The world of monoclonal antibodies and genetic testing may seem far removed from the realm of mortgage-backed securities and the other bogeymen of the current credit crisis, but the biotech industry is still feeling the fear. Despite an increasing number of profitable biotech companies, like …
Archive for July, 2008
Venture capital and biotech: Who’s going to fund the next big breakthrough?
by Kristi Park, July 31, 2008, 5:54 amHot potato: Merrill Lynch moves CDOs from one hand to the other
by Patrice Sarath, July 30, 2008, 8:43 amBanks are desperate to move CDOs, those dangerous collateralized debt obligations that are backed by subprime mortgages, off their books. The problem is, who is brave, or stupid, enough to buy them?
In Merrill Lynch ‘s case, that …
The corn conundrum: Which should come first, the chicken or the Chevy?
by Barbara Murray, July 30, 2008, 6:00 amNative North Americans believed in the Corn Mother (the first woman to bear offspring, a kind of Eve). After the white man took over and tamed North America, corn became the Midwest’s gift …
Can you say “truce”? Icahn and I will
by Jeff Dorsch, July 29, 2008, 7:00 amFriday’s annual meeting of Yahoo! shareholders will be anticlimactic, thanks to a deal worked out last week between the company and activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns about 5% of Yahoo!’s shares.
Icahn called off his proxy challenge, striking a settlement agreement with Yahoo!’s …
Oil in the Arctic — The New Northwest Passage?
by Stuart Hampton, July 28, 2008, 7:00 amThe Arctic is “hot” again. No, really.
In previous centuries, the expeditions of James Cook, John Franklin, William Parry and others held out an (unfulfilled) commercial promise — an ice-free and relatively short sea route through the Arctic (the Northwest …
Wachovia’s woes grow
by Ryan Caione, July 24, 2008, 7:00 amThe drumbeat of bad news continues for Wachovia, the fourth largest bank in the US. New CEO Bob Steel, the former undersecretary of the US Treasury who joined the company two …
Will Genentech take the Roche bait?
by Anne Law, July 23, 2008, 7:00 amThere’s a lot of speculation circulating about whether leading biotechnology firm Genentech will accept pharmaceutical giant Roche’s $43.7 billion takeover bid, the largest pharma/biotech merger price tag in several years.
The offer …
Short selling rule change — too little, too late, and too ineffective
by Patrice Sarath, July 22, 2008, 7:00 amWe have this idea that the US economy is based on the free market system. The SEC’s new rule against naked short selling for certain companies and entities sure puts paid to that belief.
In short sales, an investor borrows shares of a company, …
