The News Review:
- Google’s wireless-auction loss called possible win
- Failed bank’s staff auction memorabilia
- Municipal borrowers flee auction securities market
Google’s wireless-auction loss called possible win
ZDNet – Mar 22, 2008
Wall Street analysts said the Silicon Valley Internet search and advertising giant has succeeded in forcing open-network requirements upon winning bidder Verizon Communications via Google’s apparent strategy of “bidding to lose. Verizon will control the open network but will be required to allow devices and applications from other companies to use it. “Google was never in this game to actually build out a telecom network. Their key goal was to open up closed networks,” Cowen analyst Jim Friedland said of the control that carriers hold over handsets and services on their networks.
Failed bank’s staff auction memorabilia
NEWS.com.au – Mar 22, 2008
–> Failed bank’s staff auction memorabilia From correspondets in Washington March 22, 2008 08:27pm Article from: Agence France-Presse Font size: + - Send this article: Print. Bear Stearns workers have put a range of mementos up for sale online at eBay in recent days following the rapid demise of one of America’s largest investment banks which fell victim to a credit crunch sweeping the financial markets. "Be the first to get your paws on classic Bear Stearns memorabilia," touts the description for one of several stuffed toy bears on sale at a bargain $US5.
Municipal borrowers flee auction securities market
Seattle Times – Mar 22, 2008
Cooke Bloomberg News Related. The amount is more than what was sold in any one year before 2002, the data show. About 69 percent of auctions in a market that also includes debt of student lenders and closed-end mutual funds failed to attract enough buyers this week, resulting in interest rates as high as 14 percent. Rates are determined through a bidding process managed by banks typically every seven, 28 or 35 days. Borrowers are converting to fixed-rate bonds and other forms of variable-rate securities, after investors pulled back from debt backed by downgraded insurers and dealers stopped acting as buyers of last resort.