Holiday Bell: 10.12.15
AB InBev Lifts SABMiller Takeover Proposal to $103.6 Billion (Bloomberg)
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV raised its proposed bid for SABMiller Plc to about 67.4 billion pounds ($103.6 billion), seeking to bring the U.K. brewer to the negotiating table ahead of Wednesday’s deadline for an offer that would create the world’s dominant beermaker. Under the proposal, the majority of stockholders would get 43.50 pounds a share in cash, Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev said in a statement Monday. SABMiller’s two biggest investors, Altria Group Inc. and BevCo Ltd., the Santo Domingo family’s holding company, would receive 38.88 pounds a share in cash and stock, AB InBev said.
Dell to buy EMC in $67 billion record tech deal, aims for cloud market (Reuters)
Computer-maker Dell Inc struck a deal on Monday to buy data storage company EMC Corp for $67 billion, setting a record in the technology industry, as it tries to transform itself into a giant in the fast-growing market for managing and storing corporate data. The acquisition, the year's third-largest in all sectors, highlights the frenzy of dealmaking sweeping the economy, as big or mature companies take advantage of low interest rates to buy rivals as a way to spur growth.
Gross Fund Has About $47 Million in Outflows as Returns Lag (Bloomberg)
Investors pulled an estimated $47 million last month from the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund run by Bill Gross as his performance this year trailed a majority of rivals. The bond fund at Janus Capital Group Inc. now oversees about $1.38 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund lost 1.4 percent this year, worse than 68 percent of other unconstrained bond pools.
Central Bankers Urge Fed to Get On With Rate Increase (WSJ)
Fed fatigue has enveloped emerging-market officials facing repeated bouts of volatility in their currencies and capital flows alongside mounting worries about debt. Some policy makers, gripped by the uncertainty, delivered a message to their American counterparts as officials gathered in the Peruvian capital for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting: Please stop dithering.
DUI Suspect Allegedly Claimed Dog Was Driving Car (HP)
A DUI suspect accused of leading deputies on a high speed chase in Manatee County, Florida, allegedly told authorities that his dog was the one behind the wheel, Bradenton Patch reports. Deputies gave chase to Reliford Cooper III, 26, after catching him speeding at around 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Cooper allegedly fled, ran a stop sign, drove through two ditches and eventually crashed into a house...While he was being handcuffed, Cooper told deputies, “I wasn’t driving that car," the report said. He then allegedly elaborated, “My dog was driving that car.”
Former UBS Trader Adoboli to Fight Ghana Deportation Ruling (Bloomberg)
Adoboli, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in Nov. 2012, will lodge an appeal against the ruling handed down last week, his lawyer, Paul Lennon of London-based Bark & Co. said by e-mail. Ghana-born Adoboli was released from prison in June.
Where to Stash Cannabis Cash? Tribal Nations Make Bid to Bank It (Bloomberg)
Rivera, a Harvard Business School graduate who led the 1,940 members of the Acjachemen Nation in Southern California for nearly a decade, says native governments could legalize marijuana. His organization, CannaNative, is trying to link tribal leaders from the 566 sovereign American Indian nations with finance professionals and legal-marijuana businesses to use the expertise gained from decades of managing casinos. That way, he said, they can go where big institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. fear to tread -- banking the legal-pot industry’s estimated $3 billion in annual revenue.
From China, a $400 Million Bonanza for U.S. Startups (WSJ)
Naval Ravikant is attempting to do to early-stage venture capital what technology firms have done to every other industry: disrupt it. His instrument is a website called AngelList that allows for a kind of crowdfunding of young startups. Thanks to a deal set to be announced Monday, he has a powerful new tool at his disposal, handed to him by one of the largest private-equity firms in China: $400 million. That might not sound like a lot for a venture-capital firm, but it is the largest single pool of funds devoted to early-stage startups—ever. And it might be the largest-ever single investment by a Chinese private-equity firm in a U.S. fund.
Donald Trump’s sale of Miss Universe actually fell short (NYP)
Donald Trump’s team boasted to the media last month about how well the Republican presidential candidate had done from buying and reselling the company that runs the Miss Universe beauty pageant. In truth, the sale, even if at a good profit, was not a big winner as far as the total realized proceeds, a source with direct knowledge of the deal told our Josh Kosman.
Texas students to protest campus weapons policy with sex toys (UPI)
Jessica Jin, the student who created the "Campus (DILDO) Carry" event on Facebook, wrote that the event -- planned for the first day of fall semester Aug. 24, 2016 -- protests concealed weapons being allowed on the school's campus while university policy bans displays of "obscenity." "On June 1, 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott signed S.B. 11, also known as the 'campus carry' law. S.B. 11 provides that license holders may carry a concealed handgun throughout university campuses, starting Aug. 1, 2016. The law gives public universities some discretion to regulate campus carry," Jin wrote on the event page. "The State of Texas has decided that it is not at all obnoxious to allow deadly concealed weapons in classrooms, however it DOES have strict rules about free sexual expression, to protect your innocence. You would receive a citation for taking a DILDO to class before you would get in trouble for taking a gun to class. Heaven forbid the penis," she wrote.