WSF Headline Roundup - 12/30/08 - BlackRock alters voting rights; GMAC gets $6B TARP access; Deutsche Bank nixes mgt bonuses; Warren Buffett's $224M winning Fla bet; Atlantic city bleeding; Debt funded stock buybacks causing pain

• BlackRock in voting rights shake-up
• GMAC Gets $6 Billion From Treasury to Revive Lending
• Ackermann Says Deutsche Bank Shares Blame for Financial Crisis
• Florida's Forecast: $224M Buffett Win
• IMF argues for large stimulus packages
• Pound Drops Against Euro on View BOE to Cut Rates More Than ECB
• Dow Chemical Takes Hit as Kuwait Deal Derails
• Kirk Kerkorian Completes October Plan to Exit Stake in Ford
• Atlantic City Bleeds as Would-Be Gamblers Pay Bills Instead
• Macy’s, Gannett Face Debt Hangover From Buybacks in Good Times
• Feds want lawmakers to hear 4 Blagojevich wiretaps
• Customers give Amazon.com, Netflix top ratings

BlackRock in voting rights shake-up - Financial Times

BlackRock is altering the distribution of voting rights among its largest shareholders in a complicated arrangement that involves exchanges of common and preferred shares.

As a result of the adjustment, Merrill Lynch will still retain its 49.5 per cent stake in BlackRock but its voting rights will be slashed to 4.9 per cent. At the same time, PNC Financial Services will exercise 47 per cent of the voting rights, while retaining 33 per cent of the ownership.

The adjustment in the voting rights comes as a result of BlackRock’s right to reduce Merrill’s voting stake in the event of a change of control, a right that BlackRock demanded after its relationship with Merrill was extended for five years in July.....

GMAC Gets $6 Billion From Treasury to Revive Lending - Bloomberg

The U.S. Treasury committed $6 billion to support GMAC LLC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp., widening the government’s effort to keep the largest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy. 

The Treasury will purchase a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lend $1 billion to GM so the automaker can contribute to the lender’s reorganization as a bank holding company, according to a statement issued yesterday. The loan is in addition to $13.4 billion the Treasury agreed earlier this month to lend to GM and Chrysler LLC. 

The fresh capital will enable GMAC to expand lending to car buyers and help save GM. The automaker’s U.S. sales plunged 22 percent this year through November after GMAC ran short on cash and limited loans to people with only the best credit. The Treasury stepped in after Congress failed to pass an auto- industry bailout earlier this month....

Ackermann Says Deutsche Bank Shares Blame for Financial Crisis - Bloomberg

Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said Germany’s largest bank shares responsibility for the financial crisis and therefore eliminated bonuses for management. 

The suspension of bonuses was “a sign that we acknowledge our share of the blame and help ensure that this disaster doesn’t happen again,” Ackermann said in an interview with Germany’s ARD television late yesterday. “We all made mistakes, which we’ve candidly admitted.” 

Deutsche Bank said in October that management board members and executives including investment banking co-heads Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs will forgo their 2008 bonuses. Ackermann, 60, said he “absolutely” underestimated the severity of the financial crisis, which was exacerbated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September.....

Florida's Forecast: $224M Buffett Win - NY Post

Barring the unthinkable, billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will win a year-end $224 million bet with Florida after the state sidestepped major damage from hurricanes this year. 

The weather forecast for Florida for tomorrow and the next day: partly cloudy with highs in the mid-70s, with little chance of rain. 

The option agreement that would have compelled Buffett to buy $4 billion of bonds to finance storm recovery expires on Wednesday....

IMF argues for large stimulus packages - Financial Times

Across-the-board tax cuts or bail-outs of troubled industries such as the automotive sector are likely to waste government money while doing little to stimulate the global economy, the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday.

As governments around the world bring in tax cuts and boost spending to combat the global recession, a study by the IMF said such programmes must be large but carefully designed.

“There is a strong case for doing too much rather than too little,” said Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s chief economist. But, he added, tax cuts should be aimed at people likely to spend money rather than save it....

Pound Drops Against Euro on View BOE to Cut Rates More Than ECB - Bloomberg

The pound fell against the euro for a seventh day, edging closer to parity with the common currency, on expectations the Bank of England will cut interest rates faster than the European Central Bank. 

The pound also slipped versus the Swiss franc and Norwegian krone. The U.K. central bank lowered its main rate 3.5 percentage points this year to minimize the fallout from the global financial crisis. The ECB will end 2008 with its key rate 150 basis points lower than at the start, while policy makers have indicated they are reluctant to lower the rate further. 

“Sterling is out of favor,” said Neil Mellor, a currency strategist in London at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., a custodian of $23 trillion of financial assets. “It’s declining on the basis of interest-rate differentials. Everyone expects rates to head towards zero.”....

Dow Chemical Takes Hit as Kuwait Deal Derails - Wall Street Journal

Dow Chemical Co. took hits to its credit rating and its stock price as the cancellation of a Kuwaiti joint venture sparked concerns about the company's debt load.

The Kuwaiti venture would have given Dow cash to help acquire specialty-chemical maker Rohm & Haas Co., which is a big part of Dow's effort to overhaul operations and increase profit. Dow shares fell $3.60, or 19%, to $15.32, and Rohm & Haas shares tumbled $10.22, or 16%, to $53.34 in 4 p.m. composite trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The $15.3 billion Rohm & Haas acquisition wasn't contingent on the Kuwaiti joint venture going through, but Dow had earmarked about $9 billion from the venture, known as K-Dow, to finance the takeover. Dow had secured a $13 billion bridge loan and $4 billion in other financing to fund the acquisition....

Kirk Kerkorian Completes October Plan to Exit Stake in Ford - Bloomberg

Kirk Kerkorian completed selling all his Ford Motor Co. shares, a plan announced in October when the billionaire investor said he would focus his investments on energy, gambling and hotels. 

Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. no longer owns Ford shares, Tracinda spokeswoman Winnie Lerner said in an interview today, without disclosing when the last shares were sold. 

Kerkorian, 91, said Oct. 21 he had started selling the shares and most recently reported holdings on Oct. 28, when he said his stake had fallen below 5 percent. With a stake that small, he wasn’t required to make regulatory filings as he sold additional stock.....

Atlantic City Bleeds as Would-Be Gamblers Pay Bills Instead - Bloomberg

....After 28 years of growth, Atlantic City’s gambling proceeds are down for the second time in a row. In the first 11 months of 2008, revenue from casino games fell 6.7 percent to $4.2 billion, regulators reported Dec. 10. Last year’s 5.7 percent decline was the first ever, as the number of visitors slipped to 33.3 million from 34.5 million. 

The slowdown comes as Governor Jon Corzine has warned that the state faces a revenue shortfall of $1.2 billion for the year ending June 30 and $5 billion in fiscal 2010. Through November, the state collected $338 million in Atlantic City tax revenue, down from $364 million and $384 million, respectively, in the first 11 months of 2007 and 2006. Casino employment fell to 39,137 in November from more than 42,000 as recently as August and a peak of 51,560 in July 1997.....

Macy’s, Gannett Face Debt Hangover From Buybacks in Good Times - Bloomberg

Macy’s Inc., Gannett Co. and New York Times Co.’s attempts to prop up their stocks with debt- funded buybacks have left them saddled with higher borrowing costs as they work to pay off loans. 

Standard & Poor’s 500 companies have spent $1.73 trillion on buybacks through September since the fourth quarter of 2004, according to the ratings company. With the U.S. in a recession, the companies face the threat of additional credit-rating downgrades after being punished for the earlier borrowing. 

“You had debt-financed share buybacks at a time when the market was good, their businesses were good,” said Edward Henderson, a senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service in New York. “Then it turned real quickly.”...

Feds want lawmakers to hear 4 Blagojevich wiretaps - AP

Federal prosecutors are asking a court to allow lawmakers investigating Gov. Rod Blagojevich to hear tapes of four potentially incriminating phone calls the governor had with a lobbyist.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed a motion Monday seeking court permission to give a House impeachment committee the conversations secretly recorded by wiretaps.

Customers give Amazon.com, Netflix top ratings - San Francisco Chronicle

Amazon.com and Netflix shared the No. 1 ranking in customer satisfaction among the largest online retailers, according to an annual survey of holiday shoppers released Tuesday.

The report, by ForeSee Results and FGI Research, found that the two companies led by a relatively big margin, indicating that competitors have a lot of work to do to catch up. 

The survey looked at the 40 biggest e-commerce sites in terms of revenue and then ranked them according to customer satisfaction. Results were based on responses from 9,000 shoppers who had recently used the Web sites, but didn't necessarily buy anything......