Top 10 News for 03/24 - 03/28: Fed Stress Test Results Released; Facebook's 'Virtual' Acquisition; A 'Royal' IPO

1. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced it has approved the capital plans of 25 bank holding companiesparticipating in the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR). The Federal Reserve objected to the plans of the other five participating firms--four based on qualitative concerns and one because it did not meet a minimum post-stress capital requirement.

The Federal Reserve did not object to the capital plans for Ally Financial Inc.; American Express Company; Bank of AmericaCorporation; The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation; BB&T Corporation; BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc.; BMO Financial Corp.; Capital One Financial Corporation; Comerica Incorporated; Discover Financial Services; Fifth Third Bancorp; The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; Huntington Bancshares Incorporated; JP Morgan Chase & Co.; Keycorp; M&T Bank Corporation; Morgan Stanley; Northern Trust Corporation; The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; Regions Financial Corporation; State Street Corporation; SunTrust Banks, Inc.; U.S. Bancorp; UnionBanCal Corporation; and Wells Fargo & Company. Bank of America Corporation and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., met minimum capital requirements after submitting adjusted capital actions.


2. Tuesday night, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) announced reaching a definitive agreement to acquireOculus VR, Inc., the leader in immersive virtual reality technology, for a total of approximately $2 billion. This includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion based on the average closing price of the 20 trading days preceding March 21, 2014 of $69.35 per share). The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones.

3. The WSJ said Sunday night that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) may be close to unveiling a revolutionary TV product in partnership with the country's largest cable provider. The report said that Apple and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) are in talks to allow an Apple set-top box to stream lives shows and movies and bypass network congestion by using Comcast's network backbone.

4. Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) peer King Digital Entertainment (NYSE: KING), the maker of popular mobile game Candy Crush, conducted its IPO this week. The stock opened for trading at $20.50 on Wednesday, after pricing 22.2 shares at $22.50 per share, the middle of the expected $21 to $24 range. For more on the debut, click here.

5. Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) provided an update on China regulatory reviews this week. As a result of the reviews, Nu Skin China was penalized in the amount of US $524,000 (RMB 3.26 million) for the sale of certain products by individual direct sellers that, while permitted for sale in Nu Skin China's retail stores, were not registered for the direct selling channel. Nu Skin China was also fined US $16,000 (RMB 100,000) for product claims that were deemed to lack sufficient documentary support. The company understands that six of its sales employees have been fined for unauthorized promotional activities in an aggregate amount of US $241,000 (RMB 1.50 million). In addition, Nu Skin China was asked to enhance the education and supervision of sales representatives. The company is already taking steps to correct the issues raised in the AIC reviews, and is not aware of any other material enforcement investigations currently pending in China.

6. Friday morning, BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) reported Q4 EPS of ($0.08), $0.49 better than the analyst estimate of ($0.57). Revenue for the quarter came in at $976 million versus the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the fourth quarter, the Company recognized hardware revenue on approximately 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones compared to approximately 1.9 million BlackBerry smartphones in the previous quarter. During the fourth quarter, approximately 3.4 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold through to end customers, which included shipments made and recognized prior to the fourth quarter and which reduced the Company's inventory in channel. Of the BlackBerry smartphones sold through to end customers in the fourth quarter, approximately 2.3 million were BlackBerry 7 devices.

7. Thursday morning, Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE: BAX) announced plans to create two separate, independent global healthcare companies -- one focused on developing and marketing innovative biopharmaceuticals and the other on life-saving medical products. Both will be global leaders in their respective markets.

8. Tuesday afternoon, The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice providing answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on virtual currency, such as Bitcoin. These FAQs provide basic information on the U.S. federal tax implications of transactions in, or transactions that use, virtual currency. In some environments, virtual currency operates like “real” currency -- i.e., the coin and paper money of the United States or of any other country that is designated as legal tender, circulates, and is customarily used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issuance -- but it does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction. For more on the decision, click here.

9. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) on Thursday announced several new and updated applications and services including Microsoft Office for iPad and free Office Mobile apps for iPhone and Android phones. Microsoft also announced the Enterprise Mobility Suite, a comprehensive set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on the devices people use at work and at home. In addition, the company announced the upcoming availability of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium and enhancements to Windows Intune. For more from the release, click here.

10. DirectTV (NYSE: DTV) and DISH Networks (Nasdaq: DISH) popped Wednesday afternoon on reports that Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen approached DirecTV CEO Mike White about a merger of the two companies. The talks appear to be in response to Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) $45 billion proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), which was announced last month.

Source:http://www.streetinsider.com/Special+Reports/Top+10+News+for+0324+-+0328%3A+Fed+Stress+Test+Results+Released%3B+Facebooks+Virtual+Acquisition%3B+A+Royal+IPO/9327725.html