firings or signaled them during the last week. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) cut the deepest, which is frightening because it is the most financially healthy company in the world. In a surprise announcement, the world’s largest retailer said it would cut 10% of its Sam’s Club division, which means nearly 12,000 workers will get axed. The news cannot be good for the staggering retail sector. Christmas was weak, but Wall St. assumed that Wal-Mart was doing as well as if not better than its smaller competitors. The Wal-Mart move will give other retail firms “permission” to take fresh looks at their staff levels without the stigma of announcing firings ahead of other large store chains.Xerox (NYSE:XRX) also unexpectedly said it would cut 2,500 people. It did so at the same time as it posted good earnings. That means Xerox believes that it can still wring more productivity from the people it will continue to use. The tech sector is still on a bumpy ride while consumers and IT managers try to decide if they can afford to upgrade to new equipment. The beginning of 2010 could cause a fresh round of reviews of how much blood can be squeezed from the employment pool stone. Large firms that made layoffs last year can now look at four quarters of what those layoffs have done to them or for them financially. If cuts worked once, they might work again.

Oracle (ORCL) is close to closing its deal to buy Sun Micro. Sun’s remarkable history of large layoffs is an example of what happens to a company when its products lose most of their relevance and R&D efforts cannot bring the firm back into alignment with customers demands. Sun will now become one of the many divisions of Oracle and that almost certainly means that many management and sales people will be gone by the end of the quarter.

The early part of 2009 was marked by an unprecedented number of large cuts as America’s most well-known companies. In some weeks over 100,000 American were put out of work by “downsizings” at these firms. That process has slowed a year later, but there is a growing body of evidence that it is not going away.

The most critical difference between last year and this is that 10% of Americans, 17% by some measures, are without jobs. The economy has not started to add new jobs yet. Each person that a Wal-Mart, Xerox, or Oracle lets go now is put into jobless pool with a record low number of openings for each job seeker. That means there is no Dutch Boy at the dike to prevent the ongoing effects that unemployment has on housing, credit, and the government’s ability to improve income to the IRS.

The employment mess, a tragedy beyond description, is still going on.

Douglas A. McIntyre

On the share against SAP, it noted: In constant currency, applications business grew 1% in the Americas and 2% in Asia Pacific versus a negative 35% and negative 34% respectively for SAP.

On Sun, noted was as follows by Oracle President Safra Catz: “We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January. I want to thank all of our customers for the overwhelming support they have given us during this process.”

Guidance was not offered, but shares are responding very well considering the bias of the market today.  Shares closed down 1% at $22.88 on the day, and shares are trading up around $23.80 in the after-hours session.  If that holds up, this will mark a clear break above the $23.46 high seen over the last year.

JON C. OGG

Reuters:   Kraft (NYSE:KFT) says it will be disciplined in its Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) buyout effort.

Reuters:   Some of AIG’s (NYSE:AIG) top staff are struggling financially.

Reuters:   Geithner said the US would make a profit on TARP.

Reuters:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) faces a lawsuit over bonuses.

Reuters:   Citigroup pay and bonus cuts will remain despite TARP repayment.

WSJ:   Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) is making a big bet on natural gas by buying XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO).

WSJ:   Bankers told Obama that they would support some level of regulation.

WSJ:   Dubai’s plan to repay some of its debt may not repair its reputation.

WSJ:   Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was not able to get the Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) to take its top job.

WSJ:   GE’s (NYSE:GE) Immelt will draw on the lessons he has learned running the company in an investor presentation.

WSJ:   New mortgage asset guidelines are being proposed.

WSJ:   Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is using its logistics skills to compete with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

WSJ:   Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and T-Mobile (NYSE:DT) are discussing a handset marketing partnership.

WSJ:   The EU will probably approve the bid by Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) to buy Sun (NYSE:JAVA).

WSJ:   ArcelorMittal will cut thousands of more jobs.

WSJ:   Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) faces delays in iMac shipments.

WSJ:   Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) salesmen are using new PCs to pitch products and help them comply with regulations.

WSJ:   Toyota’s (NYSE:TM) into hybrids is going global.

NYT:   A new poll shows how badly unemployment has hit many families.

NYT:   GM’s new CEO is trying to change the firm’s bureaucratic culture.

NYT:   Obama pressed big banks to lend more.

NYT:   Abu Dhabi’s loan to Dubai will give it more control over its troubled neighbor.

NYT:   A new study says the impact of electic hybrids could be decades away.

FT:   China moved ahead of the US in the IPO market with $27.2 billion raised.

Bloomberg:   Dubai will need more help to pay bonds due in 2010 and 2011.

Bloomberg:   JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America, and Citigroup are leading a comeback in collateralized debt obligations

Douglas A. McIntyre

Every deal on the 24/7 Wall St. list of mega-mergers for 2010 faces regulatory challenges because of its size and scope. These hurdles would be present in both the US and EU. Antitrust issues are not a part of the calculus for any large deal. The Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) search partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will be reviewed as will almost any deal to buy Cadbury. The Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) buyout of Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) may fall apart due to EU challenges. Exxon’s (NYSE:XOM) $41 billion buy-out of XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) could draw scrutiny from regulators.

Many of the transactions on this list will be done with stock and need no cash component. Others can be done with the cash on the balance sheets of the purchasers. Some would be outright mergers of equals.

There are no transactions on this list that do not make immediate strategic sense. Some of the companies are weak enough so that a buyout will be necessary for them to remain viable businesses. Each deal was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the transactions most likely to close and 1 representing the least likely.

1). The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) and The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT). The newspaper industry’s demise may slow as the economy improves, but it will not stop. Many newspapers have already folded, or are on the brink of closing. The Times has already threatened to shut The Boston Globe, one of the largest and most respected dailies in the country. The Times has done a good job of pushing its debt obligations further into the future, but it still faces the threat that an outside investor like current bond-holder Carlos Slim may be able to make a bid for the company as its fixed income obligations mature. The Washington Post was unusually fortunate when it bought the Kaplan learning business. The Washington Post education group brought in $684 million in the last quarter. Advertising revenue for the entire company was only $195 million for the same period. The Post has a pristine balance sheet. Combining The New York Times and The Washington Post would involve the dissolution of the trust that controls the Times. That would be difficult but not impossible if it meant the Times would remain independent. One company with ownership of The Times, The Post, and The Globe would have a better chance of erecting a “pay wall” for content in all three publications in order to force subscribers to pay for the papers’ online editions, perhaps as a package. The new entity would probably have to close money losing operations like Newsweek and sell non-strategic assets like About.com which would raise several tens of millions of dollars. The New York Times has a market cap of $1.3 billion and The Washington Post’s is $4 billion. Rating: 9

2). Time Warner (TWX) and Viacom (VIA). Viacom is a fairly weak company among the entertainment business giants on its own and Sumner Redstone, its controlling shareholder, is 86. Viacom has two divisions, both of which dovetail almost perfectly with Time Warner now that it has spun-off AOL and its cable infrastructure operations. The first is a line-up of strong cable TV network brands. The other is a film studio. Viacom’s revenue in the last quarter was $3.3 billion. Over $2.1 billion came from media networks and $1.2 billion from studios. Both operations were profitable. Viacom has $6.7 billion in debt, but its maturity is spread over several years. Time Warner had revenue of $7.2 billion in the last quarter, with $777 million of that coming from AOL, which is gone. Jeff Bewkes has almost completely retooled the company and the spin-off of Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWX) has improved Time Warner’s balance sheet so the firm has over $7 billion in cash. Bewkes wants to increase his company’s presence in the content industry and his strongest divisions are cable networks and film. Viacom is a perfect match. Time Warner’s market cap is $37 billion and Viacom’s is $19 billion. Rating: 9

3). Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).  The regulatory hurdles to this transaction would be high. Intel just gave up its plan to build its own graphics chip. That gave Nvidia an important advantage by eliminating a possible competitor. Intel’s rival AMD already has a graphics chip operation. Nvidia and Intel both are critical suppliers to the global PC industry. Intel is embroiled in antitrust problems with the US and EU which would make approval of a Nvidia deal challenging. Nvidia still faces the prospect that AMD’s success in graphics chips could push down its market share and another processor company like Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) or Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) might move into the industry. Nvidia is a relatively small company with sales in the quarter ending October 25 of $903 million. Net income was $107 million. Nvidia has no significant debt, but its cash and securities balance is under $1.7 billion which among major tech companies makes it fairly balance sheet poor. Nvidia’s market cap is $8.4 billion. Intel controls over three-quarters of the core processor business in the PC and server markets. Its sales in the last quarter were $9.4 billion and net income was over $2.5 billion. Intel has close to $10 billion in cash. Intel and Nvidia both face a new challenge in computing devices because netbooks and smart phones are taking market share from PCs and laptops. Each company needs to rapidly develop a greater array of products for these devices. Intel has a market cap of $110 billion and could buy Nvidia without any outside help.  Rating: 7

3). Colgate (NYSE:CL) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) There were recently rumors that Reckitt Benckiser would buy Colgate. Colgate has a market cap of $42 billion which made that transaction unlikely. The war for global market share in the consumer products industry will get brutal over the next five years, if P&G comments about its determination to increase its market presence outside the US are any indication. A number of small companies will be competing in consumer niches and in small geographic regions around the world, but the firms with the scale to compete for sales across all these markets are Unilver, Colgate, and P&G. Unilever and Colgate get almost half of their sales from overseas markets. P&G’s number is closer to  34% even though it is the largest of the companies. P&G can “buy” or “build” its way into the markets outside the US. The firm had almost $20 billion in sales in the last quarter and $3.3 billion in net income. P&G has $23 billion in long-term debt and a market cap of $182 billion. Colgate’s sales in the last quarter were $4 billion and net income of $590. P&G was fairly successful integrating Gillette after buying the company. The Colgate product line is a nearly perfect fit with P&G. Antitrust issues would almost certainly force a combined company to sell some products lines. Unilever could be a bidder for Colgate as well.  Rating: 7

4). Kraft (NYSE:KFT) and Sara Lee (NYSE:SLE). Sara Lee sold its body care division to Unilever for $1.9 billion a year ago. It sold its air freshener business to P&G last month for $468 million. These transactions leave Sara Lee with a little over $2 billion in sales a quarter and a very modest $284 million in net income. Sara Lee has manageable debt of $2.7 billion. Kraft is facing an uphill battle to close its deal to buy Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) so it will almost certainly turn its attention somewhere else. Sara Lee’s market cap is down to down to $8.5 billon and Kraft has already gone through the process of lining up bank financing of $9 billion to support its Cadbury offer. The Sara Lee brand packaged meat products, fresh and frozen bakery line of foods, and roasted and ground coffee product lines are an almost perfect fit for Kraft. Rating: 8

5). GM and VW. The US government wants to return to taxpayers the $50 billion it put into GM. That is not likely anytime soon. GM would probably have to go public again and for the time being, its financial results are extraordinary weak. The decision of GM’s board to allow Ed Whitacre to take over as CEO and re-arrange most of the car company’s senior management almost certainly extends the time-table of any GM turnaround. There are simply too many new people in too many new jobs who will need months to gain experience in their assignments. VW made the mistake of not taking over management control of Chrysler which would have gotten it 10% of the US market for almost no risk. GM’s value is much greater to VW than Chrysler’s. VW must have a large part of the American market to be a worldwide success in the car business. GM has a US market share of 20%. VW has less 1% of the American market. GM and VW are the two leading car companies in China. Combined, the two firms would have a substantial lead among the car companies in the world’s largest and fastest growing auto market. A buyout of GM would make VW that largest car manufacturer in the world by a large margin. It would allow VW to cut costs in Europe by combining manufacturing operations with Opel, which GM has just elected to keep. VW has very little incentive to make job cuts in the US because that work has been done and what remains is enough factory capacity to keep manufacturing in North America at current levels and accommodate some modest growth. The US government would be more likely to approve a purchase by a foreign buyer if American jobs could be preserved. In the first nine months, VW had sales of over 77 billion euros. VW has taken over almost 50% of Porsche and intends to buy the balance. VW’s Audi division has done well. VW recently said it will buy 20% of Suzuki to increase its presence in Asia. Rating: 5

6. T-Mobile and Sprint (NYSE:S). This transaction has been discussed for more than two years and some analysts have argued that a merger would be too complex because the companies have incompatible technology platforms. As Sprint moves toward WiMax 4G, compatibility maybe less of an issue if T-Mobile elects to use the WiMax platform as well. The reason this merger is likely is simple. Sprint and T-Mobile are too small to compete with AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless. Each of the larger companies is still growing although some of the growth is due to acquisition. AT&T has already spent tens of millions of dollars with Apple to have an exclusive partnership to market the iPhone and to upgrade the AT&T Wireless network to make it more iPhone-ready. Verizon Wireless will probably begin to market the iPhone next year. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is coming to market with its own wireless handset which will not be sold in conjunction with any carrier. Holding the No.3 and No.4 spots in the American market, which is growing very slowly overall, is not tenable. Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT), T-Mobile’s parent, has the financial capacity to buy Sprint even if the deal is presented as a merger with T-Mobile. Rating: 9

7). Samsung and Research –In-Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM).  Samsung is larger than IBM (NYSE:IBM) with sales of well over $100 billion. Samsung’s handset business is the second largest in the world. For Samsung to make a real run at market leader Nokia (NYSE:NOK) it needs a premier smart phone operation.  RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM), which makes the Blackberry, is the most logical company to give Samsung that product line. From Wall St.’s perspective RIM is under siege from Apple and may quickly fall to the No.2 spot with the iPhone taking first place as the leading enterprise handset. Google has announced that it will enter the smart phone market with its own product. All handset manufacturers must know global sales were flat last year and may only rise 10% in 2010. RIM has a market cap of $36 billion and last quarter had revenue of $3.5 billion. Net income was $659 million. RIM can gamble that it can be successful in a world in which companies like Dell and Google, which are not established in the smart phone industry, are making inroads into the business. There is also competition from operations like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Nokia that will almost certainly do well either because of product popularity or the scale of their global marketing and sales businesses. RIM will not be independent in a year. Nokia and LG could also be bidders for RIM. Rating: 7

8. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY). These are the two most successful e-commerce companies to come out of the internet boom, Web 1.0 as some might call it. Recently, their fortunes have diverged as Amazon has become one of the most successful companies in the world and the Ebay core auction business has stagnated. Amazon’s market cap has risen to $57 billion and Ebay’s has fallen to $29 billion. There is a great deal for Amazon to like about Ebay now that the auction company has gotten rid of Skype. Ebay’s PayPal division is the dominant online payment system which dovetails nicely with Amazon’s e-commerce operations. PayPal’s revenue rose to $688 million in the third quarter, up from $597 million in the same period a year ago. Ebay’s auction business is no longer growing. Revenue in the third quarter was flat at $1.37 billion. But, Ebay’s auction operation could be a very strong compliment to Amazon’s e-commerce programs. The customer database information among Ebay, PayPal, and Amazon would run into the tens of millions of customers. The sites as a group would have tremendous traffic. Among the 50 most visited websites in the US in October, Amazon ranked 8^th with 70 million unique visitors and Ebay ranked 10^th with 67 million. The combined audience of the two sites without taking out duplicate visitors would be larger that AOL (NYSE:AOL) or Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT). If any company can breathe life back into Ebay’s auction business it is Amazon, which has the relationships with online retailers to help Ebay get more customers for its core business. Rating: 8

9. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) Warren Buffett proved two things with his buyout of railroad firm Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI). The first is that he is willing to make a large bet on the industrial part of the economy. The other is that he is willing to buy all of a company in which he previously held a minority interest. Buffett’s next logical move would be to bet on the recovery of the financial services industry and consumer spending. The best proxy for this the in Berkshire Hathaway portfolio is American Express of which Berkshire owns 13%. It would cost Buffett about $50 billion to buy the balance of Amex which only trades at about two-thirds of its price before the credit crisis. Amex earned $ 640 million on $6.6 billion in revenue last quarter. Earnings should improve substantially as the trouble in the credit economy eases. In 2007, Amex had net income of over $4 billion. Buffett appears to be in the process of moving away from operating Berkshire Hathaway as primarily a mutual fund of disparate holdings. In its place he is creating an umbrella company with management control over fewer firms in which Berkshire expects to make large returns. American Express is the perfect bookend to Burlington Northern. Rating: 7.

10. IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL). IBM (NYSE:IBM) may rue the day that it sold its PC operations to Lenovo. The PC/netbook/small server industry has become critical to large and medium-sized enterprises. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) has proven the value of an integrated hardware/software/consulting company. HP’s PC and printer businesses remain among the most successful parts of its operations even with the slowdown in global computer sales. The rise of the netbook and other inexpensive computing devices and the move towards server-side computing make PCs a strategic weapon in the fight to control IT relationships with enterprises and government clients. Dell is the most poorly run and weakest of the four largest PC companies. It has fallen well behind HP and IBM as a provider of consulting and software solutions. Dell’s stock price has dropped from $40 four years ago to $13 more recently and its market cap is down to $25 billion. At the end of the last quarter, Dell had $13 billion in cash and $3.4 billion in long-term debt. IBM’s current market cap is $171 billion, and over $10 billion in cash. IBM is also the most brutal cost cutter in the IT industry and could bring Dell’s operating cost substantially.  Rating: 6

11. Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) Oracle and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) share the role as the most avaricious buyers of tech companies in their sectors of the IT industry. Oracle is near the end of a long process of buying Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA). The management of Salesforce.com has said publicly how little it thinks of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, but being disliked has not stopped Ellison from taking over companies in the past. The web-based sales management business that Salesforce.com has pioneered has become critical to many of the IT solutions being used by the world’s largest companies. The sector is so important that Oracle rival SAP (NYSE:SAP) will start a division to compete directly with Salesforce.com next year. Salesforce.com has a market cap of $7.9 billion. On an EPS basis the company is very expensive, but Oracle would look at this as a strategic transaction. Salesforce.com has no long-term debt. Its net income doubled last quarter to $21 million on revenue of $307 million. Oracle’s market cap is close to $120 billion. It has $20 billion in cash and short-term securities and no long-term debt. In the last quarter Oracle had net income of $1.1 billion on revenue of $5.1 billion. Oracle has elected to buy when faced with “build” or “buy” options of getting into new businesses in the past.  Rating: 8

12. Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) China appears to be willing to do almost anything to acquire oil reserves. So far that has included getting leases in oil rich and undeveloped fields and making loans for drilling costs to large countries like Brazil. The fastest way to get the reserves China desperately needs to keep up with the growth in its economy is to buy one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies. ConocoPhillips is the most likely target because of its market cap, which at $75 billion is lower than its peers. ConocoPhillips produces 725,000 barrels of oil a day with about a third of that coming from its fields in Alaska. The Chinese government has the capital to finance a Sinopec purchase of ConocoPhillips. The US government would probably block the deal because it is against the country’s strategic interests in the energy sector. Shareholders would fight for a deal if the premium was large enough. Rating: 2

Douglas A. McIntyre

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is down 1% after Barron’s poked it.

AXA (NYSE: AXA) is up close to 2% on a cover feature story in Barron’s.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is down over 3% on a its $20 billion TARP repayment because of major dilution.

Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is up big by almost 9% this morning as it might just be able to be acquired in this Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) buyout.

California Micro Devices Corp. (NASDAQ: CAMD) is soaring almost 50% on a buyout.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) has shares of XTO Energy Inc. (NYSE: XTO) up over 19% on a buyout offer.

Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) is up over 3% after S&P announced it would become an S&P 500 Index member. Millions of shares will need to be purchased this week.

You can sign up for our free daily email to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
December 14, 2009

Reuters:   Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) is optimistic about its fight against Kraft (NYSE:KFT).

Reuters:   Arcelor Mittal could cut 10,000 jobs.

Reuters:   “Naked access” is now 38% of all US trading.

Reuters:   Beijing Auto bought assets of Saab

Reuters:   Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) is hiring a former senior officer from Merrill Lynch to run investment banking.

Reuters:   AOL (NYSE:AOL) is in talks with a Russian investment firm to sell ICQ.

Reuters:   Citigroup (NYSE:C) is near a deal to end part of its bailout.

Reuters:   Greenspan said the Fed can do no more to cut unemployment.

Reuters:   Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) and Hershey (NYSE:HSY) are in talks about a friendly bid.

Reuters:   The Fed is likely to repeat its low interest rate pledge.

WSJ:   Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will market its own cell phone.

WSJ:   Compensation is still an issue as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) worked toward finding a CEO.

WSJ:   Cadbury raised it profit targets for the next four years.

WSJ:   The climate change conference is seen as US versus China.

WSJ:   Investors are beginning to bet on inflation.

WSJ:   Stronger economic numbers may signal the Fed will begin to pull support of the US economy.

WSJ:   Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) made promises to the EU making its buyout of Sun (NYSE:JAVA) more likely.

WSJ:   Hollywood studios are pushing Blu-ray.

WSJ:   China defended it plan to have technology bought by the central government include Chinese IP.

WSJ:   The Department of Energy is becoming a major VC in alternative energy.

WSJ:   The White House is putting  jobs over the deficit.

WSJ:   An open skies rule has raised the stake in the competition for AMR (NYSE:AMR) and Delta (NYSE:DAL) to put money into JAL.

WSJ:   TV stations and networks are fighting over which pays fees to cable companies.

WSJ:   The Fed’s last meeting of the year may be a chance to stabilise falling Treasuries.

NYT:   Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) handset may be a challenge to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

NYT:   Bond traders are putting pressure on debt laden nations.

NYT:   Nokia (NYSE:NOK) plans to cut jobs at one of its plants.

Bloomberg:   US home price improvement may stop in early 2010 on forced sales of homes.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Reuters:   Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) sees no threat to the US debt rating for now.

Reuters:   Obama plans a TARP for small business.

Reuters:   Rental income in buildings for residential occupancy will remain weak.

Reuters:   The House is near passage of a bill to overhaul the US financial markets.

Reuters:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) top management will take bonuses in stock.

Reuters:   Ford’s (NYSE:F) CEO said he talked with GM’s new CEO Whitacre to discuss the industry.

Reuters:   The House passed a $447 billion spending bill.

Reuters:   The pay czar will make rulings on several other firms which have US money.

Reuters:   Citigroup (NYSE:C) plans an offering of $15 billion in stock.

Reuters:   Trading in AOL’s (NYSE:AOL) shares got off to a rough start.

WSJ:   The Boeing (NYSE:BA) Dreamliner is set for its first flight.

WSJ:   China’s curbs on sales of tech gear to its central government are drawing criticism.

WSJ:   Stores are holding bigger markdowns of prices in reserve for later in the holiday season.

WSJ:   Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is in talks with Bank of NY (NYSE:BK) CEO about moving to the top spot at BAC.

WSJ:   The Airbus A400M is ready to fly.

WSJ:   Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are competing to buy or form relationships with startups.

WSJ:   Apple iPhone sales by China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) are picking up.

WSJ:   Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is fighting the EU over its Sun Microsystems  (NASDAQ:JAVA) deal.

WSJ:   Citadel Broadcasting is about to file a prepackaged Chapter 11.

WSJ:   GE (NYSE:GE) won a big wind farm project.

WSJ:   US household net worth rose.

WSJ:   Some bone-building drugs known as bisphosphonates may prevent breast cancer.

WSJ:   Falling supplies of natural gas pushed prices up over 8%.

NYT:   A national sales tax may be considered to drop the deficit.

NYT:   Data from China show its economy is still rebounded quickly.

NYT:   Dealers for GM and Chrysler won a victory in the House as a bill advanced to let them appeal being closed.

NYT:   France will probably follow the UK on a banker bonus tax.

FT:   Facebook is being criticized for changes to it privacy rules.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Reuters:   Citigroup (NYSE:C) could sell $20 billion in shares soon.

Reuters:   Hershey (NYSE:HSY) is near a decision on Cadbury (NYSE:CBY).

Reuters:   GM named a new head of Chevrolet.

WSJ:   A large number of Americans are renting homes instead of owning them.

WSJ:   More firms in the US and UK are putting limits on executive pay.

WSJ:   Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is changing the way iTunes works to extend its reach on the internet.

WSJ:   Some hedge funds made large sums betting against the sovereign debt of weak countries.

WSJ:   Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) named a new chairman.

WSJ:   VW bought a stake in Suzuki.

WSJ:   Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) will defend its deal to buy Sun Microsystems(NASDAQ:JAVA) in meetings with the EU.

WSJ:   AT&T (NASDAQ:T) is facing problems with the large amounts of data being sent over its 3G network.

WSJ:   IBM (NASDAQ:IBM) is adding to its cloud computing capacity.

WSJ:   AOL (NYSE:AOL) becomes a public company today.

WSJ:   Wholesale sales increased as did inventories.

WSJ:   Neiman Marcus is working on plans to sell less expensive clothes.

WSJ:   Large oil companies are aggressively seeking to drill in Iraq.

WSJ:   Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) received a subpoena over one of its heart devices.

WSJ:   NCR (NYSE:NCR) and Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) will increase kioks in a challenge to Redbox.

WSJ:   China is trying to balance more economic stimulus with too much liquidity in markets.

WSJ:   Pfizer/Wyeth and Merck/Schering-Plough (PFE)(MRK) merger deals are being probed for insider trading.

WSJ:   The IPO market in Hong Kong is starting to falter.

NYT:   AIG (NYSE:AIG) is returning to success selling annuities but it is doing so though operations that do not use its name.

NYT:   Chinese consumers are buying goods aggressively as the stimulus package there helps the middle class.

NYT:   CIT exited Chapter 11.

NYT:   Ford (NYSE:F) may use stock to pay its obligation to a retiree fund.

NYT:   The CEO of GE (NYSE:GE) attacked executive greed.

Bloomberg:   A new poll shows Americans want the government to spend on jobs and send the tax bill to the rich.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Shorts pushed into Citigroup (NYSE:C), increasing their positions by 11% to 216 million shares making the bank stock the most shorted among all US companies. Bets against Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) rose 13% to 75.5 million shares and 2% against Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) to 77.2 million.

Short selling made very large gambles against the big companies in the retail sector probably based on the belief that holiday sales will be weak. Shares short in Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) rose 37% to 28.2 million. The short interest in Macy’s (NYSE:M) was up 13% to 40 million shares. Shares short in Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) rose 15% to 17.1 million The short interest in Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) was higher by 20% to 21.7 million, and shares sold short in Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) were up 15% to 21.8 million. However, shares short in e-commerce leader Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) dropped by 13% to 17.1 million.

Short sellers appear to think that the results for airlines and hotels will be good in the near term. Shares sold short in Southwest (NYSE:LUV) fell 9% to 26.1 million. The short interest in Marriott (NYSE:MAR) was down 7% to 33.2 million. Shares short in Delta (NYSE:DAL) fell 15% to 24 million.

Among big tech stocks, shares sold short in Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) rose 35% to 37.9 million. Most other changes in hardware and software stocks were modest. Share short in Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 18% to 64 million. The short interest in Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell 4% to 52.6 million. Shares sold short in Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) rose 2% to 42.4 million. The short interest in Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose 3% to 34.3 million. The short interest in Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) was down 1% to 21.7 million. Shares short in RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) rose 1% to 22.3 million.

The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) fell 14% to 21.6 million ahead of the EU decision on the company’s buy-out of Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA). The market reacted well to the restructuring of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) as its short interest was up only 2% to 21 million shares. Investors are betting that Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) will have a rough fourth quarter sending shares short up 19% to 56.5 million.

Among tech giants, shares short in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dropped 14% to 13.5 million ahead of the holiday sales period. Shares short in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) fell 11% to 3.8 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) is off 12% on earnings and guidance; we’d watch for added fallout in Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (NYSE: RGR).

Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) is down 20% on its warning.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is trading down 1.7%, but not as much as the deal price, after increasing its capital raise.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) is at new 52-week highs after higher earnings and higher guidance.  We’d watch Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) and Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) on the news.

Facet Biotech Corporation  (NASDAQ: FACT) is down slightly despite a boosted buyout offer.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is up over 5% on a report that the EU may be flawed and/or appeased in its block of the Oracle deal.

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JON C. OGG