Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is back again in the capital markets. Once a seller, always a seller. The company will offer $300 million in eight-year maturity notes, pushing out its maturity scale…
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: PLA) has been in talks to go private for some time. It appears to be happening. The company just announced this morning that Icon Acquisition Holdings, L.P., a limited partnership…
Our feature of “The Unusual Suspects” is back after not having enough consistent planned events during the last two weeks of the holidays. We have earnings due, cases happening, FDA events, mergers, rumors and…
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) has announced that it will reduce its long-term debt by 25% by the end of 2012 while increasing production by 25%. In its announcement, the company’s CEO said, “This…
Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) and Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) may seem like unlikely companies to get in a bidding war over a rival retailer. Logic and analysis aside, the Wall Street lore…
There is a notion that Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) should not be allowed to buy shares in Facebook for $450 million and sell them to clients. The SEC plans to look into the…
The FOMC Minutes from the December 14, 2010 meeting are out, and you can forget the bulk of the commentary. This is about justification and rationalizing its second round of Quantitative Easing, or QE2. …
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) was the first of the large corporate bond issues for 2011. Yesterday brought the pricing of a 3-traunch bond issue from its Berkshire Hathaway Finance Inc. financial subsidiary…
It is 2011 and we have our outlook target pieces for sectors and for indexes for the year ahead. After taking a look at the implied upside to one-year price targets for Dow Jones…
The craze surrounding Facebook is getting even more out of hand, this time with Wall Street setting the valuation of the company at some $50 billion. A fresh investment from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.…
We have already introduced the 2011 Dogs of the Dow for investors looking into 2011. The term “dogs” might imply that they are the worst performers when they are actually just the highest dividend…
After spending most of 2009 fighting passage of the health care reform act, insurers have gone quiet on efforts to repeal the legislation and have instead gotten busy figuring out how to turn a…
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) is trading higher this morning on reports that NASDAQ sent it a letter dated December 28, 2010 notifying the company that it has met all of the requirements to…
The rumors and thought of private equity in retail is going on and on, oddly enough with the same player. BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. (NYSE: BJ) is the newest target according to many web…
Fabrics and craft retailer Jo-Ann Stores Inc. (NYSE: JAS) has agreed to accept a buyout offer of $61.00 share from private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners that values the retailer at about $1.6…