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High-tech thief or bogus prosecution? Those were the opposing closing arguments offered on Thursday in the case of a computer programmer accused of stealing high-speed trading code from Goldman Sachs.
Sergey Aleynikov, 40, was charged with stealing critical parts of code as he left Wall Street’s most influential bank in June 2009 before joining Teza Technologies LLC, a high speed-trading start-up firm in Chicago. Get the full story »
The top U.S. futures exchanges expressed confidence that a revised plan to clamp down on commodities market speculation will not unduly burden the market.
The comments on Wednesday by the chief executives of IntercontinentalExchange and CME Group were more optimistic than in the past, when exchanges, banks and other market participants sharply criticized the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s plan. Get the full story »
Brazil might be an exception to the rule of thumb that says avoid the asset everyone’s piling into, according to the chief executive of Equity International, the international arm of real estate mogul Sam Zell. Get the full story »
Corn Products International Inc., which refines corn for use in food and industrial products, said Tuesday it plans to invest $75 million to $100 million over the next several years in its Brazilian business. Get the full story »
LivingSocial, a deal-of-the-day company that’s seen as one of Groupon’s biggest rivals, said Thursday it has received a $175 million investment from e-commerce giant Amazon.
The Washington, D.C.-based start-up’s latest round of funding also included another $8 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners of Menlo Park, Calif. Lightspeed had previously led a $14 million round of funding for LivingSocial in April. Before that, the daily deal site had conducted two other rounds totaling $30 million.
LivingSocial said it plans to use the money for expansion. The daily deal site is in more than 120 markets, including cities in Europe and Australia, and projects its 2011 revenue at more than $500 million. Get the full story »
Hedge funds and investors whose bearish trades on housing helped them profit amid the credit crisis were among those that benefited from a U.S. government emergency rescue program to kick-start lending, according to Federal Reserve data released Wednesday.
That program, known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility, or TALF, and established during the financial crisis, provided low-cost loans from the Federal Reserve to investors buying bonds backed by student, auto and commercial-property loans and other assets. The program, which lasted from March 2009 until June 2010, was aimed at helping banks move loans off their books by repackaging them into bonds and selling them.
Funds managed or backed by Evanston-based Magnetar Capital, Tricadia Capital and FrontPoint Partners, which made large profits betting on a downturn in the U.S. housing market before the crisis, were among those who obtained low-cost loans from the Fed to buy securities, according to the Fed data. Get the full story »
Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz decried the commodity market on Wednesday, saying financial speculators, not product shortages, were to blame for recent price spikes in coffee.
“I think it’s tragic…that coffee prices are at these levels,” Schultz told analysts and investors gathered in New York. “There is no evidence whatsoever that we can see that there’s any supply or demand (issue).” Get the full story »
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
On a day when one of its chief competitors announced 1,400 job cuts, Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. said it has acquired Waterline Partners LLC, a Los Angeles investment advisory firm serving rich individuals and families.
Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. Northern’s stock was up about one percent in late-morning trading to $50.77 a share; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.8 percent.
“We are delighted to announce a strategic acquisition that will bolster both our West Coast presence as well as our capabilities for clients,” Northern Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick Waddell said. Get the full story »
Kraft Foods said it began a cash tender offer for up to $1 billion of its notes.
The offer, which expires Dec. 27, is for its 5.625 percent notes that are due in 2011 and its 6.25 percent notes due in 2012. Holders who tender their offer by Dec. 10 will get an early tender premium of $30 for every $1,000 in principal amount of the notes they turn over. Get the full story »
Alberto Culver has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit over the beauty care company’s proposed $3.7 billion takeover by Unilever NV, lawyers for the investors said.
The settlement is designed to address concerns that the merger agreement might have dissuaded prospective competing acquirers from making better takeover bids, the shareholders’ lawyers said. Get the full story »
A team of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokers in northern New York state, the Morgia Group, last week joined HighTower Advisors, a Chicago firm that is adding veteran advisers across the United States. Get the full story »
The sour economy’s dampening effect on philanthropy may be lessening, according to a survey of 2,300 public charities and 160 private foundations released today.
Thirty-seven percent of the organizations reported decreased contributions in the first nine months of 2010, compared with 51 percent who reported declines in the first three quarters of 2009.
And 36 percent reported increased donations, up from 23 percent in the same period last year. Get the full story »
