On FT Alphaville this morning,
- There is a rather dispiriting resemblance between the latest credit crunch and the bursting of the dotcom bubble, writes Tony Jackson in his Monday column. But here’s the fresh angle. The market has been struck by the disturbing notion that credit derivatives might not be worth what they were supposed to be.
- Take three biggish members of the same sector, suspend their shares and what do you get? Lots of M&A speculation – that’s what – especially when the three firms concerned are all members of the media sector. Fairfax, Australia’s second largest newspaper publisher, Southern Cross Broadcasting Australia, the TV and radio station operator, and Macquarie Media Group, a spin off from the hyperactive Macquarie investment bank, all called a halt to trading in their stock on Monday.
- James Cayne, chief executive of Bear Stearns, is notorious for having deep pockets and short arms, writes John Gapper in Monday’s FT. Alone among Wall Street’s finest, Bear refused to pony up $250m for the bail-out of LTCM in 1998. Now that the subprime bullet appears, for the moment at least, to have been dodged – attention has turned to the softer stuff.
- The FSA published its latest thoughts on the vexed issue of insider dealing. Our Market Live participants didn’t think much of the regulator’s conclusions.
On FT.com this morning,
- Barclays has been granted another three weeks to finalise its offer for ABN Amro, clearing the way for a formal bid for the Dutch bank after a key court ruling later this month. The British bank on Monday announced that Dutch regulators had given it until July 23rd to formalise its agreed takeover bid for ABN Amro. Under the original timetable of the deal, Barclays would have had to publish its offer documentation this week.
- PartyGaming said on Monday that its financial performance in the second quarter had been in line with management expectations and the internet gaming group was “confident about the prospects for the full year”. The reassuring trading statement comes after turmoil for the group which, in common with other internet gambling companies, was forced to cease taking bets in the US last October. In May it issued a profit warning blaming the high cost of attracting new customers.
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