Frontrunning: June 10

• Ukraine, Russia Fail to Reach Deal in Natural-Gas Talks (WSJ)
• Boko Haram Kidnaps More Girls in Nigeria (WSJ)
• Déjà vu: echoes of pre-crisis world mount (FT)
• Money market rates hit new low as ECB moves gain traction (Reuters)
• ‘Dark Pools’ Face New SEC Probe (WSJ)
• White House-Congress rift over Bergdahl deal deepens (Reuters)
• Buffett Ready to Double $15 Billion Solar, Wind Bet (BBG)
• Taxpayers Face Big Medicare Tab for Unusual Doctor Billings (WSJ)
• Lean Retirement Faces U.S. Generation X as Wealth Trails (BBG)
• Employers’ skills gap claim does not show up in US wage data (FT)
• He is holding out for the Zuckerberg overbid: Donald Sterling says LA Clippers not for sale (WSJ)
• Currency Carry Trades Rise in ECB’s Negative-Rate World (BBG)
• High Yields on Chinese Corporate Bonds Lure Investors, Concerns About Economic Growth Put Aside (WSJ)
• Two GM lawyers, quality control executive among those pushed out over switch (Reuters)
• Tyson Wins Bid Against Itself (WSJ)
• Greek deputy prime minister taken to hospital (Reuters)
• Betting on boring brings stock outperformance in 2014 (Reuters)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* General Motors Co’s directors and executives head to Tuesday’s annual shareholder meeting under pressure to explain what they will do about admissions that employees mishandled a deadly safety defect, and what they estimate the total cost of that behavior will be. (http://r.reuters.com/ref99v)

* Tyson Foods Inc won the auction for Hillshire Brands Co, but it ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars more than necessary to beat the next-best offer. Tyson’s price of $63 a share for the Chicago-based maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and other meat products, turned out to be far more than Tyson needed to pay to beat out Pilgrims Pride Corp’s bid. (http://r.reuters.com/fef99v)

* The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a number of big “dark pools” and exploring whether the trading systems are properly disclosing to clients how they operate, treating all investors fairly and protecting confidential client information, people familiar with the probes said. (http://r.reuters.com/hef99v)

* Merck agreed to acquire Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc for $24.50 a share in cash, or $3.85 billion. Merck’s offer is more than triple of the stock’s Friday closing price of $7.23. The premium was fueled by a competitive bidding process, according to Merck. (http://r.reuters.com/kef99v)

* Internet company GoDaddy Inc filed for its initial public offering and said it plans to raise up to $100 million. The company said the amount is a placeholder amount used in deciding registration fees and will likely change. (http://r.reuters.com/pef99v)

* In the opening minutes of a trial that could upend American college sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Monday said it settled a separate lawsuit over the use of college players’ likenesses in videogames made by Electronic Arts Inc. The NCAA said it would pay $20 million to current and former Bowl Subdivision football players and Division I men’s basketball players. The case had been set to go to trial in March. (http://r.reuters.com/tef99v)

* Some Spanish government bond yields dipped below U.S. Treasury yields, adding another twist to a year of surprises for the world’s bond markets. Yields on the 10-year Spanish bond fell to 2.579 percent on Monday, according to Tradeweb, lower than the 2.615 percent yield on the 10-year Treasury note for the first time since April 2010, before the euro zone tumbled into its debt crisis. (http://r.reuters.com/vyd99v)

 

FT

Time Warner is finalising deal to buy New York-based Vice Media that would value the digital media and publishing group at more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from BP Plc to keep compensation payments for businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster suspended.

Talks brokered by the South African government to end the five-month platinum strike that is battering the country’s economy collapsed on Monday with the world’s top three producers in a deadlock with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

U.S. womenswear chain Chico’s has been in talks over a potential sale to private equity bidders, according to sources, one of whom said the company would likely command a premium of about 30 per cent to its $2.36 billion market capitalisation.