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Tag: Lockheed Martin
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Questions about Countrywide-Bank of America deal
Countrywide Financial reported Friday that its mortgage foreclosure rate doubled last month compared to a year ago.
That prompted the Charlotte Business Journal to ask Bank of America if it was going forward with its roughly $4 billion stock deal to acquire Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender.
Yes, responded a spokesman for Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte. “We conducted extensive due diligence,” he told the Business Journal. (Story continues below interactive map.)
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.That wasn’t the only question about the deal.
In its story about Countrywide’s increased foreclosure rate, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bank of America’s takeover still has several hurdles. The Journal said SRM Global Master Fund LP plans to vote against the deal because it undervalues Countrywide.
SRM, a hedge fund, holds 5.5 percent of Countrywide, founded by CEO Angelo Mozilo in 1969.
Read related stories: Business · Mortgage · Subprime
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Blackstone’s Peterson starts doling out a fortune
The Nuclear Threat Initiative may soon receive a big boost from the deep-pocketed Peter Peterson.
Peterson today announced the establishment of a foundation whose aims include stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons. (Story continues below interactive map.)
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.
Peterson reaped $1.8 billion through the IPO of Blackstone Group, which he chairs. After a career that included a stint as commerce secretary under Richard Nixon, he is now ready to start giving away the bulk of his fortune.He has committed $1 billion to the foundation, which will be headed David Walker, who is currently U.S. comptroller general.
Peterson is a former chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which was founded by two Georgians – former Sen. Sam Nunn and CNN founder Ted Turner, who is a major contributor to the group.
The organization’s aim is to strengthen global security by preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Its board is made up of high-profile figures from the U.S. and abroad, including former defense secretary William Perry, Sen. Richard Lugar and Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Warren Buffett is an adviser.
The group has raised awareness about the issue through projects such as a film called Last Best Chance, which described how terrorists might buy or steal the materials to make a nuclear bomb, assemble it and smuggle it into the U.S. The movie featured Fred Thompson playing a sage and somber president, described by the New Yorker in 2005 as “the one jarringly unrealistic note in the picture.”
Last month, the Google Foundation announced a $2.5 million grant to the initiative, for a program addressing infectious disease in southeast Asia.
Prior grants to the organization include $7 million from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, $3.2 million from the Better World Fund and $750,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Read related stories: News · Philanthropy
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Jon Stewart’s teleprompter is working again
After 100 days without writers, TV shows began to return to normal yesterday after most of the striking writers voted to return to work.
Writers for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show were back to work on Wednesday morning, making Jon Stewart one of the first late-night hosts to return to his pre-strike glory.
Before cameras rolled in the Manhattan studio, Stewart seemed pretty pumped up. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” blared, and he mouthed lyrics and drummed along on his desk while looking over his first script in more than three months. (Story continues below interactive map.)
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.Stewart began his newscast musing, “Words in the prompter, script on my desk, vending machine upstairs out of Funyuns … The writers are back!” After a celebratory dance, and loud cheers from his studio audience, he announced, “It is no longer ‘A Daily Show’ It is once again, The Daily Show! We’re back, baby!”
The Associated Press reports that ratings for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report haven’t actually been hurt by the strike. The Daily Show has had around the same number of viewers this January as in 2007 (1.6 million), and The Colbert Report viewers have gone up 6 percent from last year.
It’s possible that Stewart and Stephen Colbert can pull off their own jokes without relying as heavily on their writers.
At yesterday’s Daily Show, Stewart and Colbert riffed for a while via telecast before settling in to tape the segment the writers had prepared for them, which joked about a coffee-getters union strike. The joke was a little forced in comparison with the hosts’ off-the-cuff banter.
After The Daily Show wrapped for Wednesday, the studio audience got to watch Stewart tape the introduction for The Daily Show: Global Edition, which is filmed once a week. This time, Stewart’s opening joke was improvised, inspired by a question an audience member asked him before the show began.
Is it possible that Stewart’s better without a script?
Read related stories: Entertainment · Television
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