Investors bet on reformulated News Corp post-BSkyB

LOS ANGELES (AP) — increased News Corp. stock on Wednesday after the media company said it is dropping its $ 12 billion bid for British Sky Broadcasting. Investors returned their focus to the company's balance ballooning, with hopes that it will spread the ownership of all of its U.K. newspapers when the company is trying to contain damage from a phone-hacking scandal.

Shares rose 67 cents, or 4 percent, to $ 16.02 during afternoon trading after the company's Deputy chief operating officer, Chase Carey, is called by the bid. Carey said "it has become apparent that it is too difficult to make progress in this climate."

Claims that News World reporters hacked into mobile phone voice messages by celebrities, politicians and victims caused the Rupert Murdoch-controlled conglomerate-shutter 168 years old tabloid.

But that did not contain the crisis. On Monday referred to the British Government News Corp. bid for British Sky Broadcasting Britain's competition authorities, where it would have been bound for months. Former Prime minister Gordon Brown also accused other News Corp newspapers of criminal hacking. That threatens to envelop the Sun and The Sunday Times. The Sun has denied any wrongdoing.

Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson said in an analyst note as investors shifted their view back to News Corp. strong fundamental underpinnings, residing in its U.S. cable channels such as Fox News, its movie studio 20th Century Fox and United States broadcast network Fox.

Nathanson said he saw upward shares with a target price of $ 21. He said that it was time for the company to pull out of the U.K. newspaper business. All News Corp. newspapers, including the U.K. newspapers and The Wall Street Journal, represented less than 3% of its 1.06 billion dollars in operating profit in the last quarter.

"Perhaps this rebuke will force News Corp. to reconsider its ownership of U.K. newspapers," he said in the note. "We hope this is a turning point for the allocation of the company's strategy and asset ownership of very inconsistent newspaper assets has forced the abolition of a strategically important asset.

In March, had News Corp single 11.8 billion dollars in cash in preparation for the BSkyB deal. Objects the investors ' concern over what it would do with cash if the deal was delayed or called, the company decided Tuesday to increase the amount of shares it buys back from the market to 5 billion dollars over the next 12 months, from a planned 1.8 billion dollars.

Now that the deal is completely, seeking investors for more insight into new ways the company will spend their money.

"We see now, investors ' focus returned to the potential distribution of cash, as we see nearing 15 billion dollars," said Standard and poor's Equity Analyst Tuna Amobi, maintained his "buy" rating on the shares.

As far as BSkyB, in which News Corp still owns 39 percent of the shares, the shares closed 2 percent higher at 705 pence ($ 11.35), after trading around 680 pence after News Corp said it do their bidding.

In the immediate aftermath of the statement shares Tanked at a low of 665 pence, but the knee-jerk sell-off was short-lived.

Speculators hedge funds – which was open to budgetary outcomes from the prospect of a better News Corp offer – is pull out. At the same time, "said analyst new investors looking to buy up what has become relatively inexpensive material for a company that is highly profitable.

Murdoch drops bid for British Sky Broadcasting

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LONDON (AP) — Rupert Murdoch's dream of controlling a British broadcasting behemoth evaporated Wednesday as he withdrew his bid for BSkyB — the latest, biggest casualty of what Prime Minister David Cameron called the hacking "firestorm" sweeping through British politics, media and police.

Cameron appointed a senior judge to lead an inquiry into the phone hacking and police bribery scandal engulfing Murdoch's British newspapers, and promised it would investigate whether Murdoch's reporters sought the phone numbers of 9/11 victims in their quest for sensational scoops.

"There is a firestorm, if you like, that is engulfing parts of the media, parts of the police, and indeed our political system's ability to respond," Cameron said Wednesday in the House of Commons.

"What we must do in the coming days and weeks is think above all of the victims ... to make doubly sure that we get to the bottom of this and that we prosecute those who are responsible," he said.

As lawmakers from all the country's main parties united to demand that Murdoch's News Corp. withdraw its bid for British Sky Broadcasting, the media magnate bowed to the inevitable, accepting that he could not win government approval for the multibillion dollar takeover.

"It has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate," News Corp. deputy chairman and president Chase Carey said in a brief statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Shares in BSkyB fell 4 percent after the announcement, but rebounded as uncertainty about the company's immediate future was lifted and closed 2 percent higher.

Murdoch had hoped to gain control of the 61 percent of BSkyB shares that he doesn't already own. The takeover — potentially his biggest, most lucrative acquisition — appeared certain to succeed just over a week ago, despite concerns about the size of Murdoch's hefty share of the British media market.

But the deal unraveled with stunning speed after a rival newspaper reported that Murdoch's News of the World tabloid had hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into the 13-year-old's disappearance.

What had for several years been a trickle of allegations by people who claimed to have been hacked by the paper — from celebrities like Sienna Miller and Jude Law to politicians including former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott — became a torrent. Potential victims swelled to include other child murder victims, 2005 London bombing victims and the families of dead British soldiers.

News Corp. responded by killing off the 168-year-old weekly newspaper, which published its final issue on Sunday. Murdoch flew to London in a desperate scramble to keep the BSkyB bid alive.

But still the allegations mounted. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed his bank details and the medical records of his young son, who has cystic fibrosis, had been obtained by other Murdoch papers.

The Daily Mirror newspaper, a rival to Murdoch's The Sun tabloid, claimed that a reporter for a Murdoch paper may have sought the phone numbers of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Politicians from all parties, who for more than three decades have sought the approval of the Murdoch press, finally abandoned him.

"The terrible revelations of the last week have shaken us all," Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said in parliament Wednesday. "The events of the last seven days have opened all our eyes and given us the chance to say: It doesn't have to be like this."

Wednesday's debate centered on a motion declaring that Murdoch's bid for BSkyB would not be in the national interest. All three main parties had vowed to back the nonbinding motion.

The debate went ahead after Murdoch withdrew his bid, and the motion was approved without a formal vote, in a chorus of "ayes."

News Corp. lost several billion dollars in market value after the scandal broke last week, but its shares rallied after the company said Tuesday that it was buying back $5 billion of its own shares. Shares rose 71 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $16.06 in afternoon trading in New York.

For Murdoch, it was a dramatic reversal. For three decades, the Murdoch media empire has had near-mythic powers among British politicians to destroy careers and determine the result of elections. After the Conservatives triumphed in the 1992 election, the Sun blared in a front-page headline "It's the Sun wot won it" — and few doubted that it was true.

Steven Barnett, communications professor at the University of Westminster, said Murdoch's retreat signaled a new era in British political life.

"This means the British Parliament has discovered its spine," he said. "After 30 years of successive governments caving in to powerful media corporations, finally Parliament has realized it has to take a stand."

It was a bitter irony for Murdoch that it was the News of the World, his first British acquisition in 1969, that sabotaged his ambitions to control the nation's most profitable broadcaster.

Its ramifications for News Corp. and its executives — particularly Murdoch's son James, head of News Corp.'s European and Asian operations, and the chief of its British division, Rebekah Brooks — are still playing out.

The scandal claimed a senior casualty Wednesday as News International, the company's British unit, said its legal director, Tom Crone, had left the company. Crone led an internal inquiry that concluded only two people at News of the World had been involved in phone hacking — a stance that collapsed as numerous revelations tumbled out this year.

Cameron has struggled to control a spiraling scandal that includes his own former communications chief, Andy Coulson — an ex-News of the World editor — being arrested. The prime minister announced he was putting senior judge Brian Leveson in charge of an inquiry into phone hacking and alleged police bribery by the tabloid.

The inquiry will be able to compel witnesses — including government figures — to give evidence under oath.

Leveson will first investigate the culture, practices and ethics of the press, its relationship with police and the failure of the current system of self-regulation. The judge said the inquiry would begin "as soon as possible," but that its second phase, examining what went wrong at the News of the World, would have to wait until the criminal investigation is complete.

Police are pursuing two investigations of News International, one on phone hacking and the other on allegations that News of the World bribed police officers for information. Police have indicated the bribery investigations involve about half a dozen officers.

Detectives have arrested eight people so far in their hacking investigation, including Coulson. No one has been charged. Cameron said police had the names of more than 3,700 potential victims, and would be contacting them all.

The allegation that Murdoch papers may have targeted 9/11 victims comes from the Mirror, which quoted an anonymous source as saying an unidentified American investigator had rejected approaches from unidentified journalists who showed a particular interest in British victims of the terror attacks. It cited no evidence that any phone had actually been hacked.

In Washington, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, urged an investigation into whether News Corp. had violated U.S. law because of the British paper's activities.

If there was any phone hacking of Americans "the consequences will be severe," said Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

A report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, which is part of News Corp., said Murdoch met with advisers in recent weeks to discuss possible options, including the sale of his remaining British newspapers — The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times. The Journal, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation, said there didn't appear to be any buyers given the poor economics of the newspaper division.

A defiant mood was evident at The Sun, which slapped the headline "Brown Wrong" across its front page in response to the former prime minister's claims the paper had obtained confidential medical records of his 4-year-old son Fraser.

The newspaper insisted it learned of the boy's ailment from the father of another child with the same condition, and that it contacted the Browns, who consented to the story.

On Wednesday, Brown accused Murdoch's media empire of "lawbreaking often on an industrial scale."

Speaking in the House of Commons, he said victims saw "their private, innermost feelings and their private tears bought and sold by News International for commercial gain."

"News International descended from the gutter to the sewer," Brown said.

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Associated Press writers Bob Barr, Cassandra Vinograd and Gregory Katz in London contributed to this report.

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Jill Lawless can be reached at http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Ill. gov signs bill increasing coal gas plant

CHICAGO (AP) — wrote the Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn law Wednesday that could lead to the construction of a new facility in Chicago that converts coal to natural gas.

Quinn signed the legislation in a former steel mill site on Chicago's South side where the New York-based Leucadia national Corp. to build 3 billion dollar plant.

"This project protects Illinois consumers, while maintaining our position as a leader in clean energy technology by using home grown resources to create jobs today and tomorrow," Quinn said in a statement.

Quinn blocked earlier versions of the bill to avoid large price increases for consumers. The new legislation restricting natural gas bill is increasing at 2% per year.

Sierra Club were not satisfied with Quinn's decision to sign the law.

"Creating synthetic natural gas is a very dirty way to get our gas," Rebecca Clayborn, a representative of the Sierra Club Midwest clean energy campaign. "It is dirty, it is dangerous and it is not necessary."

Clayborn said the law will be charged to consumers with expensive natural gas for decades to come.

There are other obstacles before the new facility could open. Leucadia has still to be able to add impurities in the overcrowded industrial area in Chicago where we want to build. And the company need a buyer for CO2 emissions.

"We are engaged in close cooperation with local leaders and community members to make this project a tangible benefit to Chicago and the entire state of Illinois," says Tom Mara, vice Chairman of Leucadia in a statement.

Budget deficit on track to top $ 1 trillion

WASHINGTON (AP)--the federal budget deficit is on pace to break the $ 1 trillion Mark for the third straight year, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House and Congress to reach a deal to rein in spending.

The deficit amounted to 971 billion dollars for the first nine months of the year, "said the Finance Ministry Wednesday. Three years ago, who had been a record high for the entire fiscal year.

With three months left, will this year's deficit is likely to top last year's $ 1.29 trillion gap, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But it is expected to come during the record $ 1.49 trillion achieved by 2009. The financial year ending Sept. 30.

For June was deficit of 43 billion dollars, below the 68 billion dollar imbalance in June 2010. Much of the improvement from last year was due to a one-time reduction in the estimated cost of education loans.

But the Government is also opposed to more tax revenues this year, reducing the deficit lite. Revenue rose 9 percent, or 137 billion dollars, by June, the Treasury report said.

It is partly because more Americans have jobs. The economy has added a million jobs over the past nine months, but there are still almost 7 million fewer jobs than before the recession.

Government spending increased this year. Interest on public debt rose 9 percent to 386 billion dollars during the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period last year, one of the biggest increases in spending. Spending on Medicare and Social Security benefits, also increased. (Social Security is the public pension system U.S. and Medicare is the federal insurance program, health care for persons aged 65 and over).

Soaring deficits have kept up a vote to raise the country's $ 14.3 trillion borrowing limit. Republicans and President Barack Obama is to sit out a long-term plan to trim federal spending. Republicans have been demanding steep spending cuts in exchange for voting to increase the limit by borrowing. Obama and Democrats in Congress want tax increases are included in the deal, which the Republicans have to oppose.

The Government reached its limit for borrowing in may Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned that if the border is not taken up by Aug. 2, is used as the country default on its debt for the first time ever.

But negotiations between the White House and President Obama is still the two sides meet Wednesday for their fourth negotiating session in as many days. Obama has said the daily meetings will continue until an agreement has been reached.

A two-hour session Tuesday produced no progress. Which prompted the top Republican in the Senate proposing gives Obama sweeping new powers to increase the limit to avoid default.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a plan to allow the President to call for up to $ 2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority until the summer of next year in three separate pleadings. The increases would automatically apply unless both Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate adopted legislation over them.

Obama would veto such legislation gives him power to muscle through debts increased.

Republican plan would require the use of Obama in spending cuts, along with his borrowing requirements. But unlike increased borrowing limit, would not automatically enters into force.

The Government no later than a budget surplus in 2001, when income was 127 billion dollars larger than expenditure. The surpluses were expected to total $ 5.6 trillion over the next decade.

But the country was back in the red by 2002. Deficit deteriorated after President George w. Bush won approval for massive tax cuts and launched the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2008 reached Bush's last full year in office, deficit 454.8 billion dollars, a record at that time. And when the economy plunged into a deep recession, the annual imbalance topped $ 1 trillion.

Higher spending on unemployment insurance and food stamps and a sharp decline in tax revenues, increased the deficit. And it grew even more after Obama administration supported a 787 billion dollar programme to stimulate the economy.

The deficit also deteriorated after Obama and the congressional Republicans have agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years.

Capital a 2Q profit, plans $ 2B stock offers

NEW YORK (AP) — Capital one financial Corp. said Wednesday that its second quarter profit climbed 50 percent, as its credit cards improve payment habits and loan customers get the Bank to drastically reduce it had set aside to cover expenses for uncollected.

The company, best known for his strongly advertised credit card activities, also announced the inventory offers a 2 billion dollar. Funds will be used to pay for the Bank's planned 9 billion dollar acquisition of INGS banking unit, announced last month.

News of the offer pressured stocks in midday trade. A share capital slipped 72 cents to $ 51.52 in heavy trading, as the larger markets increase.

McLean, Virginia-based bank said net profit rose to 911 million dollars or $ 1.97 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared to 608 million dollars, or $ 1.33 per share, a year ago.

Analysts, on average, revenues are expected at $ 1.73 per share, according to data provided by FactSet.

Net interest income, the money was from deposits and loans, increased to 3.12 billion USD 3.1 billion dollars. That was helped by capital acquisition in April by Kohl's credit card portfolio.

The amount which the Bank wrote as uncollectible decreased in the quarter, the net kostnadsfritt-off reduction of 214 million dollars, 2.91% of balances on annualized basis, from 5.35 percent a year ago.

Improving turned capital a dropping 579 million dollars from the reserves had been set aside for future depreciation. Sterne Agee, said analyst Henry Coffey release adds approximately 81 cents to earnings per share for the period.

Total loans at the end of the quarter increased 4 percent to $ 4.9 billion, driven largely 3,7 billion dollars contributed to Kohl, along with growth in auto finance and commercial banks. Coffey noted that credit card balances have dropped during the quarter.

Non-ränteintäkter or money earned from fees and charges, climbed to 857 million dollars from 807 million dollars.

Capital a, which is known for his advertising campaign "what's in your wallet?" said marketing expenditure increased to 329 million dollars from 219 million dollars during the quarter.

The company said that stocks offer subject to forward sale agreement with Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley.

Capital one provides the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $ 300 million shares to cover any excess demand.

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AP Business writer Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this report.

Boehner: nobody wants standard, would be a crapshoot

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner says nobody wants to see the nation going into government standard that the White House and lawmakers scrambling to find a deal to avoid this.

Said Boehner: "nobody wants to go there, because nobody knows what will happen. It's a crapshoot. "

Government standard could rock the economy. The nation will go into default by Aug. 2 on debt ceiling is not raised.

In remarks to a small group of reporters said Boehner he has not been able to obtain commitments from the President and the White House on cutting large law programs.

He said that "treat them in the last two months have been dealing with Jell-o."

Miller Coors victims Minnesota shutdown

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Miller, Coors and other popular beers may disappear from the Minnesota shops and bars in the days since the brewing giant Miller Coors lack proper licenses due to State Government shutdown.

Miller Coors has 39 "brand tag registrations" with the State which expired last month, and the employees who process renewals were made redundant when the Government shut down July 1, in a budget dispute, Doug Neville, spokesman for the Department of public safety, said Wednesday.

State alcohol officials remain at work recently told officials with the Chicago-based Miller Coors LLC that they need to come up with a plan soon to draw its products, "he said.

"I think we're looking at days instead of weeks before any action needs to be taken, but I don't have an exact date," said Neville.

Miller Coors spokesman Julian Green said brewer still hope to resolve the dispute through discussion with State alcohol regulators, but does not rule out legal action.

"With 39 brands are at stake in one of our largest markets in the country, during one of the highest selling periods in the summer, we are not our business to ensure accurate state licenses," Green said. -Particularly when it affects the livelihoods of our distributors and retailers, and ultimately affect our customers that cannot buy our trademarks.

The trade marks concerned include not only Miller and Coors lines, but a long list of regional and craft beer Leinenkugel and Blue Moon and Pilsner Urquel imports and Molson.

The same problem can affect other brewers, wineries and distillers sometime, "said Neville. And there are hundreds of bars, restaurants and liquor shops over State run probably in a similar renewal requirements that begin leave them unable to replenish their supplies as the hottest part of the year approaches.

Minnesota requires that brewing, wineries and distillers take out brand tag registrations for products they sell in the State. They cost only $ 30 and are good for three years. Miller Coors ' registrations expired on 13 June.

Green said Miller Coors in its paperwork and check on time, on the 13th. Neville said the State did not receive them until June 15, two days after the publication of registrations expired.

If it was the 13th or 15th may not have underscored since the control was for $ 1,688,706, $ 210 overpayment, said Green. Delayed the process. The State received a second check for the correct amount on June 27, he said.

But at that time, Neville said, employees in the Department's alcohol enforcement division does not have the time to process renewals before they were made redundant. In addition to this, he said, the database in which they use to process the renewals were taken offline, along with some other systems as the Department's skeleton IT personnel can concentrate on keeping more critical system relied upon by law enforcement agencies.

Companies with closure disputes can go to the courts of the State, which has established a process for handling of pleas for help that is supervised by the Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen in and a designated special master, former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz.

That is what many retailers have already done. They are obliged to have 20 dollar "buying" card to buy liquor from wholesalers, and they must be renewed every year by the same laid-off employees who process trade mark registrations. Hundreds of them has expired or will soon. So did retailers before Blatz on Tuesday to ask for an order to recall some employees to process renewals. A decision is pending.

Green said Miller Coors wants to reach a solution through discussions of legal action.

"Now we are still selling beer in the State, but we hope we can bring this matter to a resolution because there are a number of Minnesota businesses are at stake. In this environment, we do not want to see these companies that negatively impacted. "

It is not about discussions could solve the problem, however. Neville said alcohol control officials determined they just were not able to look the other way and let the Miller Coors do business as usual.

"Our enforcement agents looked closely at the Charter and there is nothing there that allows us to make special arrangements with anyone," said Neville.

Neville, did not know which other producers besides Miller Coors, the country's no 2 brewer, is affected, but said the St. Louis, MO.-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the largest U.S. beer maker, is certainly at least until 1 October. "Our agents, I know, look at other brands," he said.

The potential loss of popular Miller Coors beer comes as another blow to the liquor store, restaurant and bar owners who thought things couldn't get any worse, "says Frank Ball, Executive Director of the Association Minnesota licensed beverage.

"It could be 102 ° this weekend," said ball. "We need cold beer."