Here’s a quick check-in with our friends over at the Legal Solutions blog to see what’s been going on in the legal world this past week: (more…)

Cory Booker says social media, something Ashton Kutcher pushed him to embrace, enables him to reach and listen to thousands of his constitutes, making governing collaborative. He connected with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg because the two believe the U.S. is “woefully falling short” when it comes to education.

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2012 was a year of change and turmoil within the business and political arenas – from the ongoing sagas of the Eurozone crisis and Libor scandal, to the first year in the life of the world’s newest nation, South Sudan. Discover some of Reuters outstanding investigative journalism and coverage of international events that made the news.

Chesapeake energy series

For years, not even the largest shareholders of Chesapeake Energy Corp knew its CEO’s secrets.  Aubrey K. McClendon, who had founded the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer and served as chairman and chief executive, had taken out more than $1 billion in personal loans in exchange for pledging his share of company wells.  What’s more, he had been quietly operating a$200 million hedge fund from inside Chesapeake headquarters. Both matters were exposed in an extensive series of Special Reports and scoops. As a result, Chesapeake board members stripped McClendon of his chairmanship, the IRS and Securities and Exchange Commission opened inquiries, and the price of Chesapeake stock tumbled.

Greek debt

Reuters has led the Greek debt story this year with a series of major scoops and special reports. Our reporting exposed a series of conflicts of interest, interconnected loans and payoffs that had not been disclosed to investors, highlighted by auditors or investigated by regulators. Our coverage has been spoken about in the Greek parliament and formed the basis of debates on Greek television.

Jihad Jane

In a gripping four-part serial narrative, Reuters reconstructed the making of the so-called new face of terrorism – Colleen LaRose, the blonde-haired, green-eyed, American-born woman who went by the nickname Jihad Jane. Based on our months-long review of confidential investigative documents and interviews with sources in Europe and the United States — including the first and only interview with Jihad Jane herself – our series of Special Reports revealed a far less menacing and, in some ways, more preposterous undertaking than what the U.S. government asserted. Indeed, at almost every turn LaRose and her accomplices bungled their plot to kill the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, Reuters found. (more…)

An Arizona man who claims behavioral health agency Horizon Human Services fired him to avoid paying health insurance bills for his ill infant son says the company has no grounds for its defamation suit against him.

In a suit filed in the Gila County Superior Court, Horizon says statements that Gary Austin made on his Facebook page and to the local press about his firing defamed the company and ruined its reputation.

(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Employment.) (more…)

Jeffrey Goldfarb and Breakingviews columnists discuss Facebook’s strides in mobile advertising and the $8 billion of market value created as a result.

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As Google Inc continues to compete with Facebook in the mobile social media space, photo editing has become more and more important.  In order to compete with Facebook’s Instagram, Google purchased Nik Software, which makes the photo editing application Snapseed.  If Google’s investment pays off, its top shareholders should reap benefits.

Check out other reports by Thomson Reuters Ownership Intelligence and follow @ownershipintel on Twitter.

Rob Cox and Breakingviews columnists discuss the Facebook CEO’s first public comments since its IPO.

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Aswath Damodaran was right about Facebook being vastly overvalued at its IPO price. Now the New York University finance professor says the stock price is still too high, though only by a bit. He breaks down Facebook’s valuation and adds that he still believes that the company could be a big success story.

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Richard Beales and Breakingviews columnists discuss Facebook’s share price plunge and why investors reacted differently to Amazon’s somewhat similar earnings report.

 

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The days of landing financing for a startup after drawing up a business plan on a napkin are done thanks to Facebook’s IPO debacle. But entrepreneurs and venture capitalists say a carefully crafted proposal will still reel in money and the goal remains an IPO. Just don’t expect a fat valuation.

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