TOP NEWS
- Ukraine's parliament removes president
- Matteo Renzi takes over as Italy's PM
- Bloomberg: BlackBerry to get boost from Ford
- Bloomberg: Veolia could oust CEO
- MetLife to book loss up to $390M on unit sale
- G20 sets growth goal
- WhatsApp service restored after outage
- Stocks slip in step with existing home sales
Breaking News
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[Consumer, M&A] Comment!Sunday February 23, 4:25 AM ET
- Discovery Communications (DISCA) is in discussions with BSkyB (BSYBF) about a joint bid for the U.K.'s Channel 5, the FT reports.
- Channel 5 is being sold by British media businessman Richard Desmond, who bought the company for £104M in 2010 but hopes to receive £700M. Bids are due in on Thursday.
- BT (BT) and Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal are also considering making an offer.
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[Healthcare] Comment!Sunday February 23, 4:14 AM ET
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed cutting 2015 base payment rates for the Medicare Advantage program for senior citizens by 3.55%.
- The proposal is subject to negotiations, with a final decision due in April.
- "The final cut may be bigger, as the proposed rate doesn't take into account adjustments required by the Affordable Care Act," says Bloomberg Industries analyst Michael Manns.
- Last year, the government increased 2014 base payments by 3.3% after initially proposing a 2.2% fall, although actual payments are falling 6.7% due to a new Obamacare tax and sequestration.
- Health insurers: AET, HNT, HUM, UNH, WLP, MOH.
- ETFs: XLV, XHE, VHT, FXH, IHF, IHI, IYH, PTH, RYH, PSCH, RXL, RXD, XHS.
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[U.S. Economy, Global & FX, Top News] Comment!Sunday February 23, 4:02 AM ET
- The G20 has set a global growth target for the first time at a meeting in Sydney, with the aim being to lift the group's collective GDP by "more than 2% above the trajectory implied by current policies over the coming five years."
- The G-20 hopes to generate over $2T in extra growth and create tens of million of new jobs.
- Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, though, doesn't appear to be overly convinced by it all. "What growth rates can be achieved is a result of a very complicated process," Schaeuble said. "The results of this process cannot be guaranteed by politicians."
- The G-20 has no plans about how it will reach its target or what happens if it fails. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey hopes each country will have a plan for themselves by the time of the next G20 meeting in November.
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[Tech, Consumer] Comment!Sunday February 23, 3:50 AM ET
- Microsoft (MSFT) is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70% for manufacturers of low-cost computers and tablets so that they can better compete against Google's Chromebooks and other low-cost rivals, Bloomberg reports.
- For devices that retail for under $250, Windows will cost $15 instead of $50.
- Microsoft's action comes after it said earlier this month that it sold over 200M Windows 8 licenses since the product's launch in October 2012. That's a slower rate than for Windows 7.
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Comment!Sunday February 23, 3:41 AM ET
- Veolia Environnement (VE) CEO Antoine Frerot is facing a battle for survival, with Bloomberg reporting that the company's board could decide whether to keep or fire him at a meeting on Wednesday.
- David Azema, who runs the agency that manages state holdings in firms, has been approached about succeeding Frerot.
- Veolia's second-largest shareholder, Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault, wants to remove Frerot; Veolia's biggest stockholder is the French state.
- Frerot has already survived one challenge to his position, in February 2012.
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[Tech, Consumer] Comment!Sunday February 23, 3:06 AM ET
- WhatsApp went down for over three hours yesterday just days after it agreed to sell itself to Facebook (FB) for $19B.
- The service has been restored and appears to be working fine.
- Meanwhile, WhatsApp and other mobile-messaging services have cost phone carriers an estimated $32.5B in lost revenue from texting fees.
- WhatsApp's messages are sent via the Internet and are free once the application has been downloaded and a data plan has been paid for, while traditional text messages are sent via the cellular network.
- Separately, the WSJ profiles the role of former Google employee Neeraj Arora in WhatsApp's negotiations with Facebook. Arora is WhatsApp's one and only marketing manager, human-resources head, publicist, and business-development chief.
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[Consumer, M&A] Comment!Sunday February 23, 2:51 AM ET
- Private-equity firm Cerberus is the leading bidder for Safeway (SWY), Bloomberg reports, adding to a Reuters article that the two are close to a deal.
- The companies are still negotiating over price; Safeway's market cap is $9.09B.
- The grocery chain said last week that it's in discussions to sell itself.
- Other P-E firms are interested in buying Safeway in parts, although the company prefers to be sold in its entirety.
- Cerberus is willing to bid higher than other potential suitors, because it believes it can generate cost savings via a tie-up between Safeway and Albertsons, which the P-E company already owns.
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[Financials, Top News] Comment!Sunday February 23, 2:40 AM ET
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[Tech, Consumer, Top News] 8 CommentsSunday February 23, 2:34 AM ET
- Ford (F) is set to drop Microsoft (MSFT) Windows as the basis for the car-maker's next-generation Sync system and use BlackBerry's (BBRY) QNX instead, Bloomberg reports.
- The move follows technical difficulties, while QNX will also be faster, cheaper and more flexible.
- Sync, which is in over 7M vehicles that are on the road, allows drivers to make mobile-phone calls and play music using voice-activation.
- Getting Sync right appears to be rather important - surveys indicate that in-vehicle technology is the leading selling point for 39% of auto buyers,
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[Financials, Top News, Earnings] Comment!Sunday February 23, 2:20 AM ET
- HSBC (HSBC) is set to disclose that it will pay staff bonuses of just under $4B when it releases its full-year results this week, Sky News reports.
- The amount will represent a rise from $3.69B for 2012.
- FY underlying pre-tax profits at HSBC are forecast to have increased to $22.2B from $18.8B, Standard Chartered analysts have said.
- HSBC is also expected to disclose a significant impairment charge in connection with its Mexican operations.
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TOP ARTICLES6:08 AM ET SUNDAY FEB 23
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