Holiday Bell: 3.25.16

Microsoft might finance Yahoo bid; Investors says Valeant is overcharging for female viagra; Cruz calls Trump a 'sniveling coward' re: wife; Suspected komodo dragon found wandering in New York; and more.
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Microsoft told potential Yahoo bidders it might back bids: report (Reuters)
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) executives are in talks with equity firms considering bids for Yahoo Inc! (YHOO.O) saying that Microsoft might be willing to offer "significant financing" for their efforts, tech news site Recode reported on Thursday. However, Microsoft has not made commitments so far to investors, and any discussions are exploratory, Recode reported, citing unnamed sources.

Hedge Funds Dealt Setback as U.S. Sides With Argentina on Defaulted Bonds (Dealbook)
The United States government has weighed in on the legal battle between Argentina and a group of New York hedge funds, lending its support to the struggling country and dealing a setback to the investors. In a “friend of the court” or amicus curiae, brief filed on Wednesday at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, the Justice Department said it supported an American federal judge’s decision to lift an injunction that had prevented Argentina from raising new money in the bond markets or paying its creditors...It is a move that will increase the pressure on a group of holdout bondholders that refused to take part in two debt restructurings by Argentina after it defaulted on $100 billion of debt in 2001. The appeals court has often deferred to opinions of the American government.

Cruz Calls Trump a 'Sniveling Coward' as War Over Wives Continues (Bloomberg)
In the opening salvos of a two-week fight for Wisconsin, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz called Republican rival Donald Trump a coward after the billionaire threatened to "spill the beans" on the lawmaker's wife. "It's not easy to tick me off. I don't get angry often. But you mess with my kids, you mess with my wife—that'll do it every time," Cruz told reporters on Thursday before touring a metal-fabrication plant in Dane, Wisconsin. "Donald, you're a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone."

Sprout Investors Say Valeant Overcharging for Female Libido Pill (Bloomberg)
Investors in Sprout, the female libido pill maker bought by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. for $1 billion last year, said Valeant has failed to successfully commercialize the treatment by setting the price too high and neglecting to market it, putting the drugmaker at risk of violating the merger agreement.

Beer Truck Collides With Chip Truck, Making Frat Boy Dreams Come True (HP)
Beer and potato chips were left sprawled all over a Florida highway after a Budweiser truck reportedly collided with a Frito-Lays truck on Wednesday morning. The two trucks crashed along I-95 in Melbourne, leading to a cleanup effort that briefly shut down the interstate, WFTV reported. Neither driver was injured, according to local reports.

There Isn't Much Left of Marissa Mayer's Yahoo Golden Parachute (Bloomberg)
Ousting Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer could cost Yahoo! Inc. about $12.4 million. Thanks to Yahoo’s declining share price and the vesting schedule of Mayer’s awards, letting her go now would be a bargain compared with 15 months ago. Had she been terminated in December 2014, Mayer would have been able to collect $36.1 million in severance and equity awards vesting early, according to the Web portal’s proxy statement. If her termination would have come within a year of selling the company, the exit package at that time would have swelled to $157.9 million.

Blackstone Mutual Fund Loses Half Its Assets (Bloomberg)
Clients withdrew $585.5 million from the Blackstone Alternative Multi-Manager Fund in the first three weeks of this month, leaving it with $631.2 million in assets, down from $1.2 billion at the end of February, according to data from Morningstar Inc. The decline reflects a large redemption by Fidelity, which had put almost $1 billion into the fund in 2013, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.

Why Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch Still Isn’t Sold (Bloomberg)
The property—purchased from a financially ailing Jackson in 2008 with a $23.5 million note from Thomas Barrack Jr.’s Colony Capital LLC—is located in Los Olivos, a town of around 1,100 residents located about 130 miles northeast of L.A. That’s pretty far from the proliferation of the highest-end homes. “Most of the homes in these price ranges are waterfront, or with ocean views, or they’re in the cities,” said DeSimone. “They’re concentrated in L.A., New York, San Francisco, and Miami.”

Suspected komodo dragon found wandering in New York (UPI)
Police in New York said officers captured a stray animal that was an unusual sight for the streets of Queens -- a komodo dragon. The New York Police Department's 109th Precinct tweeted photos Thursday of the komodo dragon that was captured under a trash bin by residents of the Flushing neighborhood. Officials said the 3-foot-long komodo dragon does not appear to be fully grown. The species can grow to up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 150 pounds. The apparent escaped pet was taken to a local animal hospital for care.

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Debt Ceiling Nears As Talks Stymied (WSJ) The Treasury Department said Wednesday the government would hit its legal borrowing limit by Monday, setting in motion emergency measures to keep the government operating for several more weeks and serving as a reminder that the nation's budget wrangling could continue well into 2013. The Treasury's financial maneuvering is designed to put off until February or March the prospect of a full-blown debt crisis. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's two-paragraph letter to Congress didn't specify when the emergency measures might be exhausted, blaming the "significant uncertainty that now exists with regard to unresolved tax and spending policies for 2013." The White House and congressional leaders have shown no signs of progress toward crafting an agreement to avoid the year-end tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. Rajaratnam Pays $1.45 Million Over Gupta Insider Tips (WSJ) As part of a consent agreement signed by Mr. Rajaratnam earlier this month and approved by a federal judge on Monday, he agreed to disgorge more than $1.29 million, representing his profits or losses avoided as a result of his alleged trading on Mr. Gupta's tips, and to pay prejudgment interest of $147,738. SeaWorld Files For IPO (WSJ) Though the number of shares and the price range for offering haven't been determined, the filing pegged it at up to $100 million. IBM Insider Net Expands (Reuters) Federal prosecutors charged Trent Martin, a research analyst at a Connecticut brokerage firm, with trading and tipping others before computer giant IBM’s $1.2 billion acquisition of SPSS in 2009, expanding a related insider-trading case filed last month. Martin was also charged with passing the information to others, including two stockbrokers and his roommate. The group allegedly netted more than $1 million. Shark Tank Explodes In Shanghai Mall (NYDN) Security video inside a Shanghai shopping mall captured the terrifying moment an aquarium with live sharks burst open, injuring at least 15 people and leading to the death of dozens of animals. The chaotic scene on Dec. 18 inside the Shanghai Oriental Shopping Center left many of the victims with cuts from the broken glass, while one of them suffered a broken ankle, according to the China Daily. Many of those hurt were mall employees. In addition, three lemon sharks and dozens of smaller fish and turtles were killed when the 33-ton tank exploded, sending water and glass cascading through part of the shopping center, the BBC reported. At least four people were standing right in front of the display at the time. “It was horrible, like a bomb explosion,” one mall vendor told the China Daily. “Some pedestrians were pushed (6-1/2 feet) away by the force of the water.” Officials were investigating whether low temperatures in Shanghai combined with shoddy building materials to make the shark tank — built just two years ago — suddenly rupture. This isn't the first time the display has been damaged: A broken water pipe in June led to the death of three sharks, according to reports. Mall officials have apparently had enough and told local media they don't plan to rebuild. Jobless Claims Drop as U.S. States Tally Data After Break (Bloomberg) Applications for jobless benefits decreased 12,000 to 350,000 in the week ended Dec. 22, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 360,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Claims in 19 states and territories were estimated because government office closures on Dec. 24 prevented a complete count, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released. France, Italy See Economic Bright Spots (WSJ) So that's nice. Gross Doubles New York Bet as California Loses Lead (Bloomberg) The $285 billion Total Return Fund, which Gross runs at Pacific Investment Management Co., boosted its New York state allocation to about a $3 billion market value in the quarter ending Sept. 30, from $1.4 billion as of June 30, according to a semiannual filing the firm released this month. It was the largest increase by amount among U.S. states. Zuckerberg's Sister Can't Keep Privacy Rules Straight (NYP) Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s older sister, Randi, complained yesterday when one of her Twitter followers publicly posted a photo of the family, including her famous brother, standing in the kitchen reacting to the company’s new Poke app. “Not sure where you got this photo,” Randi tweeted in response @cschweitz. “I posted it only to friends on FB. You reposting it on Twitter is way uncool.” It turns out that not even Randi — Facebook’s former marketing director — is up to speed on the site’s often-confusing privacy settings. Her gaffe provided fodder for critics of the site, which in the past has changed its policies with little warning and to the dismay of users. “We’ve all been dealing with loss of privacy in Facebook, now she feels what we all do everyday,” one Twitter user responded. Apple CEO Cook Gets $4.17 Million Compensation, No Stock (Bloomberg) The total includes $1.36 million salary and $2.8 million in incentive plan compensation, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a regulatory filing. Cook’s 2011 compensation of $378 million, one of the biggest pay packages on record, was boosted by $376.2 million in stock awards that he’ll get over a decade. McDonald’s trips cost high school secretary $9,000 in fines (NYDN) Kappry Vera of the Urban Assembly School for Construction and Design in Hell’s Kitchen made more than $3,000 in personal purchases on the school credit card from August 2009 through May 2011, investigators charge. The administrator, who lives in Williamsburg, spent most of the money on fast food — including $765 on dozens of visits to McDonald’s between October 2009 and May 2011, charging the city for purchases there up to four times each day. Vera, 33, also dropped $342 at Subway and spent another $190 on Burger King in illegal uses of her city-funded credit card that was only meant for official school purchases, investigators said. Vera only halted her runaway junk-food spending after her principal noticed “questionable purchases” in the school budget and confronted her about it, investigators said. Under questioning, Vera admitted that she bought food for herself on the school card on five occasions, but she wouldn’t give investigators receipts to explain the bulk of her purchases. Programming Note: We’re on an abbreviated, vacation-esque schedule this week (opening news roundups and limited updates whenever the urge to reach out and touch you moves us). We still want to hear from you, though, so if anything happens that you think might tickle our fancy, do not hesitate to let us know.

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SAC Capital Advisors Trader Charged With Fraud (WSJ) Early Friday morning, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested a longtime SAC Capital portfolio manager on insider-trading charges, making him the most senior employee of one of the nation's most prominent hedge funds to be snared in the government's sprawling probe. Michael Steinberg, 40 years old, was led out of his building on New York's Park Avenue in handcuffs around 6 a.m. Mr. Steinberg has worked at Stamford, Conn.-based SAC since 1997 and at its Sigma Capital Management unit in New York since 2003, dealing closely with SAC's billionaire founder Steven A. Cohen. "Michael Steinberg did absolutely nothing wrong," his lawyer, Barry H. Berke, said in a statement Friday. "His trading decisions were based on detailed analysis" and information "he understood had been properly obtained through the types of channels that institutional investors rely upon on a daily basis." Mr. Steinberg was charged Friday with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and four counts of securities fraud, alleging that he made illegal trades in Dell and Nvidia Corp. based on information relayed to him by a Sigma Capital analyst. He faces as much as 20 years in prison on each fraud charge. He is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court later Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission also separately filed a civil lawsuit against him in Manhattan federal court on Friday. "Mike has conducted himself professionally and ethically during his long tenure at the firm. We believe him to be a man of integrity," a SAC spokesman said Friday. SAC’s Steinberg Arrested as Probe Gets Closer to Cohen (Bloomberg) Jon Horvath, who worked for Steinberg, pleaded guilty in September, admitting that he provided illegal tips to his portfolio manager, who then traded on them...Two days before Dell was set to report second-quarter 2008 earnings, Horvath e-mailed Steinberg and another portfolio manager to warn that the computer maker would miss earnings estimates. “I have a 2nd hand read from someone at the company,” Horvath said in the Aug. 26 e-mail, which provided details on gross margins, expenditures and revenue. “Please keep to yourself as obviously not well known.” Steinberg replied, “Yes normally we would never divulge data like this, so please be discreet. 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Morgan Stanley's Porat Passes On Treasury Post (NYP) Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer has taken herself out of the running for the No. 2 job at the Treasury Department after months of speculation that she was all but certain to join the Obama administration. The 56-year-old high-profile Wall Streeter, who had been the top candidate to work alongside Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, called the White House late Wednesday to remove her name after fretting about possibly being raked over the coals during a Senate confirmation hearing, sources told The Post. Putin May Cap Golden Parachutes After $100 Million Payout (Bloomberg) President Vladimir Putin proposed limiting severance payments to Russian executives, after a former KGB colleague was granted about $100 million when he stepped down as the head of OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel. 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For CEOs, Buyout Game Can Be Second Act (WSJ) Less than two months after agreeing to leave Chesapeake under pressure from shareholders over his free-spending ways, Aubrey McClendon is meeting with private-equity investors and others to discuss potentially teaming up for new ventures, according to several people familiar with the discussions. Mitt Romney Thinks His Grandkids’ Names Are Ridiculous (Daily Intel) "A few months ago we had twins come in, and you can't believe what they're named: Winston and Eleanor. [Laughs.] I mean, it's going back to the glorious days of the thirties and forties, I guess. But these are just darling little infants, and to have such big names on them is really something, although they call them Ellie and Win ... When I heard Winston and Eleanor, I thought, It sounds like two English bulldogs, but they're adorable children."