"Wallstreet" Reader

"Wallstreet" Reader

Pandora IPO Terms Put Company at $2.56 Billion

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:28 PM PDT

Pandora set terms for its initial public offering that value the Internet radio company at about $2.56 billion, in the latest test of investors' appetite for fast-growing Web companies.

Bank M&A Goes MIA in 2011

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:55 PM PDT

More than a year has passed since a bill to break up big banks was defeated on the Senate floor. Since then, U.S. regulators have acted in other ways that have helped keep a lid on many banks' size.

J.P. Morgan Overhauls Management

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:25 PM PDT

J.P. Morgan CEO James Dimon replaced Charles Scharf as head of the bank's largest division as part of a shake-up of one of the most stable management teams in the financial world.

Payroll Tax Cut Idea Joins Debt Talks

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:30 PM PDT

Obama is considering how strongly to push for extending a payroll-tax break for workers and creating a new tax break for employers to jump-start the economy.

Wisconsin Union Law to Take Effect

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:56 PM PDT

The state Supreme Court cleared the way for the state's collective-bargaining law to take effect, ruling that a judge who put the law on hold improperly interfered with the legislature.

Some Funds Take Wild Ride to Gains

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 06:47 PM PDT

For many hedge-fund investors, 2011 has been a slog. But for some, the year has been a thrill, thanks to big wagers on amusement parks, television networks and other media and entertainment plays.

Swiss Probe Trading Activity

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:48 PM PDT

Swiss stock-exchange officials are looking into unusual trading activity that occurred before Johnson & Johnson's acquisition announcement of medical-devices manufacturer Synthes.

No Fed Shift Seen at June Gathering

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:55 PM PDT

Fed officials are neither looking to tighten nor to ease monetary policy as they prepare for the meeting June 21 and 22 of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's decision-making body.

Dish, Bondholders Bidding on TerreStar

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:10 PM PDT

Satellite mogul Charlie Ergen and a group of distressed-debt investors are gearing up for a fight to buy TerreStar and its rights to a chunk of the airwaves earmarked for next-generation wireless networks.

DOJ Clears Google's Bid for Nortel Patents

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:07 PM PDT

U.S. antitrust enforcers have given Google a go-ahead to pursue its $900 million opening bid for a trove of high-tech patents being sold next week by Nortel Networks.

Cable TV Holds Its Own

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 02:03 PM PDT

Cable-TV executives, at an annual conference in Chicago, said the cable industry, rather than being marginalized in the digital age, is pivotal for both its infrastructure and the content it provides.

U.K. to Force Banking Separations

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:29 PM PDT

British banks will be forced to "ring-fence" retail banking from investment banking, maintaining them as separate operations in a move the U.K. government believes will make banking safer, Treasury chief George Osborne will announce Wednesday.

SEC Nominees Blocked Pending Stanford Ruling

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:45 PM PDT

Republican Sen. David Vitter will block two Securities and Exchange Commission nominees until the agency announces whether victims of R. Allen Stanford's alleged Ponzi scheme are owed compensation from the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

Ex-Analyst Admits to Destroying Documents

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 03:07 PM PDT

Jason Pflaum, a former analyst for Barai Capital, testified in the trial of former expert-network consultant Winifred Jiau, that he and Samir Barai discussed deleting files after details about the government probe surfaced.

GM's Change Agent Tackles Bureaucracy

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:28 PM PDT

General Motors' new product chief, Mary Barra, has two tough assignments: supercharging new development stalled during its restructuring and tackling the auto maker's famously plodding corporate culture.

Penney Picks Boss From Apple

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:15 PM PDT

J.C. Penney wooed Ron Johnson, the man who helped create the mystique surrounding Apple Inc.'s successful retail operation, to be the next chief executive of the venerable department-store chain.

Big Banks Get New Capital Standards

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:29 PM PDT

U.S. bank regulators rolled back a regulation allowing large banks to use their own models to calculate the capital cushion they must hold against losses, imposing new minimum standards on the industry.

Citi Asked to Explain Data Breach

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:46 AM PDT

Connecticut's attorney general asked Citigroup for more information about its recent data breach, saying the bank hasn't yet explained how the attack happened.

Spending Drops as Car Sales Decline

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 06:05 PM PDT

Retail sales dropped for the first time in 11 months in May, as Americans cut back on big-ticket items. Sales excluding cars rose 0.3%. Separately, wholesale prices moderated.

J.P. Morgan Shuffles Ranks

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 03:09 PM PDT

J.P. Morgan Chase shuffled some of its top executives Tuesday and disclosed changes in its home-lending business as the giant bank looks to get past struggles in its mortgage operations.