Under The Radar News - Thursday

What credit crisis? Famed investor Warren Buffett (BRK.A) does not believe there is a credit crunch. Cash can be obtained cheaply, Buffett says. He predicts the dollar will continue to fall over the next decade if gov't policies don't change. Buffett called financial sector woes "poetic justice" for bankers who designed and sold overly complex investments.

Yahoo steps up talks with Google. Sources say Yahoo's (YHOO) talks with Google (GOOG) have intensified as the company looks at alternatives to Microsoft's (MSFT) $44.6B offer.

TechCrunch says Google (GOOG) or News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace are likely to announce a social-networking acquisition in the near future, Bebo being a likely target at a price tag of (gasp) $1-1.5 billion. More likely: Bebo's looking for a $1B valuation in a new round of financing, not to sell itself.

Apple cuts component orders again. A researcher says Apple (AAPL) has reduced supplier orders for its iPhones, iPods and MacBooks for the second time in two months, amid weak Q4 sell-through. Suppliers Broadcom (BRCM) and Marvell (MRVL) could feel the effects.

Money laundering probe puts UBS-India on hold. Indian regulators have put a banking license application by UBS (UBS) on hold in order to investigate an alleged $8B money laundering scheme.

Informatica gets defensive. Corporate actions over the last week indicate Informatica (INFA) is preparing to defend itself against a potential takeover bid amid sector consolidation.

Air travel to take off. Airbus says it expects global passenger traffic to grow 4.9%/year in the next 20 years -- almost tripling air travel over the next two decades. It predicts 24,300 passenger and freight aircraft worth $2.8T will be ordered between now and 2026. Self-serving optimism?

HP chooses AMD. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) will put AMD's (AMD) quad-core Opteron Barcelona processors in its Proliant DL585 servers.

Cookies, underwear, and a throat culture. Wal-Mart (WMT) will announce plans to open several hundred new clinics at its stores. The "Clinic at Wal-Mart" walk-in centers will be staffed by nurses. CVS (CVS) and Walgreens (WAG) currently host the most U.S. clinics, although the business model has yet to prove profitable.

Nokia fights to keep subsidy. Nokia (NOK) says it's "astonished" that a German state wants it to repay €41M ($60M) in subsidies given to a factory due to close, because it didn't employ as many people as Nokia pledged. Nokia says its €350M investment in the plant was more than agreed upon.

Software vendors listen up. Research firm Forrester says corporate IT departments are sick of the "complexity, soaring maintenance costs, and a lack of flexibility and alignment with business goals" associated with enterprise software licensing and pricing. Could the time be ripe for open source and SaaS vendors?

Facebook and Vodafone join forces. Vodafone (VOD) is the first vendor to launch Facebook for Mobile Operators, a platform that promises to take the edge off wireless social networking. Facebook didn't say when it would start to put ads on its mobile site. Microsoft (MSFT) is Facebook's exclusive ad supplier.

Circuit City's turnaround plans. Circuit City (CC) will open 50-60 smaller stores in 2008 called "City" with high-level staff that will mimic Apple Stores; says it doesn't think selling itself is in its best interest; and more than doubled its credit line to $1.3B.

Still looking for a bottom. Despite the markets' steady grind lower, Merrill Lynch's proprietary investor sentiment indicators say investors have not yet become risk-averse to the point where a market bottom can be declared.

HBC courting SocGen? Speculation that HSBC (HBC) may make a move for Société Générale (SCGLY.PK) is resurfacing. Merrill Lynch says the potential deal has a chance of winning French regulatory approval.

Searching for Chinese stocks. Interest in Chinese stocks surged in the second half of 2007. 38 of the 500 most heavily searched stocks on financial search engines were Chinese ADRs, while the number of Chinese ADR searchers grew by 245% in August and by 152% in September.

It's not what you know... While the potential merger of CME (CME) and Nymex (NMX) will likely attract regulator scrutiny, sources say the deal will likely be backed by major political allies. CME and NYMEX, based in Chicago and New York, would likely enjoy strong support from hometown presidential nominees Obama [IL] and Hillary Clinton [NY]. "CME is very well plugged into Washington. We saw that last time [on CME/CBOT]."

Barrick wants Rio's gold. Barrick (ABX) would also like to take a piece of Rio Tinto (RTP) as it fends off BHP Billiton's (BHP) $147B takeover attempt. Barrick is looking to buy Rio's stake in the Cortez gold mining operations in Nevada, in which it already owns 60%.

Shrinking bank dividends. More U.S. banks will reduce dividends in 2008 in order to shore up their reserves amid a growing number of soured loans. Tier-1 capital ratio, which measures banks' ability to cover losses, fell at almost all large banks in H2 2007.

Let them eat... bread? From Sara Lee's conference call: "We have been increasing pricing in fresh bread in order to keep pace with historically high wheat costs, and will continue further increases should wheat prices continue to escalate." At least someone's worried that wheat ticked above $10/bushel.

BofA/Countrywide - full steam ahead. The proposed merger between Bank of America (BAC) and Countrywide (CFC) is on track, U.S. banking regulator John Dugan said. The banks expect the deal to close in Q3.

Commercial properties to remain resilient. Goldman Sachs (GS) CFO David Viniar says commercial mortgage securities will hold up better than deflated residential assets, because the underlying assets are "pretty good quality." Viniar says he's not convinced residential real estate has hit bottom. Still, he says Goldman remains eager to snap up distressed mortgage assets at fire-sale prices.

TWX says web publishing strong. Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeffrey Bewkes on the company's earnings conference call: "We’re good at publishing. We’re the leader in the industry. It’s a good business we think and as it converts, as it expands out beyond print into digital, which a number of our leading franchises are doing, we think it can turn into a fairly strong growth business... it is growing now and we think it’s got real promise."

It's about time. A U.S. regulator says banks are reviewing their internal risk controls after a rogue trader almost put Societe Generale (SCGLY.PK) out of business.

Rumors go up in smoke. A rumored Altria (MO) acquisition of smokeless tobacco maker UST (UST) is unlikely. Sources say that despite a recent 8% in UST's share price, Altria in not in talks with the company.

Solid state drives still a niche item. Walt Mossberg says that, while intriguing, solid-state drives for notebooks are not yet ready to give hard-drives a run for their money.

Coming soon: A cellphone for every human. In 2000, only 12% of the global population had cellphones. In early 2008, penetration will reach 50% -- or about 3.3B subscriptions worldwide. Emerging economies boast the fastest growth rate.