Founder and chairman of Dell computers Michael Dell passes a screen projection before speaking at a news conference in Sydney August 14, 2006.

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:52pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc Chief Executive Michael Dell, aiming to clinch a $24.4 billion deal to take the No. 3 PC maker private, agreed to value his 16 percent stake in the company at about 2 percent below the price offered to other shareholders, company filings on Thursday showed.

The founder, who informed his board in August of his intention to remove the struggling company from Wall Street's scrutiny, agreed after extensive negotiations that his equity stake would be valued at $13.36 a share, versus the $13.65 offered eventually.

Negotiations with Silver Lake kicked off in October. Dell revealed that the private equity firm raised its proposed offer price at least once during ensuing discussions.

"To facilitate a price increase by Silver Lake, Mr. Dell and related persons agreed that their shares to be rolled over in the proposed transaction would be valued only at $13.36 per share as opposed to the $13.65 price offered to the company's unaffiliated stockholders," the filing read.

The proposed leveraged buyout, the largest private-equity backed deal since the financial crisis, is being led by Michael Dell and Silver Lake, and pits Dell's board against the company's top independent investors.

Top two shareholders, Southeastern Asset Management and T. Rowe Price, have been among the most vocal opponents of the deal, which they say severely undervalues the company, despite the challenges it faces in a shrinking PC market and intense competition in enterprise software and services.

The deal is up for a shareholder vote around June or July, the company said in Thursday's filing. It will need a majority of shareholders, excluding Michael Dell, to be approved.

Dell's board, which formed a special review committee of independent directors after the CEO informed them of his intentions, is now conducting a 45-day "go-shop" period, actively soliciting higher bids.

Analysts do not expect rival bidders to step forward.

WHERE'S DELL?

Dell reports fiscal fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, when analysts get their first chance to grill management on the buyout. But, in a potential disappointment for Wall Street, Michael Dell himself will not be present though he typically participates in post-earnings release calls.

The CEO recused himself from the discussion, given his leading role in the buyout, a company spokesman said.

Dell has lost 40 percent of its value since last year's peak, and is trying to reinvent itself as a seller of higher-margin services to corporations, an internal overhaul that would be conducted away from public scrutiny if the buyout goes forward.

The PC maker, whose profits fell 47 percent last quarter, is expected to report further erosion of both revenue and income next week.

Dell's revenue in the quarter is expected to slide almost 12 percent to $14.12 billion from $16.03 billion a year earlier, according to an average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company, once the world's top PC maker and a pioneer in computer supply chain management, is struggling to defend its market share against Asian rivals like Lenovo.

It was hurt also by a slide in holiday-season sales of personal computers for the first time in more than five years, despite the launch of Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft itself is providing $2 billion in financing for Dell's buyout.

Dell's worldwide PC shipments fell nearly 21 percent to 9.48 million in the last three months of 2012, from 11.97 million in the same period a year ago.

Shares of Dell were steady at about $13.79 at midday.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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Security guards and staff stand at the entrance of an Apple store during the release of iPhone 5 in Beijing's Wangfujing shopping district, December 14, 2012.

BOSTON | Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:23pm EST

BOSTON (Reuters) - Some of the biggest hedge funds that helped make Apple Inc a stock market darling lost faith and dumped their stakes in the fourth quarter, fueling the massive drop in the iPhone maker's share price.

Noted stock pickers including Leon Cooperman, Eric Mindich and Thomas Steyer unloaded billions of dollars of Apple shares between September 30 and December 31, according to disclosure documents filed on Thursday.

Shares of Apple rose to an all-time high of $705.07 on September 21 but ended 2012 down more than 24 percent from that peak as investors worried about increasing competition and declining profit margins.

The shares also may have dropped because their price rose too much, too fast.

"The stock just went up so much in early 2012 and then was coming back to earth," said Justin Walters, co-founder of Wall Street research firm Bespoke Investment Group. "Three months from now, we'll be seeing a lot of the people who sold starting to pick it up again."

The fourth-quarter sellers avoided even deeper losses. Apple's shares have lost 12 percent so far this year. The shares lost 42 cents, or 0.1 percent, to close at $466.59 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Cooperman's Omega Advisors fund dumped its entire stake of more than 266,000 shares during the fourth quarter, according to its required quarterly disclosure form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mindich, named the youngest partner ever at Goldman Sachs before starting his Eton Park Capital Management fund in 2004, got out of Apple entirely in the fourth quarter after making big sales in the third quarter as well. Eton owned 600,000 shares at the beginning of 2012.

Farallon Capital, the hedge fund founded by Steyer, sold 137,000 shares. Steyer, who once worked on the Goldman Sachs risk arbitrage desk under Robert Rubin, stepped down at the end of the year from the firm, which he founded in 1986. Rubin served as U.S. Treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999.

Jana Partners, an activist fund run by Barry Rosenstein, also unloaded its entire Apple stake of more than 143,000 shares. Other notable sellers included Third Point LLC, which had owned 710,000 shares, Viking Global Investors, which dumped 1.1 million shares and Lone Pine Capital, which sold over 800,000 shares.

A much smaller line up of funds bought shares amid the stock's crash. David Tepper's Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its stake during the quarter to about 913,000 shares. George Soros more than doubled his stake to about 184,000 shares. And David Einhorn, who last week sued Apple in a bid for higher dividends, added 20 percent to his holdings to end the quarter with 1.3 million shares.

PROFITABLE TRADES

Despite the plunge in Apple's stock price, most of the managers likely exited their positions with substantial profits because they bought years earlier.

Rosenstein and Cooperman, for example, both started gathering their stakes in the middle of 2010, when Apple shares traded below $300.

At the time, the company's iPhone 4 was beset by alleged faulty reception, a problem that became known as "antennagate." Apple's then-chief executive, the late Steve Jobs, famously dismissed the issue, saying "we don't think we have a problem." But Apple offered customers a free bumper case that was supposed to minimize any issues.

Customers did not seem to care, snapping up millions of iPhones and sending Apple's share price up almost 50 percent over the next year.

Apple came under further scrutiny last week from Greenlight's Einhorn. Einhorn filed a lawsuit to block changes in Apple's policy for issuing preferred stock. Instead, Apple should issue a new class of preferred stock to share more of its $137 billion cash hoard with shareholders, Einhorn said.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook dismissed the moves as a "silly sideshow" on Tuesday.

SOME TRIMMED

Not all well-known hedge fund fans of Apple cut ties in the fourth quarter. Some only trimmed their holdings.

Philippe Laffont, who worked under famed hedge fund manager Julian Robertson before striking out on his own at Coatue Management, sold about 18 percent of his Apple shares. Coatue ended the year with a still sizable 643,000 shares.

Chase Coleman, another manager who worked for Robertson, reduced the Apple stake at his Tiger Global Management fund by 19 percent to just over 1 million shares.

Robertson's own Tiger Management LLC fund trimmed its Apple stake by 28 percent to about 42,000 shares.

Large hedge funds are required to disclose their U.S. stock holdings within 45 days after the end of each quarter.

But the filings may not give a complete picture of each fund's moves, since only U.S.-listed shares and options must be revealed. Bonds, foreign shares and derivatives are not included, and short positions, or bets that a stock will fall in price, are not listed.

(Reporting by Aaron Pressman; Additional reporting by Katya Wachtel, Svea Herbst, Sam Forgione and Jennifer Ablan in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and David Gregorio)

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A logo of the Blackberry maker's Research in Motion is seen on a building at the RIM Technology Park in Waterloo April 18, 2012. Picture taken April 18, 2012.

TORONTO | Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:06pm EST

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Research In Motion Ltd (RIMM.O)(RIM.TO) rose more than 6 percent after an influential analyst raised his rating on the stock on Friday, saying that RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system performed as well or better than rivals in recent tests.

Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek, who lifted his stock rating on RIM to "buy" from "hold," believes Wall Street is now underestimating the strength of RIM's financial performance for the coming quarters after the new devices debut on January 30. He also lifted his price target on RIM to $19.50 from $13.

The move pushed RIM shares up 6 percent to $15.80 in morning trading on the Nasdaq, while its Toronto-listed shares rose 7 percent to C$15.72.

RIM hopes that its re-engineered line of touch-screen and keyboard devices will win back market share lost to rivals such as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and devices powered by Google Inc's (GOOG.O) market-leading Android operating system.

Misek, who has been skeptical for some time about RIM's odds of engineering a turnaround, said recent trials of BB10 test devices showed vast improvements over its existing smartphones.

"Recent tests and demos have shown a solid browser, smooth touch interface, and intuitive navigation. We now believe the operating system performance could be better than or equal to Android Jelly Bean and likely on par with iOS 6," said Misek, referring to the latest versions of software powering Android and Apple devices.

Shares of RIM, which fell as low as $6.22 in September, have more than doubled in value over the last four months as the BB10 launch approaches.

CARRIER ORDERS

In November, Misek had upgraded RIM's stock to "hold" from "underperform," arguing that his checks revealed greater carrier support for BB10 than expected.

Misek's last upgrade had propelled RIM's shares into double-digit territory for the first time in five months and his latest upgrade pushed the stock to a new 11-month high.

In his latest note, Misek said: "More recent checks indicate that carriers have also agreed to volume commitments for the first two quarters post-launch."

Earlier this month, some top U.S. mobile carriers including Verizon Communications (VZ.N), AT&T Inc (T.N) and T-Mobile USA (DTEGn.DE) signaled that they would support RIM's BlackBerry 10 products.

And earlier this week media reports indicated that Aircel and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) are gearing up to market the new BB10 devices in India, which has long been a strong growth market for RIM even as it has ceded ground in North America and Europe.

Misek said BB10 global orders have risen to between 1 million and 2 million a month from about 500,000 a month in early December. He now views initial sales of 4 million BB10 devices a quarter as "not a high hurdle."

Additionally, developer support is proving to be stronger than expected, Misek said.

"Our checks indicate that large app developers are going to put resources into developing BB10 apps," he said. "Previously, we had thought they would take more of a wait-and-see approach before committing resources."

RIM has faced criticism in the past for lacking a strong suite of high-quality apps.

RIM has said its new platform will boast business focused apps from Cisco WebEx and SAP among others, along with music, movie and gaming apps.

Social networks LinkedIn, Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook will all have apps for BB10 at launch, according to RIM. It will announce some of its other app partners on the launch date.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Jeffrey Benkoe and Leslie Gevirtz)

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NEW YORK | Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:01pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Life Technologies Corp (LIFE.O) is exploring a potential sale and has retained banks to advise on the process, the biotechnology company said on Friday, sending its shares more than 10 percent higher to an all-time record.

Life Technologies, whose market value surged to roughly $10.5 billion, said its board has hired Deutsche Bank Securities (DBKGn.DE) and Moelis & Company to assist in its "annual strategic review."

The Carlsbad, California-based company, which makes genetic testing equipment and products used in biotechnology development, has drawn initial interest from several large private equity firms, people familiar with the matter said.

Buyout firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N), Bain Capital LLC and TPG Capital LP are among the several interested parties, said the people, who asked not to be named as details of the auction are not public. Life Technologies said its board of directors has not decided on any specific course of action.

Given the sheer size of a potential leveraged buyout, private equity firms are expected to team up as the sale process advances, the people said, adding that the auction is still at an early stage and bidders have yet to conduct due diligence.

Representatives of Blackstone were not immediately available for comment, while TPG and Bain declined to comment.

News of the potential sale adds to expectations that robust debt financing markets could lead to a return of the mega leveraged buyouts, which have remained elusive since the 2008 financial crisis.

In another potential deal that would mark the largest private equity deal since the global financial crisis, buyout firm Silver Lake Partners is in discussions to take Dell Inc (DELL.O) private, people familiar with the matter have said.

Gene-sequencing companies such as Life Technologies have become takeover targets over the last year by potential buyers seeking to acquire the technology that can be used to analyze a person's DNA and help provide personalized medicine.

Last year, Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) made a hostile attempt, unsuccessfully, to buy San Diego-based gene sequencing company Illumina Inc (ILMN.O). Shares of Illumina fell 1 percent to $51.03 on Friday, valuing the company at nearly $6.4 billion.

Shares of Life Technologies rose 10.6 percent to $60.79 on the Nasdaq stock market, after reaching an all-time high of $62 during the session.

Canadian newspaper Financial Post, which earlier reported the sale process, said a potential deal for Life Technologies could come in the $65-$75 per share range.

"While price talk is reported to be in the $65 to $75 range, our initial analysis suggests an LBO transaction valuing Life's equity in the $50 to $60 range is at present more realistic," Jefferies & Co analyst Jon Wood said in a note.

While the company's strong revenue, scalable operating model and capital efficiency may support a higher sale price, buyers had less appetite for risk following the 2008 financial crisis, Wood added.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York, additional reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore,; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, M.D. Golan, Gunna Dickson and David Gregorio)

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n">(Reuters) - Johnson Controls Inc (JCI.N) forecast a smaller-than-expected profit for the current quarter due to lower auto production in Europe, sending the company's shares down more than 3 percent.

The company, the largest U.S. auto parts supplier, forecast a fiscal second-quarter profit of 40 cents to 42 cents per share, short of analysts' expectations of 51 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"The forecast reflects the current European automotive production environment and short-term delays in flexing labor in the region," the company said on Friday.

Johnson Controls' stock was down 3.3 percent to $30.91 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares fell even as the company posted a slightly better-than-expected profit in its fiscal first quarter.

The company in October said weaker business in Europe would reduce its first-half profit significantly. Restructuring actions initiated in the latter part of 2012 are expected to boost profit in the second half.

Johnson Controls, which makes car interiors and batteries, maintained its fiscal 2013 outlook of higher profit and sales.

Citi analyst Itay Michaeli said the second-quarter forecast suggested Johnson Control would earn 65 percent of its annual profit in the second half of the year, about 10 percentage points higher than in the last two years.

"Given the current demand environment and the operational pressures the company is facing in Europe, we believe the risks around this outlook are elevated and investors could avoid shares in the near term as this is discounted," Baird analyst David Leiker said in a research note.

In its fiscal first quarter, ended December 31, Johnson Controls earned $354 million, or 52 cents per share, compared with $424 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts expected 51 cents.

Revenue rose marginally to $10.42 billion. Analysts on average had estimated revenue of $10.26 billion.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore and Deepa Seetharaman in Detroit; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:25pm EST

n">(Reuters) - Shares of CyrusOne Inc (CONE.O) rose as much as 15 percent on their market debut after the data center operator priced its offering at the high end of its expected price range.

CyrusOne shares closed up nearly 12 percent at $21.20 on the Nasdaq on Friday while majority owner Cincinnati Bell's (CBB.N) stock closed down 6 percent at $5.00 on the New York Stock Exchange.

"What happened with CyrusOne is that people looked at the parent and found that the parent was very weak. They've basically spun off a division that's worth more than the parent," said Francis Gaskins, a partner at IPODesktop.com.

Texas-based CyrusOne priced its offering of 16.5 million shares at $19 each, raising $313.5 million. At the offer price, CyrusOne has a market value of about $1.18 billion.

Cincinnati Bell, valued at about $1 billion, will own about 71.6 percent of CyrusOne, which rents equipment, space and bandwidth to store and transfer data.

CyrusOne had 24 data centers in Austin, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, London, South Bend and Singapore as of March 2012, according to its website.

CyrusOne has structured itself as a REIT, joining a string of technology companies looking to save on tax through the structure.

Companies with large real estate assets eye a REIT structure as it helps reduce the tax burden on their rental income. Shareholders also stand to gain as REITs are required to distribute at least 90 percent of their profits as dividends.

Shares of another REIT and data center company, Digital Realty Trust Inc (DLR.N), have risen about 8 percent in the last month, while those of data center operator Equinix Inc (EQIX.O), which is planning a REIT conversion, have risen about 9 percent.

Industry research firm Gartner estimates that the global market for data center services was about $150 billion in 2011 and will rise to about $200 billion in 2012, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch were joint-bookrunners to the offering.

SUNCOKE ENERGY DEBUT

Shares of Illinois-based SunCoke Energy Partners LP (SXCP.N) opened flat on debut after the metallurgical coal producer priced its offering at the low end of its expected price range.

The company priced its offering of 13.5 million shares at $19 each, raising $256.5 million.

The downstream energy limited partnership listed Credit Suisse and Citigroup as lead underwriters to the offering.

SunCoke Energy Partners' share closed down 4 percent at $18.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane and Don Sebastian)

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1 of 6. Ben Stephens (R), a Blackberry sales manager demonstrates a new Blackberry Z10 to prospective customer Shevek (C), as store manager Alejandra Escobar watches at a branch of UK retailer Phones 4U in central London, January 31, 2013. Blackberry's new Z10 model went on sale in the UK today. Research In Motion Ltd's glitzy unveiling of the long-delayed line of BlackBerry smartphones on Wednesday and a new corporate name failed to impress Wall Street analysts, with at least three downgrading the company's stock.

NEW YORK | Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:52pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The afterglow of Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry 10 unveiling faded on Thursday as a flurry of lukewarm reviews signaled the company's struggle to regain momentum in the hyper-competitive smartphone market was just beginning.

Shares of BlackBerry, RIM's new corporate name, fell almost 10 percent early on Thursday, after a 12 percent decline the previous day, as some tech analysts questioned whether the new BB10 devices the company launched on Wednesday were the sure-fire hit that BlackBerry needs to get back into the game.

While New York Times reviewer David Pogue gushed that BlackBerry's new Z10 model is "lovely, fast and efficient, bristling with fresh, useful ideas," other reviewers were more tentative in their appraisals.

"The problem with the Z10 is that it doesn't necessarily do anything better than any of its competition," said Joshua Topolsky of technology news website the Verge. "No one could argue that there's a 'killer app' here. Something that makes you want or need this phone because it can do what no other phone can do. That's not the case."

Such lukewarm reviews - combined with disappointment around a later-than-expected and still unspecified date for the U.S. sales debut - spooked investors and prompted analysts to cut their price targets and forecasts.

BlackBerry, which is making a big push to win back the all-important U.S. market with a Super Bowl ad this weekend, said the new Z10 touch-screen device would not go on sale in the United States until sometime in mid-March, saying U.S. carriers need more time to test the model.

"The shine from the Super Bowl ad will be a fading memory by the time U.S. customers can buy in March," said TD Securities analyst Scott Penner, who has a "hold" rating on the stock.

Samsung Electronics Co may also steal some of BlackBerry's thunder as buzz around its Galaxy IV device heats up before the Z10 hits U.S. store shelves, Penner pointed out.

Making matters worse for BlackBerry, it has been not been very specific about how soon it will be before many of its most loyal fans across the globe can get their hands on the Q10 - its new qwerty keyboard model. The company has only said that it aims to release this version of the smartphone in April.

"While later-than-expected availability of the Z10 and Q10 devices shouldn't impact the longer-term potential success of the BB10 platform, we believe it does mitigate one of the near-term catalysts for the stock," said Paradigm Capital analyst Gabriel Leung, who trimmed his price target on the stock to $16 from $19.50.

RIM shares were down 5.2 percent at $13.05 at 12:15 EST (1715 GMT) Thursday on the Nasdaq, while its Toronto-listed shares were down 5.8 percent at C$13.06.

HIGH-END TARGET MARKETS

Initially at least, the BlackBerry 10 is aimed squarely at the North American and European markets, where consumers and businesses alike are eager to snap up high-end devices.

In countries like India - the world's second-largest mobile phone market - the premium cost of the new Z10 handset will restrict sales. Even so, the new device, which sources said will likely enter the key Indian market in mid-February, could help the Canadian company compete with premium rivals such as Apple Inc there.

"The Z10 launched yesterday is obviously a high-end product and India is not a market at that price point," said Anshul Gupta, industry analyst at Gartner, a technology advisory firm.

BlackBerry is the third-largest smartphone player in India after Samsung and Nokia, due mainly to its low-cost handsets that allow young people to communicate for free on its BlackBerry Messaging Service.

RIM launched its first BlackBerry more than a decade ago, as a way for busy executives to stay in touch with both clients and their offices.

BlackBerry quickly cornered the market for secure corporate and government emails, but its star has faded in recent years as competition heated up and RIM failed to keep pace.

The BlackBerry is now an also-ran in the race for market share, with a 3.4 percent global showing in the fourth quarter, down from some 20 percent three years ago.

RIM's new smartphones are considered a make-or-break attempt to save the company and claw back market share that it has lost to the likes of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy devices.

"BlackBerry has demonstrated truly unique software innovation within BB10," wrote Raymond James analyst Steven Li in a note to clients. "However, convincing the many BlackBerry users who have abandoned the platform for iOS and Android over the last few years to return will be a difficult challenge as Microsoft and Nokia can surely attest to."

(Editing by Frank McGurty; and Peter Galloway)

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Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:23pm EST

n">(Reuters) - British education and media publisher Pearson Plc has agreed to acquire a 5 percent stake in Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook Media unit for $89.5 million, sending shares of the bookstore operator up as much as 9.7 percent on Friday.

The Nook Media unit comprises Barnes & Noble's digital businesses — including the Nook e-reader and tablets and the Nook digital bookstore — and 674 college bookstores across the United States.

Pearson is the owner of the Financial Times newspaper and the Penguin Group publishing house.

The latest investment in Nook comes after Microsoft Corp agreed in April to invest $300 million in Barnes & Noble's digital and college businesses, a move that sent Barnes & Noble's shares up 79 percent at the time. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft completed that partnership in October.

After the Pearson deal, Barnes & Noble will own about 78.2 percent of Nook Media and Microsoft will own around 16.8 percent, the companies said.

"We always believed that Microsoft was as interested in Barnes & Noble's opportunity in education as it was in the digital consumer arena," said David Strasser, analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott.

"But after this investment from Pearson, it is more clear that Nook Media has its sight set on transforming the way education is administered in the US and around the world," he wrote in a note to clients.

Nook has been a revenue-driver since its launch in 2009 as readers buy more digital books, but product development and marketing costs to keep the devices competitive with Amazon Inc's Kindle have made it an expensive project.

Barnes & Noble said in November that the quarterly loss at the Nook division increased on higher spending on its e-readers and tablets to keep pace with larger rivals Amazon and Apple Inc.

Meanwhile, the top U.S. bookstore chain also said on Friday that sales in the crucial holiday season will come in below expectations, based on preliminary results and current sales trends.

Barnes & Noble said it would provide more details on its holiday sales on January 3. In November, it said that Nook device sales over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend - one of the busiest times of the year for U.S. retailers - doubled from last year, helped by promotions by Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp.

The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the 2008 financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, according to some early findings.

Shares of Barnes & Noble were up 6.1 percent at $15.23 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon, off an earlier high at $15.74. They were the fourth-largest gainer in percentage terms on the NYSE.

Pearson shares ended 0.3 percent lower at 1,193 pence in London.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; editing by Joyjeet Das and Matthew Lewis)

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n">(Reuters) - Shares of Herbalife (HLF.N) plunged again Friday, feeling the brunt of heavy selling in a week where prominent short-seller Bill Ackman called the company a "pyramid scheme."

The stock closed 19 percent down at $27.27, its lowest in nearly two years.

The selling continues a bad run for the stock, which has been hit hard in recent days as Ackman said he was shorting the stock, giving a three-hour presentation Thursday where he called the weight management company's model unsustainable.

Pershing Square Capital Management said on Friday it had launched a website that provides information about the company, including source data that was used in the presentation.

Shares have fallen 36 percent in the last three days and have lost nearly two-thirds of their value since hitting a life-high in April.

Ackman, known for agitating for management change at companies his fund invests in, has targeted Herbalife via one of his biggest short positions in years.

Ackman said he had been building his short position in the company's stock for several months and that he was so sure of his position that he believed the company's stock price would eventually go to zero.

More than 42.2 million Herbalife shares had changed hands on Friday, far surpassing the 2.8 million shares traded on average over the past 50 days.

Similar stocks in the space were also down. Nu Skin Enterprises Inc (NUS.N), a skin products company, closed 14 percent lower at $34.51. Blyth Inc (BTH.N), which sells nutritional supplements through its ViSalus unit, closed down 8 percent at $14.75.

Herbalife said on Friday it would hold an analyst day in the week of January 7 to respond to Ackman's claims.

Option volume on Herbalife hit an all-time high on Friday, a day that also marks the expiration of December equity options. Herbalife traders exchanged 136,000 puts and 85,000 calls, or 11 times the combined daily average, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.

Out of that volume, 41 percent were December contracts that expire after market close. The most popular contracts are the December $27.50 strike put followed by the May $22.50 strike put.

(Reporting By David Gaffen, Doris Frankel and Maria Ajit Thomas; Editing by M.D. Golan and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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FRANKFURT | Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:01am EST

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in SMA Solar (S92G.DE), Germany's top solar company, rose on Friday after an acquisition gave it access to China, seen as overtaking Germany next year as the world's No.1 solar market.

SMA Solar late on Thursday announced the acquisition of a 72.5 percent stake in Jiangsu Zeversolar, a move that drove its shares up as much as 7.6 percent on Friday. At 7:39 a.m. ET, they were still up 3 percent.

"SMA Solar so far had no access to the Chinese market. Thus, the acquisition makes clear strategic sense," said a trader.

Plunging subsidies for solar power in Europe have driven the local solar industry to the brink of collapse, forcing many players to file for insolvency or look for growth in foreign markets to remain profitable.

China, however, has been a tough nut to crack, usually favoring local suppliers. In addition, Western solar firms have alleged price dumping by Chinese peers, triggering a trade war that reached the WTO last month.

China is spending 13 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) on its solar industry this year and, said SMA Solar Chief Executive Pierre-Pascal Urbon, is expected to install 2-3 gigawatts (GW) of solar power this year, a figure which could soar to 8 GW next year.

"We hope for very strong growth in sales next year," Urbon told Reuters on Friday.

He added Zeversolar's sales for 2012 would remain largely stable compared with the 30 million euros ($40 million) generated in 2011. SMA aims for sales of 1.3-1.5 billion euros this year.

Urbon said SMA had an option to secure the remaining stake in Zeversolar, which is expected to generate positive earnings per share (EPS) from 2014, but added the group currently had no plans to do so.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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A logo of the Blackberry maker's Research in Motion is seen on a building at the RIM Technology Park in Waterloo April 18, 2012.

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Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:37pm EST

n">(Reuters) - Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent on Friday on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

It was the stock's biggest, single-day, percentage price drop since September 2008. But shares were still nearly 80 percent above the year's low, which was reached in September. They started to rally in November as investors began to bet that RIM's long-awaited new BlackBerry 10 phones, which will be unveiled in January, would turn the company around.

The services segment has long been RIM's most profitable and accounts for about a third of total revenue. Some analysts said there was a risk that the fee changes could endanger its service ecosystem and leave the Canadian company as just another handset maker.

The fee changes, which RIM announced on Thursday after market close, overshadowed stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The company said the new pricing structure would be introduced with the BlackBerry 10 launch, expected on January 30.

RIM said some subscribers would continue to pay for enhanced services such as advanced security. But under the new structure, some other services would account for less revenue, or even none at all.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins tried to reassure investors in a television interview with CNBC on Friday, saying RIM's "service revenue isn't going away".

He added: "We're not stopping. We're not halting. We're transitioning."

Since taking over at RIM in January, Heins has focused on shrinking the company and getting it ready to introduce its new BB10 devices, which RIM says will help it claw back ground it has lost to competitors such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

But the new services pricing strategy came as a shock to markets, and some analysts cut their price targets on RIM stock.

RIM will not be able to sustain profitability by relying on its hardware business alone, said National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson, whom Thomson Reuters StarMine has rated the top RIM analyst based on the accuracy of his estimates of the company's earnings.

Thompson downgraded RIM's stock to "underperform" from "sector perform" and cut his price target to $10 from $15.

Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said the move was likely about stabilizing market share: "At the moment, they need to stem the bleeding."

He said the tiered pricing might line up better with RIM's subscriber base as it expands in emerging economies.

RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares closed down 22.7 percent at $10.91 on Friday. The stock fell 22.2 percent to C$10.86 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH

The success of the BB10 will be crucial to the future of RIM, which on Thursday posted its first-ever decline in total subscribers. Heins said on CNBC that the company expected to ship millions of the new devices.

He cautioned that this will require heavy investment, which will reduce RIM's cash position in its fourth and first quarters from $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter. He said, however, it would not go below $2 billion.

Still, doubts remain about whether RIM can pull off the transformation. Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said the BB10 would have to look meaningfully superior to its competitors for RIM to stage a comeback.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said it was highly unlikely that the market would support RIM's new mobile computing ecosystem, and he remained skeptical about the company's ability to survive on its own.

"We believe RIM will eventually need to sell the company," said Walkley, who cut his price target on RIM shares to $9 from $10.

Baird Equity Research analysts said BB10 faced a daunting uphill battle against products from Apple, as well as those using Google Inc's Android operating system, and, increasingly, phones with Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system.

Baird maintained its "underperform" rating on the stock, while Paradigm Capital downgraded the shares to "hold" from "buy" on uncertainty around the services revenue model.

"RIM has gone from having one major aspect of uncertainty - BlackBerry 10 adoption - to two, given an uncertain floor on services revenue," William Blair analyst Anil Doradla said.

RIM will have to discount BB10 devices significantly to maintain demand, Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said.

The BlackBerry, however, still offers the security features that helped it build its reputation with big business and government, a selling point with some key customers.

Credit Suisse maintained its "neutral" rating on the stock, but not because it expected BB10 to be a big success.

"Only the potential for an outright sale of the company or a breakup keeps us at a neutral," Credit Suisse analysts said.

Separately on Friday, ailing Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said it had settled its patent dispute with RIM in return for payments.

($1=$0.98 Canadian)

(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore and Allison Martell in Toronto. Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Ted Kerr, Dale Hudson, Janet Guttsman,; Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway and Leslie Gevirtz)

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Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:57pm EST

n">(Reuters) - Research In Motion shares tumbled more than 10 percent on Thursday after the company reported the first ever decline in its subscriber numbers and outlined plans to transform the way it charges for its BlackBerry services.

RIM, which hopes to revive its fortunes and reinvent itself via the launch of a brand new line of BlackBerry 10 devices next month, caught investors off-guard on its quarterly conference call, when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model - a move that will pressure the high-margin business that accounts for about a third of RIM's sales.

"RIM provided few details regarding the economics of these changes, thus adding a large cloud of uncertainty to the primary driver of its profitability, which we view as especially worrisome given risks already surrounding the firm's massive BlackBerry 10 transition," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

Those subscribers who need enhanced services like advanced security will pay for these services, while those who do not use such services will generate much lower to no service revenue, RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told analysts and investors on a conference call on Thursday.

"I want to be very clear on this. Service revenues are not going away, but our business model and service offerings are going to evolve ... The mix in level of service fees revenue will change going forward and will be under pressure over the next year," cautioned Heins.

The news startled investors, who had earlier in the evening pushed RIM's stock more than 7 percent higher in post-market trading, after the company reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and said it boosted its cash cushion ahead of next month's crucial launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

RIM's shares have for weeks been on a tear as optimism around BB10 has grown. Following RIM's surprise announcement on service revenues, however, the stock ended 9 percent lower at $12.85 in trading after the closing bell.

Analysts also expressed concern about the decline in RIM's subscriber base.

"The early reaction was probably just 'Hey, numbers looked OK, better loss, the cash flow was good' but if you know the company, you're looking at the subscriber base falling off," said Mark McKechnie at Evercore Partners in San Francisco.

CASH BALANCE

One reason the shares rose earlier was RIM managed to build up its cash cushion to $2.9 billion from $2.3 billion in the previous quarter.

Analysts have been keeping a sharp eye on the size of RIM's cash pile, as RIM will need the funds to manufacture and effectively promote BlackBerry 10 in a crowded market.

RIM is counting on the new line to claw back market share lost in recent years to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.

"They've done a great job at generating cash," said Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt in Nashville. "They're certainly in a much better position than they were three or four quarters ago."

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it is now testing its BB10 devices with more than 150 carriers - up from about 50 carriers as of the end of October. RIM expects more carriers to come on board ahead of the formal launch of BB10 on January 30.

Positive feedback from developers and carriers around RIM's new BlackBerry 10 devices has buoyed the stock in the last three months. Despite the plunge in RIM's share price on Thursday, the stock has more than doubled in value the last three months.

SMALLER-THAN-EXPECTED LOSS

On an operating basis, RIM fared a little better than Wall Street had expected. It reported a loss of $114 million or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 35 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

RIM also reported a surprise net profit of $9 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended December 1, on the back of a one-time income tax related gain. That compared with a year-ago profit of $265 million, or 51 cents.

RIM said it shipped 6.9 million smartphones in the quarter, even as its subscriber base fell to about 79 million in the quarter from about 80 million in the period ended September 1.

In recent years, RIM's user base has grown, even as the BlackBerry lost ground in North America and Europe, boosted by gains in emerging markets. While eye opening, the shrinkage was not as bad as some observers expected during the last quarter before the BB10 launch.

"We're encouraged that the subscriber base only declined slightly during a very public transition, and BlackBerry sales were about what we expected," said Morningstar's Colello, who is based in Chicago.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp, Cameron French, Allison Martell and John Tilak in Toronto; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Frank McGurty, Jan Paschal and Chris Gallagher)

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1 of 5. A man clicks his nails as he looks at an electronic board displaying share prices outside a brokerage in Tokyo September 20, 2012.

TOKYO | Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:54pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Monday on growth concerns ahead of the third-quarter corporate earnings season, lifting the safe-haven dollar which in turn undermined commodities.

As risk sensitive assets retreated, the dollar index .DXY measured against a basket of six major currencies gained 0.4 percent.

A stronger dollar and worries that a slowing global economy may further dent fuel demand pushed U.S. crude futures down more than $1 to $90.82 a barrel. Brent fell 0.6 percent to $113.99.

The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.3 percent.

Tokyo's Nikkei average .N225 was down 0.1 percent. .T

U.S. stocks wrapped up their worst week in four months, led lower on Friday by financial shares. More financial institutions will report earnings in coming days, including Citigroup (C.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N), amid concerns about their shrinking profit margins.

"People are just cautious, quite reluctant. It is not only equities, it is property and a whole range of asset classes, people are happy to have the money in the bank rather than put it to work," said Burrell & Co director Richard Herring.

"We will probably need a good earnings reporting season out of the U.S. or a change in the environment here - a more certain outlook," Herring said.

A decline in Chinese consumer and producer prices in September left scope for policy easing to underpin growth.

Data over the weekend from China, the world's second-largest economy after the United States, offered some positive news, suggesting government moves to underpin growth are working and additional policy action may not be needed.

China's broad M2 money supply rose more than expected in September while its exports grew at roughly twice the rate expected in September and imports recovered.

"The better than expected upswing in Chinese exports follows similar outcomes for Taiwan and Korea and may be consistent with a bottoming in global manufacturing PMIs in suggesting a possible stabilization or improvement in global growth," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital.

Commodity currencies failed to cling to an early lift, with the Australian dollar falling 0.6 percent to $1.0204, close to the near three-month low of $1.0149 plumbed a week ago.

US POSES RISK

The encouraging Chinese data could not completely dispel concerns about the global slowdown, with the euro zone's prolonged debt crisis dragging on.

Investors should brace for three or four months of jittery markets due to uncertainty over support for Spain and the looming "fiscal cliff" threatening the U.S. economy, BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence Fink told Reuters on Saturday. Fink warned that the U.S. stock market could lose 5 to 10 percent in a correction in the final months of the year.

"Markets have yet to fully reflect concerns about the 'fiscal cliff' but the issue represents a major downside risk," Takao Hattori, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo said .

Orders related to the U.S. military industry may feel the pinch as automatic across-the-board budget cuts set to begin on January 2 if there is no deal on deficit reductions, Hattori added.

The era of rising Western spending on weapons and wars is over, providing a more challenging environment for major arms manufacturers.

Hattori also said markets have been supported by expectations and hopes, rather than conviction, over how Europe will resolve its debt crisis.

The euro slipped 0.4 percent to $1.2897 as Europe muddles through debt relief measures for Spain and Greece.

Investors expect highly-indebted Spain to request assistance, triggering the European Central Bank's program to buy bonds of struggling euro zone states that ask for aid.

They also hope Europe will not allow Greece to leave the currency union.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has said his government expects to agree a new austerity package with its lenders and for the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to bridge their differences on how to cut the country's debt by the time EU leaders meet on October 18-19.

Euro zone officials are considering new ways to reduce Greece's huge debts because delays to reforms by Athens and continued recession have put the target of a debt to GDP ratio of 120 percent in 2020 out of reach, euro zone officials said.

Euro zone officials also said Spain could ask for financial aid from the euro zone in November.

Asian credit markets weakened, with the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index widening by 2 basis points.

(Additional reporting by Ian Chua in Sydney and Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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NEW YORK | Tue Oct 9, 2012 5:06am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vietnamese-born chef Charles Phan shares his passion for his homeland and tips about how to cook its delicious food in his first cookbook, "Vietnamese Home Cooking".

Phan and his family fled to Guam from Vietnam in 1975 before settling in San Francisco a couple of years later. In 1995 he opened his restaurant Slanted Door, which has won acclaim for its modern interpretation of traditional Vietnamese food. He now runs six other eateries in San Francisco.

The 50-year-old spoke to Reuters about his passion for Vietnamese food, his plan to open a New Orleans-inspired bar and his future plans.

Q: What is the goal of your first cookbook?

A: "It's way to spread the gospel, if you will, about Vietnamese culture and food. We try to do that with our restaurant. The book is another way of bringing that culture to you."

Q: What makes Vietnamese cuisine unique?

A: "The Vietnamese were conquered by the French and the Chinese. On a Vietnamese table, there is always a big platter of fresh vegetable and herbs. In Vietnam, up north, the food is a bit different from the south. You have different climates. In Saigon, it's hot and muggy and tropical so the country ranges pretty widely with its food."

Q: What does Vietnamese cooking have in common with others in Southeast Asia?

A: "Obviously, rice is the common link across these cultures. They use meat as condiments rather than a main course. We don't have ovens so we don't bake things. We steam things. Fuel is scarce so we use very little wood. You have the fruits and vegetables that come from Southeast Asia you use over there. When you compare all of Southeast Asia with Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, they are very similar. Things get different when you get into China."

Q: You have plans to open another restaurant?

A: "We are about to open to Creole bar concept. I happen to like bourbon a lot; so does my architect. So this bar will have an extensive bourbon list and interesting bourbon from the last three years. It's tiny. It's only 1,300 square feet. So the bar drives the concept. It's inspired by New Orleans. There will be oysters from New Orleans. We'll have gumbo. We'll make a mean fried chicken."

Q: Do you have second thoughts about serving Creole food?

A: "I cook all this food at home all the time. I'm not saying I'm an expert at it but it's simple enough and it's high quality food .... You don't have be Vietnamese to cook Vietnamese food as long as you understand the sensibility."

Q: What should one be mindful of in making Vietnamese food?

A: "You have to learn how to eat Vietnamese food before you cook it. You have to understand what the sensibility is or what I call the gold standard. This is how the Vietnamese want it. This is how people in Vietnam treat their food. You might not agree.

"In Vietnam people like their meat medium to well done. You could change that. There's nothing wrong with that. Again in Vietnam, people eat their soup with herbs and lemon in it. But you don't have to do it. Cooking is knowing where you are going and achieving that goal."

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce (Makes 20 to 25 skewers; serves 10 to 12 as an appetizer)

2½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

¾ cup sliced shallots

¾ cup shallot oil or canola oil

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1½ tablespoons roasted chili paste

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons mild Madras curry powder

Peanut sauce (see below)

Sriracha sauce, for seasoning

20 to 25 (10-inch) bamboo skewers

1. Trim any visible fat from the chicken thighs, then cut the thighs into long strips, about 1-inch wide. Put the chicken into a bowl and set aside.

2. To make the marinade, in a food processor or blender, combine the shallots and shallot oil and process until smooth. Add the garlic, chili paste, sugar, salt, and curry powder and process until smooth.

3. Add the marinade to the chicken and mix well to coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours. In a shallow dish, immerse the bamboo skewers in water to cover.

4. Prepare a medium-hot fire for direct-heat grilling in a charcoal grill (you should be able to hold your hand 1 inch above the grate for only 3 to 4 seconds).

5. Just before the coals are ready, drain the skewers and thread 1 strip of chicken lengthwise onto each skewer, taking care to insert the skewer through the center of each strip. Do not leave the tip of the skewer exposed or it will burn.

6. Place the skewers on the grill grate and cook, turning once, for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until well browned and opaque throughout.

7. In a small bowl, stir together the peanut sauce with Sriracha to taste. Transfer the skewers to a large platter and serve immediately, accompanied with the sauce.

PEANUT SAUCE (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup sweet (glutinous) rice

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

2 cloves garlic

1 Thai chili, stemmed

3 tablespoons red miso

3 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons vegetarian stir-fry (aka vegetarian oyster) sauce

1-1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1. Rinse the rice in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear, then transfer to a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered for 10 minutes. Then uncover, fluff with a fork, and let cool to room temperature. Alternatively, the rice can be prepared in a rice cooker.

2. In a food processor, combine the cooled rice, peanuts, garlic, chili, miso, ketchup, canola oil, sugar, stir-fry sauce, lemon juice and sesame oil and process until the mixture is a fine paste. Thin with water (about 1/2 cup) until the texture is smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. The sauce will keep, refrigerated, for up to four days.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; editing by Patricia Reaney and Richard Chang)

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* Presidents, CEOs, fans pay tribute to Jobs

* Apple co-founder transformed lives of millions

* Jobs praised as "a dreamer and a doer"

* Apple shares up 1 percent (Updates links to stories, graphics, Breakingviews; updates shares)

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Outpourings of public grief and appreciation swept the globe on Thursday after the death of Apple (AAPL.O) co-founder Steve Jobs.

Jobs, who touched the daily lives of countless millions of people through the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad, died on Wednesday at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He stepped down as Apple chief executive in August.

Reaction in the stock market was muted as Apple shares quickly recovered from an initial 1.5 percent decline. The shares were up 1 percent to $382.15 at midday.

In New York City, an impromptu memorial made from flowers, candles and a dozen green and red apples was erected outside a 24-hour Apple store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, with fans snapping photos of it on their iPhones.

"It was really sad news for us," said Daiichiro Tashiro, 25, visiting from Tokyo. "A lot of Japanese use the iPhone. We're here to thank him."

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Obituary [ID:nN1E79424F]

Apple's lead over rivals could narrow [ID:nL3E7L61B9]

Breakingviews - Apple's impact [ID:nN1E7950GQ]

Jobs a god for designers [ID:nL5E7L6347]

Factbox - Apple's history and milestones [ID:nN1E794246]

Graphic - Jobs profile link.reuters.com/tag34s

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Tributes poured in both from ordinary people and from the pinnacles of the business and political worlds.

"He's the hero to everybody of this generation because he did something that I think is very hard, which is be both a dreamer and a doer," General Electric Co (GE.N) CEO Jeff Immelt told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday.

"I wouldn't be able to run my business without Apple, without its software," said David Chiverton, who was leaving Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London. "I run a video production company. It's allowed me to have my dream business."

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his generation."

At an Apple store in Sydney, lawyer George Raptis, who was five years old when he first used a Macintosh computer, spoke for almost everyone who has come into contact with Apple. "He's changed the face of computing," he said. "There will only ever be one Steve Jobs."

U.S. President Barack Obama remembered Jobs as a visionary. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it," Obama said in a statement.

Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Bill Gates, who once triumphed over Jobs but saw his legendary status overtaken by the Apple co-founder in recent years, said, "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor."

Nokia (NOK1V.HE) CEO Stephen Elop, whose company competes with Apple's iPhone in the handset market, said, "The world lost a true visionary today. Steve's passion for simplicity and elegance leaves us all a legacy that will endure for generations."

When he stepped down as CEO in August, Jobs handed the reins to long-time operations chief Tim Cook. With a passion for minimalist design and a genius for marketing, Jobs laid the groundwork for the company to continue to flourish after his death, most analysts and investors say.

But Apple still faces challenges in the absence of the man who was its chief product designer, marketing guru and salesman nonpareil. Phones running Google's (GOOG.O) Android software are gaining share in the smartphone market, and there are questions about what Apple's next big product will be.

LEGENDARY ENTREPRENEUR

A college drop-out and the son of adoptive parents, Jobs changed the technology world in the late 1970s, when the Apple II became the first personal computer to gain a wide following. He did it again in 1984 with the Macintosh, which built on breakthrough technologies developed at Xerox Parc and elsewhere to create the personal computing experience as we know it today.

The rebel streak that was central to his persona got him tossed out of Apple in 1985, but he returned in 1997 and after a few years began the roll-out of a troika of products -- the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad -- that again upended the established order in major industries.

A diagnosis of a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 initially cast only a mild shadow over Jobs and Apple, with the CEO asserting that the disease was treatable. But his health deteriorated rapidly over the past several years, and after two temporary leaves of absence he stepped down as CEO and became Apple's chairman in August.

Jobs's death came just one day after Cook presented a new iPhone at the kind of gala event that became Jobs's trademark. Perhaps coincidentally, the new device got lukewarm reviews, with many saying it wasn't a big enough improvement over the existing version of one of the most successful consumer products in history.

Apple paid homage to its visionary leader by changing its website to a big black-and-white photograph of him with the caption "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011."

On Google's home page, the same line appeared just below its search box. It was a link to the Apple site. (For related stories, see TAKE A LOOK at [ID:nN1E79421F].) (Reporting by Jennifer Saba; additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Liana Baker in New York; Scott Malone in Columbus, Ohio; Sarah McBride in Cupertino, California; Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Matt Cowan in London; and Amy Pyett in Sydney; editing by John Wallace)

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* Follows 20 percent reduction in budget

* 2,000 jobs to be axed, senior manager roles to be cut

* Labour unions warn programming, journalism will suffer (Adds detail, background)

LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The BBC is set to axe over 10 percent of staff in its management, programming and news divisions after Britain's cash-strapped government imposed deep spending cuts on the world-renowned, publicly-funded broadcaster.

The corporation set out the changes on Thursday in response to a 20 percent cut to its annual 3.5 billion pound ($5.4 billion) budget imposed by the government a year ago as part of the deepest public spending cuts in decades.

Unions said the changes would damage independent journalism at a time when a phone hacking scandal has revealed embarrassingly close ties between the Prime Minister David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch's right-leaning News Corp , a long standing critic of the BBC.

The BBC budget was imposed by the government with very little negotiation. Around 600 BBC News posts will now go.

"By 2016, the BBC will be significantly smaller than it is today," it said.

With eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive website, the BBC's size and resources had already attracted envy and criticism from rivals, led by James Murdoch at the dominant pay-TV group BSkyB .

As the recession gathered steam in 2008, that criticism intensified as advertising-funded groups such as ITV struggled to cope, cutting staff and budgets.

Under the new plans, the corporation will cut 2,000 jobs, reduce the budget for buying sports and other rights, slash the number of senior managers and share more content.

More repeats will be shown on television and property in west London will also be sold. The changes will result in savings of around 670 million pounds a year by 2016/17.

"The realities of what this country looks like in 2011 and what households up and down the country are going through, what other public institutions are going through, (means) it would be a bit odd if the national broadcaster wasn't feeling some of the same pressures," Director General Mark Thompson said.

LAST MINUTE DEAL

Last year, the BBC agreed to freeze the annual licence fee, payable by every TV-owning British household, at 145.50 pounds. It is also taking on extra costs from the government including funding the BBC World Service, which is broadcast overseas.

The agreement was hammered out in a matter of days, stripping out the months of negotiation normally involved in setting a licence fee, as the coalition government scrambled to cut spending after taking power.

The National Union of Journalists condemned the move and called again for the licence fee to be renegotiatied "especially given what has since emerged about the close relationship between the government and Rupert Murdoch at the time the deal was done."

The media and entertainment union BECTU said the cuts were a direct result of the "shocking 11th hour deal" on the licence fee which "will be the cause of regret for years to come".

The BBC towers over Britain's media landscape with a rich offering of drama, comedy and children's programming, a huge newsgathering operation and some of the UK's most popular websites.

In a lecture more than two years ago, News Corp executive and BSkyB Chairman James Murdoch lashed out at the BBC, accusing it of making a land grab for power and calling for a radical overhaul of British television regulation.

The pendulum has since swung back in favour of looser regulation more favourable to commercial rivals and lower public spending, especially since the recession and the installation of a centre-right coalition government in 2010.

Alex DeGroote, media analyst at London brokerage Panmure Gordon, said the slimming down of the BBC would help level the playing field in Britain, where commercial media companies were up against a far stronger public rival than their peers abroad.

"There's always been a BBC discount for commercial media in this country. It got particularly high in 2002-05. That's when you had a massive expansion of the BBC's inventory -- more digital radio, BBC3 and BBC4, lots of Internet sites," he said.

BSkyB should be well placed to benefit. It is increasing the budget it spends on programming and has recently signed a deal to share the broadcasting of Formula One with the BBC. It is also already very aggressive in acquiring sports rights and drama from the United States. (Editing by Will Waterman and David Cowell)

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1 of 2. Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone handsets are pictured in this illustration picture taken in Lavigny, Switzerland in this July 21, 2012 file photo.

TORONTO | Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:17pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd reported a narrower-than-expected loss on Thursday and the struggling BlackBerry maker bolstered its cash reserves, sparking optimism ahead of the launch of its make-or-break line of next-generation smartphones.

Shares of RIM surged 20 percent in after-hours trade on indications the company will have plenty of cash to ramp up production of its new BlackBerry 10 devices and mount a robust marketing campaign for the revamped line, due in early 2013.

It was the biggest jump for the stock since a 50 percent surge in December 2003, underlining the importance of the BB10 launch. The company, which has fallen far behind its rivals in a smartphone market it once dominated, has staked its future on the BB10 and its completely redesigned operating system.

RIM's second fiscal quarter brought shareholders additional glimmers of hope, a break from a succession of dreadful quarterly reports. The company not only generated more revenue than Wall Street had forecast but it topped expectations on the number of devices shipped in the period, which ended on September 1.

"It's very impressive," said Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek. "I didn't expect they could execute on the business given the models they have in the market, but they obviously did really well in emerging markets."

RIM was also able to bolster its cash pile by collecting on cash owed to the company, drawing down inventories and cutting costs.

ONE-TIME PIONEER

A one-time smartphone pioneer, RIM has failed to keep pace with rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, and its stock price has tumbled about 70 percent over the past year while its market share shriveled.

But the latest quarter showed that RIM is still able to lure buyers for its lower-end smartphones in the more price-conscious emerging markets. And that has helped make up for ground the BlackBerry has lost to cutting-edge devices such as Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S III in North America and Europe.

"RIM and its products, however obsolescent, are still relevant in the parts of the planet where most people live," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson. "The bad news is that these results have little or no bearing on what remains true, and that is, RIM still needs to execute on BB10."

In an attempt to create a buzz, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins gave a preview of the new smartphone and its features to app developers at an event on Tuesday in San Jose, California.

Analysts said RIM struck the right chords at the event but cautioned that it is hard to evaluate how well the BB10 devices will work in real world conditions until they are on the market.

"We are now just a few months away from our launch and our teams are working night and day to meet the expectations we have of ourselves," said Heins on a conference call after the results were released on Thursday.

Heins said RIM executives have met with dozens of carriers in more than 16 countries in the last few weeks and the feedback on the new devices so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

QUARTERLY RESULTS

Shipments of BlackBerry smartphones were 7.4 million in the quarter, easily outpacing Wall Street's expectation of about 6.9 million.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company reported a net loss of $235 million, or 45 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter. That compared with a profit of $329 million, or 63 cents, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding one-time restructuring-related items, the loss came in at $142 million, or 27 cents a share, in the quarter just ended.

Revenue rose to $2.9 billion, a gain of 2 percent from the fiscal first quarter, but the latest result was down about 30 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected RIM to report a loss of 46 cents a share, on revenues of $2.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"You still have revenue declining 31 percent on a year-over-year basis but it's certainly not the train wreck that a lot of people feared," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "They live to fight another day."

CASH PILE

RIM also increased its cash to about $2.3 billion from $2.2 billion in the fiscal first quarter.

"In the last two quarters RIM has done a really good job on collecting on receivables," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, but he cautioned that this was not sustainable over the long run and RIM would have to return to a profitable business model for it to thrive once again.

While RIM has warned that it faces another operating loss in its fiscal third quarter, it expects its cash position to remain stable unless it is hit by restructuring charges.

Wu believes that the company can achieve this by continuing to draw down on its receivables, which stood just shy of $2.2 billion as of Sept 1.

RIM's chief financial officer said the company had entered into a new secured credit facility of $500 million which expires in September 2013, and in the first half RIM realized some $350 million of the up to $1 billion in cost savings it hopes to achieve in fiscal 2013, which ends on March 2 of next year.

The company, which earlier this year said it would cut about 5,000 jobs to save money, said it has already laid off roughly 2,500 workers.

"It's still bad, but it's a much smaller disaster than expected," said Wu. "These stocks all trade on expectations. Expectations were really low, and they were able to beat that."

RIM's U.S.-listed shares surged 20 percent to $8.55 in trade after the closing bell on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp, Allison Martell and Cameron French; Editing by Frank McGurty and Edmund Klamann)

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* Second-quarter adjusted EPS $0.09 vs est $0.12

* Second-quarter revenue $105.1 mln vs est $113.3 mln

* Shares down 10 percent after the bell

Aug 9 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Pegasystems Inc's quarterly results fell short of analysts' expectations as customers in Europe delayed orders, sending its shares down nearly 10 percent after the bell.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 9 cents per share for the second quarter, while revenue rose marginally to $105.1 million.

Analysts on average were expecting Pegasystems to earn 12 cents per share on revenue of $113.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Pegasystems sells software that help companies manage business processes and customer relationships.

"Some larger deals are being split into smaller projects, which, while still planned, are being pushed into future quarters," Chief Financial Officer Craig Dynes said in a statement.

He said the delays also made it very difficult for the company to surpass its full-year revenue goal of $500 million.

Analysts had estimated the company's full-year revenue at $490.5 million.

Pegasystems had a net loss of $2.3 million, or 6 cents per share, for the second quarter, compared with a profit of $2.3 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

Operating expenses rose 13 percent.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company's shares, which closed down 3 percent at $27.02 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, fell further to $24.28 after the bell.

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A trader works at the Knight Capital kiosk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange August 1, 2012.

NEW YORK | Thu Aug 2, 2012 11:12am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Knight Capital Group Inc is being forced to raise money after an erroneous trading position wiped out $440 million of its capital, the firm said on Thursday, causing its shares to shed half of their value.

Problems at Knight, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading on Wednesday.

"The company is actively pursuing its strategic and financing alternatives to strengthen its capital base," Knight said in a statement. Its shares were down 49.7 percent at $3.49 in morning trading after hitting an all-time low of $3.15.

Knight has already approached JPMorgan Chase & Co for financing, according to a report on Fox Business Network. But it was unclear if that financing would be granted. A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment.

Wednesday's technology breakdown roiled the prices of some 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, undermining fragile investor confidence in the stability of U.S. stock markets.

Speaking on Bloomberg Television, Knight Capital Chief Executive Officer Tom Joyce said the firm had "excess capital right now." On Tuesday night, it had put in new software that had a bug, he said.

The firm said it was in compliance with capital requirements and that it had traded out of the entire position.

"This issue was related to Knight's installation of trading software and resulted in Knight sending numerous erroneous orders in NYSE-listed securities into the market," Knight said. "This software has been removed from the company's systems."

The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have eroded retail investors' confidence.

Others include the botched Facebook Inc initial public offering, the 2010 "flash crash" in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.

Specialists in securities industry operations issues said the wave of recent problems pointed to an unsettling reliance on automated trading facilities that is robbing investors of confidence in the markets.

"We're losing the human control in our business," said Joe Anastasio, a founding partner of financial services consulting firm Capco who specializes in stock trading issues. "We've been so focused on automated throughput of orders and high-volume execution with no human intervention that we have lost the human logic factor when things go wrong."

One of the problems, he said, is that millions of orders stack up overnight for automatic execution at the opening of trading, with a single error potentially creating a deluge of bad trades.

Knight said its principal broker-dealer subsidiaries were fully compliant with their net capital requirements despite the pretax loss of about $440 million that has "severely impacted" the parent company's capital base.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are looking into Knight's trading error, according to William Brodsky, CEO of top U.S. options market CBOE Holdings Inc.

"It's obvious that it appears that there was a technology glitch in the trading algorithm," Brodsky told analysts on Thursday. "All markets have rules to address these types of situations."

On July 18, Knight reported second-quarter earnings of $3.3 million, down 81 percent from a year earlier after recording a $35.4 million pretax trading loss from the Facebook initial public offering. The company has not yet filed its second-quarter report with regulators.

Knight's average daily U.S. equities market-making volume has fallen from a year ago as trading volumes have declined across the stock market. Daily market-making volume was $19.5 billion in June, a 12 percent decline from a year earlier.

More than 83 million shares of Knight stock have changed hands on Thursday, making it the most actively traded issue on U.S. exchanges.

(Additional reporting by Jed Horowitz, Sam Forgione, John McCrank, Ann Saphir and David Henry; Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Von Ahn)

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