LightSquared to Be Blocked by FCC Over GPS (Bloomberg)
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission vowed to block LightSquared Inc. after the Obama administration found the wireless venture backed by hedge-fund billionaire Philip Falcone would disrupt navigation gear. Federal agencies determined that LightSquared’s signals interfere with global-positioning system devices, Tammy Sun, an FCC spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The FCC is preparing to withdraw the preliminary approval it granted last year for the company to build a high-speed network serving as many as 260 million people, Sun said. “The commission clearly stated from the outset that harmful interference to GPS would not be permitted,” Sun said. “The commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.” The FCC’s action marks a blow to LightSquared and a setback for Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund, which has invested $3 billion in the venture. It follows a yearlong lobbying fight between LightSquared and opposing GPS companies that featured a series of government tests denounced by LightSquared as flawed.
LightSquared in a release issued yesterday before the FCC’s statement said it is “committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry.” The company said it “fully expects” the FCC “to recognize LightSquared’s legal rights to build its $14 billion, privately financed network.”

Greece Struggles to Win Second Financial Bailout as Europe’s Doubts Mount (Bloomberg)
Finance ministers canceled a Brussels meeting slated for today and will hold a teleconference instead to prod Greece to do more to clinch an aid package worth 130 billion euros ($171 billion) along with about 100 billion euros of debt relief from private bondholders. Greece needs the money to make a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20. The decision to cancel the meeting is “very worrying,” and “reflects a growing concern amongst some euro-area countries that Greece will not abide by the conditions of the second bailout package,” said Nicola Mai, an economist at JPMorgan Chase Bank in London. “It appears that some euro-area countries are willing to let Greece default.”

Hanks Paulson: Europe Crisis Will Take Years To Sort Out (CNBC)
“There is similarity [with the financial crisis in the U.S.] in certain regards. This has been going on for a long time and I think it will take years to play out,” Paulson told CNBC. Paulson, who served as Treasury Secretary when the subprime mortgages credit crunch erupted, sparking the world’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, said that at the time the U.S. was faced with a “collision of political forces and market forces”. “That’s really what you’re seeing in Europe,” Paulson said. “The structural issues around the EU are very difficult issues.”

Goldman Analyst Draws Scrutiny (WSJ)
Federal criminal authorities are investigating whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. technology analyst leaked inside information to hedge funds, adding a new angle to a broadening insider-trading probe, people close to the situation say. The development takes the insider-trading investigation inside the research operation of a major Wall Street firm for the first time. It involves Henry King, a high-profile analyst well-known among technology investors for prescient calls on tech firms…Goldman clients were told in recent weeks that Mr. King, head of Taiwan research, took a leave from his Goldman post in Asia after making a trip to the U.S. earlier in the year, people close to the situation say.

BNP Paribas Profit Hit By Greece (WSJ)
The Paris-based lender, France’s largest bank by market value, reported a 51% drop in fourth-quarter net profit to €765 million ($1 billion) from €1.55 billion a year earlier. BNP Paribas took a €567 million write-down on its Greek sovereign bonds and booked a €148 million charge as part of its plan to limit the impact of the European debt crisis by slashing its balance sheet. It expects to book an additional €850 million in charges to cover its downsizing plans in 2012 earnings but said it is “well-positioned to take on the challenges associated to today’s new environment and continue to finance its clients.” Revenue fell 6.1% to €9.69 billion, as continuing growth of the bank’s retail operations partially offset a sharp drop in corporate and investment banking revenue.

Shark Devours Another Shark Whole (AP)
National Geographic has released this soon-to-be classic photograph of one shark eating another shark whole. The photo comes from Daniela Ceccarelli, of Australia’s Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Ceccarelli was working with fellow researcher David Williamson on conducting a “fish census” off Great Keppel Island, part of the country’s Great Barrier Reef. That’s when Ceccarelli thought she spotted a brown-banded bamboo shark hanging out near the ocean’s floor. “The first thing that caught my eye was the almost translucent white of the bamboo shark,” Ceccarelli told National Geographic in an email. Instead, as Ceccarelli moved in for a closer look she noticed a camouflaged wobbegong shark emerging from seclusion with the same bamboo shark partially wedged inside its jaws. “It became clear that the head of the bamboo shark was hidden in its mouth,” she said. “The bamboo shark was motionless and definitely dead.” Read more »