Facebook's long-rumored initial public offering (IPO) of stock could be filed as soon as Wednesday if a new leak proves real. The share plans seen by the Wall Street Journal would most likely be underwritten by Morgan Stanley with help from Goldman Sachs. At $75 billion to $100 billion of expected value, it would be one of the most valuable IPOs to date.
While it's no secret that Yahoo is looking for buyers, the latest unofficial update has its long-time advisers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Allen & Co, readying to give out financial information to potential buyers. An unnamed source for Reuters said various types of companies have been making various creative offers for Yahoo and its various businesses. Just this past weekend, Alibaba's CEO said he was interested in buying all of Yahoo.
A pair of analyst reports on Monday created contradictory images of the supply Apple will have for the next iPad after its March 2 event. Goldman Sachs claimed based on Asian sources that the new, thinner screen was facing early yield issues. The bank's researchers understood that this was more a "process problem" inherent to starting up a new technique and that it would be cured soon.
Warner Music is consulting with Goldman Sachs to at once sell itself off and looking into a buyout of its rival EMI. Sources said on Thursday night that it had reacted to multiple buyers, including professional acquirer Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, making offers by having Goldman start a formal look into the process where it would sell all or just of the company, such as its Warner/Chappell publishing wing. The New York Times' contacts didn't say how close Warner might be to a deal.
Yahoo will work with Goldman Sachs to help it defend a takeover bid, unnamed sources said in a Bloomberg Thursday report. While no bids have yet been made, AOL has been rumored to be putting together an offer. Private equity firms, bankers and some Yahoo investors have also been trying to takeover Yahoo with the help of AOL of News Corp, the sources said.
Notebook suppliers in Taiwan said no to HP's requests to produce low-profit orders, a Tuesday report claimed today. A Goldman Sachs analyst said Compal, Quanta and Wistron had turned down production of 2011 models as the gross margins were too thin to be acceptable. Quanta would also reduce its investment in Chongqing in mainland China, Digitimes also confirmed.
BlackBerry adoption at work is dropping fast, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski warned on Tuesday. In a study tracking corporate plans for the next six months, plans to shrink their BlackBerry use grew from just four percent last October to 21 percent in August. Meanwhile, those who wanted to expand BlackBerry use dropped to 54 percent, down from 68 percent a year earlier.
Goldman Sachs has slashed its sales forecast for Google's Nexus One smartphone, following lackluster performance in the first few months of availability. The analysts initially expected sales of approximately 3.5 million units through the end of the year, however the figure has now been reduced to just 1 million handsets in the same time period.
Apple chief financial officer Tim Cook took shots at Microsoft's retail stores today in his presentation at Goldman-Sachs' Technology & Internet Conference. The executive indirectly accused Microsoft of being afraid to actually launch a real retail effort and said Apple's original plan in 2001 was a commitment to selling products to customers, not just a vehicle for an experience.
Apple is now much more committed to dedicated acquisitions thanks to a crucial hiring last year, a source claims tonight. The Mac maker is reported as having hired Goldman Sachs banker Adrian Perica as its first true mergers and acquisitions (M&A) employee to help find and negotiate buyouts of other companies. His influence is said by BusinessWeek to be directly responsible for a quick acquisition of Lala that took just weeks to complete rather than months.
Google and Cisco are among the top companies being considered to be entered into the Dow Jones industrial average index, bumping GM and Citigroup, whose shares have recently dipped below $2 and threatened their status as blue chip stocks, or sure things in the investment world, says a Monday report. They are not alone, however, as Apple, US Steel, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Aflac and Northern Trust are other candidates, as chosen by Reuters. Likewise, analysts believe Citigroup and GM are just the most likely companies to be replaced from the Dow index. Four other stocks listed on the Dow have fallen to below $10.
A weekend report reveals a Japanese newspaper and news agency are reporting electronics maker Panasonic may buy majority stake in Sanyo Electric before 2009. While the news is unofficial, Sanyo has made a statement saying it is considering options of selling its preferred stock shares but is yet to make a decision. Panasonic's press release, meanwhile, simply reads the company has not made such an announcement, but nothing was yet decided in regards to the rumored purchase, confirming the two companies are in talks.
