Since 2004, 12 real estate investment trusts, or REIT’s, representing all commercial property sectors – office, industrial, retail, hotels and apartments – have been acquired by private companies, and two other buyout offers are pending, both involving the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm in New York. Real estate specialists say more REIT’s can be […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

The compensation adviser behind an estimated $135 million payout to the chief executive of North Fork Bancorporation has also received fees for other services from the bank in recent years, according to regulatory filings. The other business dealings that the adviser, Mercer Human Resources Consulting, has had with North Fork raise questions among corporate governance […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

Europe’s largest independent oil company, Cairn Energy, said it will float up to 80 percent of its business on the Mumbai stock exchange and return the proceeds to shareholders. The announcement came after India’s state-controlled Oil & Natural Gas Corporation said it may buy Cairn’s assets in the Indian state of Rajasthan earlier this month. […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

Andrx must be reading the same investor relations manual as Google. Andrx’s proposed acquirer, Watson Pharmaceuticals, said early Wednesday that Andrx “inadvertently disclosed” its preliminary estimate of the synergies that would be created after the two drugmakers complete their $1.9 billion deal. The gaffe comes barely a week after Google, the closely watched Internet search […] Read more..

By DEALBOOK - The New York Times

Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts is leading a group that has reportedly made an offer of as much as $13 billion to buy a majority stake in the financing arm of General Motors. A report in The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said KKR, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch, General Electric and the Bank of Nova Scotia […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

Short sellers have been the bane of Patrick Byrne, the outspoken CEO of online discounter Overstock.com. Now, with his company’s stock notching huge but mysterious gains this week, he is enjoying a bit of revenge as bearish investors run for cover. At a loss for another explanation, some analysts said that Overstock’s gains — it […] Read more..

By DEALBOOK - The New York Times

First-time visitors to Wall Street often stand in front of No. 23, the once-fabled House of Morgan, and stare up at the tall, cramped columns of the New York Stock Exchange across the way, or down the six blocks to the East River, turning over in their minds the vastness of the fortunes made and […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest radio station owner, said on Tuesday that the Justice Department had closed two antitrust investigations into its broadcast and concert business without taking action. The Justice Department examined whether Clear Channel violated antitrust laws in one radio market and whether it illegally pressured artists to use its promotion service […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

The Labor Department is investigating whether Northwest Airlines systematically shortchanged its employee pension fund over three years, then avoided having to make a $65 million payment to the fund by filing for bankruptcy protection just one day before the payment was due. Go to Article from The New York Times » Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times

Wal-Mart, again and again, over the last few years, has tried to open a bank. And based on everything we know about the company, a Wal-Mart bank would almost certainly make life difficult for the Citigroups of the world and bring down A.T.M. fees. But the answer from lawmakers has been the same every time: […] Read more..

By WRITER - The New York Times