The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Yahoo scraps Dailymotion bid after French government concerns
- E Trade names Morgan Stanley's Nandra as president
- Cyprus bailout scrapes through island's parliament
| Yahoo scraps Dailymotion bid after French government concerns Posted: 30 Apr 2013 06:22 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc has abandoned an effort to acquire a majority stake in online video website Dailymotion due to objections by the French government, according to media reports, scrapping what would have been the biggest deal in the 10-month tenure of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Yahoo had been in talks to buy a 75 percent stake in Dailymotion, owned by telecommunications company France-Telecom Orange, in a deal that would have valued the video website at $300 million. But French government officials raised concerns that the country would lose control over one of its biggest Internet industry successes in such a deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. French government officials and France Telecom executives sought to arrange a deal in which Yahoo would take a 50 percent stake instead, but Yahoo balked, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Yahoo and Dailymotion declined to comment on the matter. Dailymotion is among the most popular online destinations for video, although it lags far behind Google Inc's YouTube, the world's dominant video website. News that the deal was running into trouble was first reported by French media last week. France Telecom-Orange acquired Dailymotion for $170 million through a two-phase deal, with the most recent transaction closing in January. Dailymotion's editorial and executive management operate independently of France Telecom-Orange. Online video, which commands higher ad rates than traditional Web content, is increasingly important to Yahoo as it seeks to reverse a multiyear decline in revenue and visitor traffic. Mayer, who took the reins of the struggling Internet pioneer in July, has so far focused her acquisition efforts on scooping up small, mobile start-up companies. - Reuters |
| E Trade names Morgan Stanley's Nandra as president Posted: 30 Apr 2013 06:06 PM PDT NEW YORK E Trade Financial Corp named a pair of executives with consumer experience to fill top operational and marketing roles on Tuesday, continuing a house cleaning that began when the discount broker hired a new chief executive in January. The New York-based firm named Navtej Nandra, head of international operations at Morgan Stanley Investment Management for the past three years, as president of the company and head of its core retail brokerage operations. Nandra, 46, replaces Michael Curcio, a 10-year veteran who had run the brokerage unit, E*Trade Securities, since 2005. Curcio is the fifth top executive to step down since Paul Idzik became chief executive of E*Trade early this year. E*Trade on Tuesday also named Liza Landsman as chief marketing officer. She was most recently global head of digital marketing at investment management firm BlackRock Inc Nandra, who was chief operating officer of global wealth management at Bank of America Corp's Under Curcio's employment agreement, he would receive severance of at least $3.0 million if he were terminated "involuntarily," E*Trade said in a 2012 regulatory filing. Nandra, whose appointment is effective immediately, "will help ensure the company's customers remain at the forefront of E*Trade going forward," the company said in a news release. At Morgan Stanley, which he joined in the summer of 2010 to help revive its troubled investment management operations, he oversaw a 60 percent rise in the investment bank's international assets under management, E*Trade said. A Morgan Stanley spokesman confirmed Nandra's departure and said the company has no plans to replace him. His responsibilities will be assumed by other executives. E*Trade has suffered hundreds of millions of dollars of losses from making subprime mortgage loans during the financial crisis that began in late 2007 and the company has been working to raise new capital and wind down its lending operations. Landsman replaces Nicholas Utton, one of several executives forced out since Chief Executive Paul Idzik joined E*Trade at the beginning of the year. On a conference call with investors last month, Idzik suggested he would find new leaders to refocus E*Trade on its core retail brokerage activities following a review of the roles and responsibilities of the company's executive committee. E*Trade, known for its precocious-baby ads, needed a "much sharper" marketing focus that deemphasizes some advertising and looks more closely at analytics, Idzik said. The company also is trimming marketing costs this year. In a prepared statement, Landsman said she will capitalize on the "iconic brand" E*Trade has created, but will take "a sharper, more analytic focus" to raise the customer base and sales. E*Trade shares, up 15.2 percent since the start of the year, fell 2 cents to $10.29 on Tuesday. In addition to reorganizing the executive suite, Idzik is presiding over a smaller board. Three directors are stepping down before the company's annual meeting next month. They include Kenneth Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel LLC, which has bailed out E*Trade with more than $4 billion of debt and equity since 2007. Citadel, which had been pushing for a sale of the company, was E*Trade's biggest shareholder until it sold its remaining 9.6 percent stake last month. Also leaving the board are Frank Petrilli, a discount brokerage veteran who served as chairman and interim CEO of E*Trade, and Ronald Fisher, the president of SoftBank Holdings who had been on the board since 2000. E*Trade said in March that former Fidelity Investments president Rodger Lawson will replace Petrilli as its chairman. - Reuters |
| Cyprus bailout scrapes through island's parliament Posted: 30 Apr 2013 06:03 PM PDT NICOSIA: Cyprus's parliament approved an EU bailout on Tuesday which will force it to wind down its second-largest bank and impose heavy losses on uninsured depositors at another, conditions that have intensified calls from islanders to exit the euro. With a razor-thin majority of just two votes, lawmakers approved terms accompanying 10 billion euros ($13.18 billion)in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a show of hands, 29 lawmakers from the three parties in the center-right government approved the motion, with 27 voting against. . Government officials had warned the island would fall into chaotic default, unable to pay salaries or pensions, as early as next month without emergency funding. "Unfortunately the (bailout) is a one-way street for us. It will avert disorderly default and gives, albeit with many hurdles, some prospect of getting us out of the storm," said Averof Neophytou, head of the governing right-wing Democratic Rally party. The bailout was unlike any other aid deal, controversially forcing depositors to foot the cost of recapitalizing banks exposed to debt-crippled Greece. Opposition parties argued that the bailout would keep Cyprus in perpetual bondage to foreign lenders. "A 'yes' from Cyprus's parliament is by far the biggest defeat in our 8,000-year history," said lawmaker George Perdikis of the Greens party at an extraordinary parliamentary session opened on Tuesday. "Its democratically elected representatives have a gun to their head to agree to a deal of enslavement," he said. Cyprus, the euro zone's third smallest country, is bracing for at least two more years of economic misery and record unemployment as terms on the bailout start to bite. Attempts to agree a deal triggered financial chaos last month when parliament rejected a plan to make both insured and uninsured depositors pay a levy to fund the recapitalization of banks heavily exposed to debt-crippled Greece. It was followed by a two-week bank closure. The fallback option was to wind down one of the banks, Laiki, and impose losses of up to 60 percent on uninsured deposits - over 100,000 euros - in a second, Bank of Cyprus. About 300 demonstrators gathered outside parliament on Tuesday, calling politicians "thieves". One group brought along a fake gallows, which they said was for lawmakers. Communist AKEL, in government until it lost presidential elections in February, said Cyprus should seek alternative forms of funding, including possibly an exit from the euro currency. The island adopted the single currency in 2008. "We know leaving the euro is an equally painful option, but reinstating a national currency could offer prospects for growth in the future," AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said. AKEL had made the initial application for financial aid in June 2012. - Reuters |
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