Google completes deal for ad firm AdMob Google Inc. has completed its $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob and will start buying back some of its stock as a result. The company officially took control of AdMob on Thursday. The purchase closed less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal following a six-month investigation into whether Google would gain too much control over mobile ads. The agency concluded that Apple's recent expansion into mobile ads will ensure ample competition.
30-year fixed mortgage rates decline again Mortgage rates have fallen to the lowest level of the year as investors poured money into the safe haven of U.S. government securities. The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage dipped to 4.78 percent this week from 4.84 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said. It was the lowest level since early December, when rates fell to a record low of 4.71 percent. The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell this week to 4.21 percent-- the lowest level in nearly two decades.
Unemployment up, prices down in Japan Japan got a triple dose of sobering economic news as unemployment rose for the third straight month in April, prices kept sliding and household spending fell. The country's jobless rate climbed to 5.1 percent, its highest level since January. Meanwhile, deflation worsened in April as consumer prices continued to decline. Japan's core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food, fell 1.5 percent from the previous year. Household spending slipped 0.7 percent in April from a year earlier as families spent less on clothing, recreation and food.
Lower Roundup prices to cut Monsanto profit Monsanto Co. has been forced to cut prices on its Roundup weedkiller due to intensifying competition from generics, and company shares slumped to a three-year low on more modest profit expectations. Monsanto said that lowering its prices will cut earnings per share by 50 to 70 cents this year, sending shares down 8 percent. Annual earnings are now projected to be between $2.15 and $2.41. Earnings for the third quarter are expected to range between 65 and 72 cents a share.
Pequot Capital, chairman pay to settle charges Investment firm Pequot Capital Management Inc. and its founder and chairman, Arthur Samberg, have agreed to pay a total of $28 million to settle regulators' charges of insider trading in Microsoft shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement with Pequot, whose core hedge fund was liquidated last year, and with Samberg, a well-known money manager and philanthropist. They neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in settling the SEC's civil lawsuit.
Adviser to the stars is charged in fraud case Kenneth Ira Starr, a New York investment adviser whose clients have included actors Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, was charged with stealing clients' money to buy luxury items including a $7 million apartment. Starr was arrested by federal prosecutors in New York and accused of fraud, money laundering and lying to a federal officer as part of a $30 million fraud. Also charged was Andrew Stein, the former borough president in Manhattan, who is accused of aiding Starr in the fraud.
Newspaper ad revenue down 10% for quarter Advertising revenue at U.S. newspapers fell 10 percent in the first quarter from the year before, the smallest such drop since the recession began in late 2007. Newspaper ads brought in $6 billion in the January-March period, down from $6.6 billion last year, according to numbers released by the Newspaper Association of America. With the latest erosion, the newspaper industry is now subsisting on 46 percent less ad revenue than just four years ago. Newspaper ad revenue totaled $11.1 billion in the first quarter of 2006.
FROM NEWS SERVICES
