Facebook’s Q1 results reassured Wall Street that the world’s largest social network was keeping up with consumers’ shift from PCs to smartphones. Today’s graphic looks at the share price performance for a variety of Web 2.0 companies (LinkedIn, Yelp, Pandora, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, & Friendfinder). Besides LinkedIn and Yelp, the other companies’ share prices have struggled significantly since their IPOs.

Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to gaze into the future of M&A, IPOs and bond activity? Well, global mergers and acquisitions started off 2013 with a burst of activity in technology, consumer staples and real estate – potentially signaling the next M&A cycle. At the same time, corporate bond activity continues to push higher, along with a resurgence of common stock offerings. Could a surging IPO market be far behind? And will private equity firms begin to put more capital to work?

For an insightful exploration of these questions, join some of today’s foremost financial commentators for a complimentary webcast on April 16th: Examining Q1 Trends in Worldwide Deal Making, including: (more…)

As 2012 comes to a close, deal makers around the world continue to contend with the lingering effects of the global financial crisis, a new regulatory landscape and a dynamic macro-economic environment. Diverging themes illustrate the deal making landscape this year as muted worldwide merger and acquisition and depressed IPO market activity drags on investment banking fees, contrasted with a record-breaking market for corporate bonds and a burst of cross-border and emerging markets activity.

Join us for our year-end 2012 webcast examining trends in worldwide deal making including: (more…)

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…)

Today’s graphic shows the stock performance of 4 notable cleantech IPOs (Tesla Motors, Enphase Energy, Solazyme and A123 Systems). What do you expect this graph to look like in a year from now?

Shares of Japan Airlines were nearly a tenth above their IPO price in unofficial trading today, ahead of the carrier’s public re-listing on Wednesday after its bankruptcy. Today’s graphic is a snapshot of some of the company’s key metrics.

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

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JAL’s IPO is expected to be floated at $8.5 bln which will make it the second largest listing globally this year. Today’s graphic shows the 10 largest IPOs globally in 2012 and all time in Japan.

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.

Watch more Decoder episodes.

Antony Currie and Breakingviews columnists discuss why lawsuit risks and low earnings make the online legal site’s valuation look ambitious.

 

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