WALL STREET JOURNAL: Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Vodafone Group (VOD) and Verizon Communications (VZ), is in talks to acquire Alltel Corp. in a deal valued at about $27B, the Wall Street Journal reported If successful, the combined companies would create the largest cellphone company, and would be better positioned to compete against AT&T (T)…Gregory B. Penner, the son-in-law of Wal-Mart (WMT) chairman S. Robson Walton, is expected to join the company’s board of directors, a move seen as the beginning of a leadership change at the company, according to the Wall Street Journal…FINANCIAL TIMES: The Financial Times reported that Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek refused to provide funds to Bear Stearns shortly before Bear’s sale to JPMorgan. (JPM). Temasek reportedly refused the request for practical and political reasons…Russia’s Interior Ministry questioned the head of BP’s (BP) Russian oil venture as part of a criminal investigation into possible large-scale tax evasion, the Financial Times reported…
Developers see first version of Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5.4-MacRumors.com
Apple (AAPL) has already started seeding developers with the first version of Mac OS X 10.5.4. There is no time frame for the release but the company can wait months between maintenance release.
AAPL iPhone already here? Shipment clues and some other evidence say so.
AAPL: Checks indicate new iPhones will be announced next week@AMTR
Am Tech’s supply chain contacts indicate that Apple will introduce new iPhones at its WWDC event, and the firm predicts that the 3g hardware will be priced in-line with other products, while the prices of 2.5g versions will be reduced by $50-$100. Am Tech believes Apple is a must-own large tech stock, and they recommend buying it on any pullbacks.
MBIA, Ambac may not attempt to preserve their credit ratings-Bloomberg
MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK) may abandon their struggle to retain Aaa credit ratings for their bond insurance units, following Moody’s decision to put the units’ ratings under review for a second time this year. The bond insurers said they would not raise capital following Moody’s move, which the ratings agency said would probably result in downgrades of the companies’ insurance ratings.
JASO: View shares are undervalued, reiterate Strong Buy@NEED
Needham points out the company has supply agreements for silicon wafers that more than covers 100% of their 2008/2009 sales estimates. They view shares as undervalued at 12x their 2009 estimate and reiterate a Strong Buy rating.
U.S. equity futures are pointing to a higher open as retail sales for the month of May are being released. Individual stores are releasing figures this morning but the chain-store sales report is due out this afternoon at 1:00 pm ET. Analysts are expecting an increase of 1.8%. Although sales have been lower there is hope that consumers will use their government stimulus checks to help them going forward. Investors also received employment data when the initial jobless claims report was released. It showed initial jobless claims were 357,000 versus an expected 375,000.