Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Launches, Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Citigroup Inc. (C), Boeing Co (BA), Merck and Co (MRK), Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA)
Before the bell: Futures blended as Wall Street awaits Paulson’s plan
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)’s Vikram Pandit was brought in to make changes at the struggling bank, and that’s exactly what he’s doing (or at least trying). After much management changes the past weeks, today the financial services company unveiled a restructuring plan that includes setting up an independent credit-card unit and overhauling consumer banking along geographical, rather than product, lines.
Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) stock is dropping nearly 17% and Merck (NYSE: MRK) is dropping over 10% in premarket trading after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that physicians should cut their use of cholesterol drugs Vytorin — a combination of Merck’s Zocor and SGP’s Zetia — and Zetia.
Teva Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: TEVA) is buying Bentley Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: BNT) for $360 million in cash, or $15.02 a share, in a move to expand operations in Spain. Bentley’s drug delivery business will be spun off to shareholders prior to the Teva transaction. The buy price represents a 9% premium to Bentley’s closing stock price Friday of $13.74.
General Electric Co (NYSE: GE) is apparently in talks with Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) to buy 40 to 50 of its 737-800 jetliners to meet demand from airlines upgrading their fleets, for a total deal value — at list price — of $3.53 billion. Also, the Bell Boeing Program Office announced the US Department of Defense has awarded a $10.4 billion, five year Multi-Year Procurement contract to deliver 167 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft of which 26 CV-22 aircraft will be for the Air Force Special Operations Command and 141 MV-22 aircraft for the US Marine Corps. Bell Boeing is a strategic alliance between Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company and Boeing. The contract includes an option for additional aircraft.
Will Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) sell 45 million iPhones by 2009? That’s what Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thought back when the iPhone was first introduced and that’s what he’s thinking today. He explained his reasoning in a note this day, saying that Apple will achieve this by introducing a 3G iPhone within the next 3 to 6 months, offering a family of 2 to 3 iPhones by Jan 2009 at the latest, entering new countries and adding new features. Munster supports his argument further here.
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced the launch of Yahoo! Shine. According to the press release, Shine is “a new website for women that aims to provide the information most relevant to their daily lives, ‘ with nine categories ranging from Fashion & Beauty to Parenting. Also, Yahoo! has a new editorial team in place to develop original stories on a daily basis. We’ve mentioned before how Yahoo! may be looking to expand its content and this is perhaps a first step to try to do it on its own before it embarks on any alliances with other companies.
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