Deutsche Boerse and SIX Swiss Exchange have announced that they are buying out Dow Jones’ one-third stake in Stoxx for a consideration of 206.1 million euros, or $306 million.

Stoxx was set up as a joint venture between Deutsche Boerse, Dow Jones and SIX Swiss Exchange in 1998 in anticipation of the introduction of the euro and the creation of the eurozone. Stoxx is Europe's leading index provider in the ETF market and Europe's No. 1 (world No. 2) provider in the derivatives market, according to the company’s Web site. A number of U.S.-listed ETFs are tied to the company’s indexes as well.

Following the transaction’s completion, which is due to take place early next year, Deutsche Boerse will have a controlling stake in Stoxx of 50 percent plus one share and will fully consolidate it for accounting purposes.

In addition, SIX and Deutsche Boerse will set up a new entity

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• Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) reported estimate-topping results of 84 cents a share, three cents above Zacks estimates of 81 cents, on revenues of $98.67 billion, slightly below estimates of $99.50 billion. Comparable sales eased 0.4% from last year. The firm raised fourth quarter and full-year guidance to a range of $1.08-$1.12 for the quarter and $3.57-$3.61 for the year

• Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) reported results of 63 cents a share, above Zacks estimates of 61 cents, on revenues of $4.1 billion, above Zacks projections of $4 billion

• Banking analyst Richard Bove strongly advised purchase of Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) shares, saying the firm's multiple should be twice current levels due to growth prospects

• Motorola (NYSE:MOT) is considering sale of its Home and Networks Mobility division as part of its turnaround plan. Analysts value the unit at $3-$5 billion

• Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) said it agreed to acquire 3Com (NASDAQ:COMS) for $7.90 per share,

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Strong Second-Quarter Results Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) reported better-than-expected second-quarter results with a steep rise in net earnings and growth in revenue. Net income, excluding non-recurring items of 6 cents per share increased 200% from the year-ago loss per share of 6 cents. Earnings also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 6 cents. Effective cost management and a lower tax rate have driven earnings growth. Due to the higher cost of sales, gross margin on a non-GAAP basis declined to 48% from 51% in the year-ago period. However, lower operating expenses in the quarter resulted in a better-than-expected operating margin, which improved to 2% from -3% in the year-ago period. The company continues to experience a rise in the top-line. Total non-GAAP net revenue, adjusted for deferred revenue of $359 million related to certain online-enabled packaged goods and digital content, increased ...

News Corp. (NWS) recently reported its first quarter results. Earnings of 22 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 17 cents and climbed 10% from 20 cents posted in the prior-year quarter.   Total revenues tumbled 4.1% year on year to $7,199 million due to fall in Television (down 7.7%), Direct Broadcast Satellite Television (down 4.3%), Newspapers and Information Services (down 17.7%), Book Publishing (down 1.6%) and Other (down 44.4%) segments, offset by rise in Filmed Entertainment (up 20.8%), Cable Network Programming (up 10.5%) and Integrated Marketing Services (up 3.1%) segments.   However, significant cost-cutting initiatives taken by management and robust performance at Filmed Entertainment and Cable Network Programming segments have boosted the operating income by 9.3% to $1,042 million. Management expects fiscal 2010 operating income to increase within a high-single digit to low double-digit percentage range.   Filmed Entertainment posted a record first quarter operating ...

• Kraft (NYSE:KFT) reported third quarter earnings of 55 cents a share on revenues of $9.8 billion, beating Zacks estimates of 48 cents, but slightly below revenue projections of $10.24 billion

• MedcoHealth Solutions (NYSE:MHS) reported third quarter earnings of 75 cents ex-items, 4 cents above Zacks estimates, on revenues of $14.80 billion, up from estimates of $14.71 billion

• Miller Tabek upgraded entertainment stocks such as CBS (NYSE:CBS), Entravision (NYSE:EVC), News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS), Viacom (NYSE:VIA.B), and Disney (NYSE:DIS) from "neutral" to "buy"

• Disney (NYSE:DIS) said China approved its plans for a $3.5 billion theme park in Shanghai, set to open in 2014 at the earliest

• Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) reported third quarter earnings of 61 cents a share, ahead of Zacks estimates of 52 cents.  Revenue of $7.14 billion was almost inline with Zacks estimates.  The firm said it sees full-year earnings of at least $2.05

• Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) reported third quarter earnings

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U.S. stocks wobbled Tuesday and ended the day mixed even as automakers reported improved auto sales and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway said it would buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.  Traders were reluctant to place big bets as they awaited the outcome of a two-day FOMC meeting which got underway Tuesday and Friday's monthly jobs report.  Although expectations are the Fed would keep interest rates in the 0-0.25% range, Wall Street has been speculating if there would be a change of tone in the policy statement. 

On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average closed down 17.53 points, or 0.18%, to 9,771.91.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index added 2.53 points, or 0.24%, to 1,045.41 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 8.12 points, or 0.40%, to 2,057.32.  On the NYSE, volume slowed to 1.38 billion shares.  

The news of a sale of 200 tons of gold to India sent

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As traditional print media continues its steep declines in advertising sales and circulation, publishers are struggling to come up with new and creative ways to generate revenue.

Ad revenues in the newspaper industry plunged 16.7% last year to $37.8 million r, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). The 2009 take is estimated to fall another 17.3% to $31.6 billion according to Alan Mutter, a Silicon Valley executive who once lead the newsrooms of the Chicago Sun-Times and San Francisco Chronicle and now writes a blog titled “Reflections of a Newsosaur.”

Mutter’s estimate would put ad revenues at their lowest levels since 1965, when the industry took in $4.42 billion, or $30.22 billion when adjusted for inflation, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported.

While the worst economic downturn since World War II has eviscerated the fortunes of print media companies like The New York Times Co. (NYSE:

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Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) last Thursday charmed investors when it revealed its Cliq smartphone, which will compete head on with Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry.

Motorola’s stock is up nearly 12% since the announcement, as investors are hoping the new phone will be enough to win back some of the company’s lost market share.

However, saving Motorola’s mobile division – which the company plans to spin off – is a daunting task. The company – which invented the cell phone, as well as a plethora of other communication devices used by police and military – has seen its global market share of wireless phones fall to 2% in its second quarter this year from 31% in 1995. Mobile phone sales accounted for 33% of Motorola’s second-quarter revenue, down from 41% a year ago.

Motorola

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Disney’s Spidey Sense is Tingling

by Louise Harris, Investment U Research Team

The entertainment world is changing, and companies in the business know that all too well… hence the reason why The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) just announced its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL)

Comic book fans might hate the move, but in order to survive in today’s climate, Disney has to look outside the box office to the whole entertainment package.

Gone are the days when movies made all their money at the box office. And with DVD sales shrinking, Hollywood has no choice but to bring in more revenue by delving into toys, videogames, clothing, rides, digital copies of movies and Internet streaming.

Naturally, Disney hopes to milk the merger for all its worth, exploiting Marvel’s 5,000 characters across the entire spectrum over the

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As an investor I've always been interested in, Prince Alwaleed carries an interesting story. His Citigroup investment has been well documented, first as a wild success, and then, well we all know what happened to Citigroup in 2008. I read his biography and reviewed it awhile back (a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-alwaleed-by-riz-khan.html"Click here to read review and purchase book/a).br /br /Today, I found a a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087amp;sid=aGiKNISJrIkc"piece from Bloomberg /agiving us an update on how he has survived the recession. So far, it looks like he's done well:br /br /br /blockquotepAug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup Inc.’s largestbr /individual investor, was ranked the richest Saudi national by Arabian Business,br /even after losing 4.6 percent of his personal wealth in the past year.br /br /Alwaleed’s assets are valued at $16.3 billion, compared with $17.1 billionbr /last year, the Dubai-based magazine said today in its 2009 Saudi Rich List,br /citing the accounts of ...