Glencore offers $41B for full stake in XstrataGlencore International, the world's largest commodities trading company, said it has offered to pay about $41 billion for the 66 percent stake in the mining company Xstrata that it did not already own, in a long-anticipated deal that would create a mining giant with a market value of nearly $90 billion. By merging with Xstrata, Glencore would enhance its position in emerging markets like Africa, Kazakhstan and South America. The company, to be renamed Glencore Xstrata International, would be the fourth-largest diversified mining company in the world, with revenue of $209 billion and pretax profit of $16 billion, based on 2011 figures. On Tuesday, major investors in Xstrata balked at the acquisition, looking for Glencore to sweeten the offer.
Bernanke to Congress: Don't impede growthFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned a Senate panel that sharp spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect in early 2013 could slow the nation's economic recovery if federal officials do not take further action. Despite the recent upturn in the job market, Bernanke said while testifying before the Senate Budget Committee, "the pace of the recovery has been frustratingly slow." He cautioned lawmakers not to impede near-term growth in the name of cutting the long-term deficit. In his testimony, Bernanke repeated his modestly optimistic outlook for 2012, saying that Fed officials "expect somewhat stronger growth this year than in 2011."
Siemens seals 2 personalized medicine dealsSiemens, Europe's largest engineering company, is wading into the multibillion-dollar field of personalized medicine by announcing deals to develop companion tests with two drugmakers. The Munich-based company will work with HIV drugmaker ViiV Healthcare and Tocagen, a developer of an experimental brain tumor treatment, to create tests that will determine which patients will benefit from the therapies, said Trevor Hawkins, head of Siemens' next generation diagnostics division. Personalized medicine involves determining whether a patient is genetically susceptible to a particular disease or would be especially responsive to certain treatments.
College loans send more toward Chapter 11Student-loan debt is pushing an increasing number of young people and their parents toward bankruptcy, according to a survey released Tuesday. More than four-fifths of bankruptcy attorneys say they've seen a notable jump in the number of potential clients with student-loan debt in the past few years, with nearly half the lawyers reporting a significant increase in such cases, according to the survey by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. The average student-loan debt of graduating college seniors in 2010 was a record $25,250, up 5.2 percent from the $24,000 owed by the class of 2009, according to the Project on Student Debt in Oakland, Calif.
Magazine single-copy sales down nearly 10%Single-copy sales of the nation's consumer magazines took a hit in the second half of last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Publishers sold 28.9 million newsstand copies -- 9.96 percent less than in the same period in 2010. All three of the highest-volume publications slipped, with Cosmopolitan down 6.7 percent, Woman's World down 8.3 percent and People down 12 percent.
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