Opening Bell: 8.21.15

Maker of Addyi, ‘Female Viagra’ Drug, Being Sold to Valeant for $1 Billion (Dealboo)
Sprout Pharmaceuticals, which on Tuesday won regulatory approval for the first pill to aid a woman’s sex drive, will be acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International for about $1 billion in cash. The deal, announced on Thursday, represents a sizable return for investors in Sprout, a privately held company in Raleigh, N.C., with 34 employees. A total of about $100 million has been invested in Sprout since its formation in 2011.

Hedge funder John Paulson goes on Puerto Rico spending spree (NYP)
John Paulson is expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the Puerto Rican debt crisis, but it hasn’t stopped the big spender from living the high life with real estate mogul Fahad Ghaffar in San Juan. A source says Paulson and Ghaffar, who’s also managing director of Paulson & Co., have gone on a “buying spree,” scooping up properties including luxury hotels St. Regis, La Concha Resort and the Vanderbilt. “They see Puerto Rico as an incredible buying opportunity with high returns,” says the source.

Caesars conflict means trouble for John Paulson (NYP)
Junior creditors of Caesars Entertainment’s bankrupt operating unit argue a proposed restructuring deal between the casino giant and fewer than half of its creditors represents an “improper” conflict of interest. That’s because most of creditors who signed on to the deal also own equity in Caesars parent company, which has not filed for bankruptcy, lawyers for the junior creditors said Thursday. The proposed deal would allegedly allow Caesars parent company — and its shareholders — to keep the best assets while depriving creditors of the bankrupt operating unit. Paulson is one of the biggest shareholders in the parent company, with a 10 percent stake.

J.P. Morgan Names Former Army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno as Adviser (WSJ)
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will bring on Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the recently retired chief of staff of the Army, as a senior adviser to the firm, the bank announced Thursday. Starting Sept. 1, Gen. Odierno will advise the bank’s board and Chief Executive James Dimon on topics such as the risks of doing business in various countries, technology and physical and cybersecurity.

Hamas captures alleged Israeli spy dolphin (UPI)
Militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas announced it has captured a suspected Israeli spy: a dolphin equipped with cameras and other devices. Hamas, based in Gaza, said the naval unit of its military wing discovered a dolphin equipped with cameras and other spying devices off shore and captured the animal. The Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper said the dolphin had been "stripped of its will" and turned into "a murderer" by the Israeli military. Israeli officials have not responded to the allegations.

Glencore CDS Costs Soar On Poor Results (WSJ)
The price investors must pay to insure against a default on Glencore PLC’s debt ballooned after poor results from the commodities giant. As of Thursday, investors had to pay $330,000 to insure against $10 million of Glencore debt for five years using credit default swaps, or CDS, according to data group Markit. That is more than three times the price of insuring against a default last September. At the end of last week, it cost $294,000.

Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth (Bloomberg)
The selloff was triggered three weeks ago, when Jack Dorsey, co-founder and interim chief executive officer, warned that it would take a while before Twitter is able to reverse a slowdown in user growth. While his candor was applauded by analysts, investors appear to have taken his comments -- which also described product performance as “unacceptable” -- to heart.

Are Lawyers Getting Dumber? (Bloomberg)
Last August, the tens of thousands of answer sheets from the bar exam started to stream into the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The initial results were so glaringly bad that staffers raced to tell their boss, Erica Moeser...In Idaho, bar pass rates dropped 15 percentage points, from 80 percent to 65 percent. In Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas, scores dropped 9 percentage points or more. By the time all the states published their numbers, it was clear that the July exam had been a disaster everywhere. Scores on the multiple-choice part of the test registered their largest single-year drop in the four-decade history of the test.

Santa is Four Months From Christmas – But a Week From Bankruptcy (Bloomberg)
The problems started as tourists from Greece, Italy, Spain and then Russia stopped coming, Jarmo Kariniemi, chief executive officer of Dianordia Oy, which runs the Finnish Santa Claus office, said in a phone interview from Rovaniemi, close to the Arctic circle in Finnish Lapland. “The state of the global economy makes a big difference to our business,” Kariniemi said on Thursday. Most of the company’s debts — about 200,000 euros ($223,660) — are owed to the tax man, he said. Kariniemi says his company is “not yet bankrupt, and we are confident a solution will be found.” The challenge is adjusting to the shifting revenue streams as various countries get hit by economic shocks, he said.

Torrey Smith 'endorses' Deez Nuts for president (UPI)
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith shared his distaste for Donald Trump with an unfavorable comparison to another presidential hopeful: Deez Nuts. Smith issued a short tweet Thursday comparing the Republican frontrunner with the independent, who is actually a 15-year-old Iowa boy named Brady Olson. "Deez Nutz > Donald Trump" Smith tweeted, misspelling the fictional candidate's last name. A Facebook page purporting to be the official page for the Deez Nuts camapign took Smith's tweet as a show of support. "Former NFL WR Torrey Smith has been the latest person to endorse Deez Nuts for the White House," the post on the Deez Nuts for President 2016 page reads. Deez Nuts made headlines when the Public Policy Polling group released data showing the candidate was polling at 9 percent in North Carolina.