Société Générale to Restructure (WSJ)
Société Générale said Wednesday it will roll out a restructuring plan to cut costs and boost revenue, as the French bank posted a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and painted a stark picture of the outlook for retail banking in France against the backdrop of a stagnant economy…The Paris-based lender, France’s second-largest publicly listed bank by market capitalization, reported a €476 million net loss ($640 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with €100 million net profit last year, well below analysts’ expectations.
Apple’s Cook Calls Einhorn Lawsuit ‘Silly Sideshow’, Says Company’s Not Tight-Fisted (CNBC)
Wading into a controversy that was bought to a head last week by fund manager David Einhorn, Cook touted his company’s investment in product development and research. The CEO rejected the basis of a lawsuit filed by Einhorn that the fund manager asserts will restrict Apple’s ability to distribute its excess cash to its investors. “Frankly I find it bizarre that we would find ourselves being sued for doing something that’s good for shareholders,” Cook told the Goldman Sachs’ Technology and Internet Conference.
Apple checkmate: Another big investor backs company vs. Einhorn (NYP)
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a $157.8 billion pension fund that owns 1.6 million Apple shares, told The Post they are siding with Apple against Einhorn. CalSTRS supports the proposal because “blank check” preferred stock “can be used as anti-takeover defenses and entrench a board,” said Anne Sheehan, the director of corporate governance.
SAC Probe Said to Be Hampered by Auto-Deleted E-Mails (Bloomberg)
The federal investigation of insider trading by SAC Capital Advisors LP and its founder, Steven A. Cohen, has been hampered by a lack of extensive e-mail evidence. One reason: During the period of time at the heart of the probe, July 2008, SAC automatically deleted its e-mails. Unluckily for the U.S. government, SAC changed its policy just months later, requiring preservation of electronic communications. By then, most messages relevant to the $700 million in alleged illegal trades had been erased, according to a person familiar with the matter. Until the fall of 2008, SAC e-mails were deleted from employee electronic mailboxes every 30 or 60 days, according to SAC General Counsel Peter Nussbaum.
Comcast Buys Rest Of NBC’s Parent (WSJ)
Comcast Corp, in a bullish bet on traditional entertainment, is buying General Electric Co.’s stake in NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion, giving the cable operator full ownership of the film and television giant much sooner than expected.
Kate Upton on Antarctic shoot for SI: ‘My body was shutting down’ (NBC)
The theme of this year’s issue, which hit newsstands Tuesday, put models in exotic settings on all seven continents. Upton was sent to the most forbidding one of them all, Antarctica, to endure with frigid temperatures in skimpy outfits, including the parka top and bikini bottom she is wearing on the magazine’s cover. “I was very surprised by the news that that’s where my shoot was going to be located,’’ she said on TODAY Tuesday in her first interview since making the cover. “It was freezing. I’m from Florida, so it wasn’t great for me. When I came back I was losing hearing and eyesight because my body was shutting down, it was working so hard to keep warm. I was thinking warm thoughts.”
Eurozone Worries Intensify (WSJ)
Industrial production in the euro zone fell at its sharpest quarterly rate in more than three years at the end of last year, despite rising in December, stoking fears of a third consecutive quarterly economic contraction. But data released on Wednesday suggested the euro-zone economy reached a low point in November and could be showing early signs of recovery, as production in Germany, the currency bloc’s biggest single economy, rose in December after falling for four consecutive months.
Russia Says It Is Moving Away From Currency Manipulation (CNBC)
FYI.
ING To Cut 2,400 More Jobs (WSJ)
The Netherlands’ biggest bank by assets, which had about 85,000 employees world-wide at the end of the fourth quarter, is cutting costs in response to the weak European economy and tougher regulations for banks.
As US Gasoline Prices Soar, Hedge Fund Oil Bets Near Record (Reuters)
U.S. motorists searching for someone to blame for the highest gasoline prices ever at this time of year have an easy target: hedge funds who have been quietly amassing winning bets on hundreds of millions of barrels of oil. At a filling station in Midtown New York last week, several people were prepared to blame traders on Wall Street as they paid more than $4 per gallon to fill up their cars. “It really is not supply and demand. It’s definitely speculation,” said John Keegan, an exterminator with pest control company Terminate Control, who was filling up his van. A cab driver said he was convinced the price would be just $1 a gallon if the government “stopped Wall Street trading oil.”
No Ordinary Affenpinscher, Banana Joe Is Named Best in Show (NYT)
Banana Joe, a black dog with a monkeylike face, became the first affenpinscher to win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday night. He defeated six dogs, one a Portuguese water dog on the same night that Bo, who is the same breed, watched his master, President Obama, deliver the State of the Union address. “He’s won a lot of big, big shows, but none like this one,” said his handler, Ernesto Lara, who held onto Joey, as he calls him, during a postshow news conference. Joey sat calmly, as if he could have gone back onto the floor of Madison Square Garden and taken on his challengers again. He stuck his tongue out as Lara answered questions. He didn’t appear to need any celebratory drinks or snacks. “I don’t think he has anything to prove,” Lara said. “I’m not bragging, this is just the way he is. The best thing is that I was in cue with him.” He added: “This isn’t a breed you train. He’s like a human. You befriend him.”
She's attractive enough but when she smiles you see too much gum. Not a good tooth-to-gum ratio.
- A Stewie Griffin quote being applied to Kate Uptown
You could fill a couple of barrels of oil with what was photoshopped from that pic.
Lara ecstatically lifted his little competitor in the air, wiggled him back and forth and secured him in a hug. “I had, absolutely, the time of my life,” Dougherty said. So did Banana Joe, the monkey-faced dog with the deadpan wit.
Um…many many concerns..
Category is 'Rhyme Time'
Clue: this has substantially increased on the SI swimsuit cover since her debut in 2012.
I see potential for her to pull an Anna Nicole Smith and really plump up once she's not a teenager anymore. SI should get a good look at her mom before they put her on any more covers.
- Guy who is looking out for the Disney execs
The empiric cabbie then shared his analysis on the gamma-theta ratio on front-month WTI, although the Reuters reporter was skeptical of the Dunkin' Donuts napkin on which it was scrawled.
Check your dates bro, it is 2012!
Shazar: Have you seen my chihuahua ?…Have you seen my chihuahua?
Matt: Hey buddie! I think I know where your dog is!
Shazar: You seen my chihuahua?!
Matt: Yeah, you see Bess over there? shes got it, only, she doesn't call it a chihuahua, she's got another name for it.
Shazar: Have you seen my….wiener?
Bess: What?!
Shazar: Have you seen my weiner!
Bess BF: What the hell did you just say buddie?!
Shazar: Weiner….
Bess BF: Get your hand off my gf desk, I'm gonna fuckin' kick your ass!
Thanks Bess for not letting Matt put up a pic of Cohen or Draghi and not letting Shazar go the dog route!
Don't look at me!
Obama hates gray Americans.
What is "mirth" and "girth" Alex?
Id still give her the worst 14 second of her life.
What is Kate's weight, Alex?
Just can't unsee that pic of her and Aubrey.
Her body type is very conducive to unsightly weight gain
I would totally let her come all over my tits.
What is whale fail, Alex?
What is "rack crack" Alex?
Lights on, on top of a rig moved into the center of the CHK center just for laughs, anyone who says the words "corporate governance" JO&C'ing in the corner.
Shoot in Antarctica and no THO. . . they really Shazared that one
[some joke about Upton's tits, oil and bananas that I'm too hungover to figure out]
-guy who celebrated Mardi Gras
I think we can all agree as esteemed commentarits that she has 1) a bad tooth-to-gum ration 2) would give her the worst 14 seconds with certainty 3) Childbirth will wreak havoc on her body ie saggy tatas, flabby gut, yet no ass.
STFU!!
-OKC Job Creator
I'm convinced that yesterday's reduced posting was due to the team getting ready for a one night trip to New Orleans after Bess said Hand Grenades were better than margs, which of course flew in the face of Matt's "fun time drinks model v. 5.2.3," which in turn required a field trip to settle the question.
Aww, look at those puppies !
We have the largest supply of available pipe nipples in the US.
What is "belly jelly," Alex?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detai…
Also, her elbows are too pointy. I'd rate her, a "Meh 9.5/10".
WOULD NOT BANG
What did the banana say to the vibrator? "Why are you shaking? She's going to eat me!"
DB field trips sound magical.
Any hate toward Upton is purely out of jealousy.
She is hot. Wonderful body. Wonderful face. Wonderful personality.
The catty idiots (men and women alike) need to fess up; they are ugly and hate Upton for being damn near perfect.
Choke on it.
What is Harry Monk?
I guess anyone can be a super model these days. Even that fucking slut Excel 2007. The gut on her.
'morning Darren. Shouldn't you be working on a story?
"Have you seen my dachshund?" There, fixed it for you
Kate Upton surely run away with all the rations …
Bankers wankers ?
too much gum? since when is that a crime….<img src="http://Now.apparelbookstore.info/rest.jpg"/>
What is 'his jizz," Alex?
Take that, bitches!
I don't see how a Polar Bare pun really works when she's in Antartica. That kind of geographical sloppiness really makes it hard to focus on punishing the pope when looking at that cover.
Worst comment since January
Since you think it isn't
Right?
Yes they should have called it
"Wetter than a Penguin's Pocket"
I'm having a hard time finding a word to rhyme with orange
Not when the bus breaks down and Matt starts to panic.
Sorry to change the subject, but Apple has $137 billion of cash, which yields nothing and would take 100 years to spend, and the geniuses at CALSTRS don't want any of it distributed to them b/c blank check preferred could potentially discourage a *hostile acquiror of apple*? Good lord.
you are one fucked up person.
-a "catty idiot"
Took me about 5 minutes of looking at the cover to see the Polar Bare reference…
- Guy questioning the validity Bandersnatch's Man Card
Why is that?
Lieut. Gen. Sir George Frederick Gorringe, KCB
Your apology is not accepted.
2010 Kate Upton >>>>>>>>> 2013 Kate Upton
In other words, she hit her peak at 19. She looks like every other big ten slob who scarfs on too much cheese pizza, keg beer and cock during undergrad. After college she moves to Chicago where she still thinks she's 19 yo version of her hot even though mirrors and scales tell a different story. She parties and whores around for a few years and wonders why guys rarely call or text her before 1 a.m. Th-Sat. Next think you know she's 28 and still very single and considering the move back home to Ohio/Wisconsin/Michigan where her parents have some nice family friends for her to meet ie desperate engineers stuck in a flyover.
Breaking news: CalSTERS condemns APPL's $400 billion enterprise value as being anti-takeover, pushes for 90% reduction in price
So this was the correct answer, but also be delighted that you're winning the public opinion poll.
She's hot white trash. Verlander better stay strapped.
heyyy justin verlander! don't worry bro, your baby boo kate could gain 30lbs and still be one of the prettiest girls in Detroit!
So how does it feel to lose out to desperate engineers stuck in a flyover?
……sounds like someone wifed up a past-her-prime broad that moved back home after slutting it up in the city. reminds me of that four christmases scene, "my husband and I tell each other all our embarrassing secrets. he knows I slept with the entire water polo team in college, just like I know he experimented with men."
It's not winning if all that your beta bucks was able to do was scrounge up a girl past her prime. Now beat it, nerd.
JustSoYaKnow
And knowing is half the battle!
Judging by the Kate hate, I think Bess and Matt have allowed Fashionista to send Fashionista's skinny interns to run the comment section for Opening Bell in the mornings.
Trying to "us" them down huh?
So, the Russia currency manipulation link was worth it. (and yeah, I realize I will incur the wrath of the commentariat for straying from KU).
Vice finance minister of Russia:
"We're definitely not violating the rules themselves and everybody does it to a certain extent."
No concerns there…
My marg brings all* the girls to the yard
*If not all at least the vast majority to the point where those not coming to the yard would not be considered material
Now I understand why there are so many blind and deaf Alaskans running around. Beautiful AND smart. I love it.
Motorboatin son of a bitch
Katy Perry > Katie Uptow
Let's be real, most people on this board have had better than the SI cover.
Chug bleach, you now.
Have you not seen the pics of Perry w/o makeup on? Would be hard to rip ass on her face after eating a Taco Bell volcano taco with her looks.
My wife, her best friend, and mistress are hotter than both of them.
Well maybe not Shazar, but he shazarded in life.
Not everyone can be as skinny as the girls in magazines, you know?
*If not all at least the vast majority to the point where those not coming to the yard would not be considered, like, material or whatever
Kate, will you go to prom with me?