At The Motley Fool, we know our readers like to be informed. We have scouted out today's most relevant news items and brought them to you all on one page. We hope you find this midday edition informative and useful.
Yahoo! ousts Bartz
In what seemed to be a surprising move, Yahoo!'s
Bartz's departure is a clear sign of how older Internet companies have been struggling to hold their audiences. Yahoo!, which was the No. 1 search engine in the early 1990s, has lost ground to Google
Bank of America gets a shakedown
The struggling Bank of America
Soured mortgages are draining the bank's fund, and a restructuring seemed to be needed. Other possibilities have been to spin off the Merrill Lynch division and put Countrywide, the most problematic division, into bankruptcy. The company has said these possibilities are highly unlikely. Read more at Dealbook.
Europe's biggest bank to cut jobs
Europe's biggest bank, HSBC
The first countries to be restructured are Hong Kong, the U.S., Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The bank has already cut nearly 5,000 jobs from its overall workforce and is expected to cut nearly 25,000 jobs by 2013 -- one-tenth of its worldwide workforce. Read more at Reuters.
One more release
Personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard
The company said the spin-off of its PC division could generate $41 billion but could take a whole year to complete. The remaining divisions would focus on developing new software including webOS, which the company gained after buying Palm. HP is also working on producing a final run of its TouchPad tablet after reducing the price to $99 for a 16GB model. Read more at Bloomberg.
German court OKs bailouts
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court approved the eurozone's 2010 bailout plans for Greece and subsequent aid proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The court also said future eurozone bailouts would need approval from the parliament's budget committee. This would be an easier hurdle to overcome.
U.S. markets reacted positively to the German decision with the market opening higher in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) gained 131.1 points or 1.18%, while the S&P 500 increased by 1.37% and the Nasdaq rose by 1.51%. Read more at The Wall Street Journaland Reuters.
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