TV News LIES

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced an 18% rise in profits to $1.3bn for the second quarter in statement that was accidently released before US stock markets closed.

But the firm said that despite rising profits, it plans to lay off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 workers.

HP had previously announced it would cut 34,000 jobs as part of a restructuring announced in 2012.

U.S. regulators found illegal collections of fees or severe compliance shortfalls in more than half of the private-equity firms it has examined since 2012, a signal the industry could face tougher oversight or sanctions.

“By far, the most common observation our examiners have made when examining private-equity firms has to do with the adviser’s collection of fees and allocation of expenses,” Drew Bowden, director of the SEC’s office of compliance inspections and examinations, said today in a speech at the Private Fund Compliance Forum in New York. “We have identified what we believe are violations of law or material weaknesses in controls over 50 percent of the time.”

When President Barack Obama visited an Amazon's fulfillment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee last year, he compared it to Santa's workshop. "This is kind of like the North Pole of the south right here," he said. Then speaking of the workers, he added, "Got a bunch of good-looking elves here."

What went unsaid and unnoticed was that the Amazon "elves" would not have jobs or prospects after the holidays. Many of the people in those Amazon warehouses were among the long-term unemployed – shuffling from one temporary job to another to another. Due to this unstable employment, number of them have found themselves living in shelters.

Employees at Pfizer Inc's U.S. research centers, such as the La Jolla, California site that specializes in cancer drugs, may want to dust off their resumes if the company's proposed acquisition of Britain's AstraZeneca comes to fruition.

Pfizer said on Friday it was determined to reach a deal that would restore its status as the world's biggest pharmaceutical company despite AstraZeneca's rejection of its latest cash and stock offer of 63 billion pounds ($106 billion).

Apple, Inc. issued $12 billion of dollar-denominated bonds as the iPhone maker seeking to reward shareholders locked in a cheaper alternative than overseas cash that’s subject to repatriation taxes.

The sale included $2.5 billion of 3.45 percent, 10-year notes that pay 77 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The spread was less than the approximately 90 basis points that was marketed earlier today, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and Britain’s Barclays Bank PLC announced a $280 million settlement Thursday in a lawsuit about bad mortgage bonds sold by the bank in the run up to the housing-market collapse.

Barclays agreed to pay $227 million to Freddie Mac and another $53 million to Fannie Mae for violations of securities laws over a period of 2005 to 2007. The bank committed the alleged violations during the sale to those quasi-government entities of mortgage-backed securities.