Business news with words billion+continues. 50 news.

CITIGROUP Inc, the biggest US bank, may cut its dividend by 40 percent to preserve capital and write down more fixed income securities than it has told investors to expect, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The New York bank may write off US$18.7 billion in collateralized debt obligations such as subprime mortgages, up from its November 4 estimate of as much as US$11 billion, Goldman's William F. Tanona wrote in a note on Wednesday. Citigroup, which paid out 54 cents each quarter this year, will have to raise US$6.2 billion in extra capital to reach its target, they wrote. "It will be a couple of quarters before the current credit crisis is fully digested by the markets," wrote Tanona, who has a "sell" rating on the stock. "Given the magnitude of the writedowns we assume and Citi's remaining exposure, we believe the firm has a serious need to preserve or raise additional capital." Chief Executive Officer Charles O. "Chuck" Prince III

The consortium developing the Kashagan oil field agreed to pay Kazakhstan up to $4 billion for cost overruns and delays.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues unabated, a plethora of articles are focusing on the possible endangerment to the $9+ billion TV upfront market. From what I can glean from the press and repressed utterances from the national media buying community, the inflection point seems to be the March development slate. Or in this instance, the lack of one, since the writers have spent the present season with pickets in hand instead of pens.

As the U.S. holiday retail season shifts into fifth gear, the Nintendo Wii continues to be the top searched-for product this holiday season, Hitwise reported Thursday. Searches for the Wii have increased a whopping 274% for the week ending Dec. 8 versus the previous week. More than $20 billion has been spent online during the first 41 days of the November-December 2007 holiday season, according to comScore.

A giant Greenwich hedge fund continues to get clobbered as volatility whipsaws its computer-generated trading models. AQR Capital Management's flagship fund, the $4 billion AQR Absolute Return fund, dropped an additional 5.8 percent in November...

AQR Capital Management, a hedge fund known for its quantitative trading strategies, continues to get clobbered as volatility whipsaws its computer-generated trading models, according to The New York Post. AQR’s flagship fund, the $4 billion AQR Absolute Return fund, dropped an additional 5.8 percent in November after a 3.17 percent loss in October, The Post said. [...]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Drug maker Merck & Co. on Tuesday backed its 2007 profit target range of $3.08 to $3.14 a share, excluding certain items, and anticipates earning per share, including items, in a range of $1.45 to $1.51. Merck expects 2008 profit in a range of $3.28 to $3.38 a share, excluding certain items and profit including items in a range of $3.96 to $4.06 a share. Analysts, on average, expected it to earn $3.15 a share for 2007 and $3.39 a share for 2008, according to Thomson Financial. Merck continues to expect the initial phase of its cost-cutting program, announced in 2005, to yield cumulative pretax savings of $4.5 billion to $5 billion from 2006 through 2010 and as previously stated, about $2 billion of the total restructuring savings through 2010 will result from the implementation of its manufacturing supply strategy. Merck remains on track to cut 7,000 jobs by the end of 2008. So far, through Sept. 30, about 6,000 positions have been eliminated.

THE market value of mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd continues to outstrip the multi-billion-dollar bid put forward by rival BHP Billiton Ltd, according to Rio Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese. "We've seen the market move well past the BHP proposal, which we rejected, and the market to some extent is speaking, it's basically saying that, 'Yes, we agree it's worth a lot more'," Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp television on Friday. Rio Tinto has rejected the merger proposal of three BHP Billiton shares for every Rio share, which is valued at about US$134 billion based on current share levels. Albanese - who returned to company headquarters in London on Saturday after a two-day investor roadshow in Sydney and Melbourne - refused to be drawn on what Rio Tinto was worth, saying the company's value was "several ballparks away" from BHP Billiton's proposal. Rio Tinto has launched a vigorous defense of BHP's unsolicited approach, outlining a blueprint of

INDUSTRIAL and Commercial Bank of China today in Tianjin opened the country's first leasing firm wholly owned by a domestic bank. ICBC Financial Leasing Ltd, registered in Binhai District in Tianjin with a capital of two billion yuan (US$271 million), will offer aircraft and ship financing services, said Yang Kaisheng, director of the country's biggest lender. The bank signed cooperation agreements with China National Aviation Holding Company, COSCO Group, Hainan Airlines and a Canadian company at the opening ceremony. The commission has also given approval to Minsheng Bank, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank to enter the leasing business. The leasing business may help reduce strong demand for ships and planes as the country's economy continues to grow quickly. Over the past 10 years, China's demand for planes has doubled while about 90 percent of the financing for plane leases on the mainland are provided by foreign companies. The

UNITED States stocks posted their third weekly drop this month last Friday after the Federal Reserve reduced its economic growth outlook, Freddie Mac reported a record loss and Lowe's Cos slashed its profit forecast. Freddie Mac plunged the most since going public in 1988 and led financial shares lower after losses on mortgage securities prompted it to seek a capital infusion. Lowe's, the second-largest home-improvement retailer, fell the most in five years after same-store sales slipped for the fifth straight quarter. Miners and computer-related companies also fell amid speculation that tighter credit and weak consumer spending will slow the world's largest economy through next year. The Fed cut its 2008 growth forecast to as low as 1.8 percent, down from the 2.5 percent to 2.75 percent anticipated in June, Bloomberg News said. "The housing overhang continues to be a major problem for the economy," said Barry James, who helps manage about US$2.1 billion as president

According to a new release from Borrell Associates, real estate agents, who initially tried to appease home sellers by advertising more on traditional channels, this year cut their print budgets and pushed more money into the Web. Total ad spending on real estate has declined 3 percent this year, while spending on the online segment has grown 25.8 percent, hitting $2.6 billion. Borrell projects online real estate advertising to grow at 12.4 percent next year while total real estate advertising continues to compress. In three years, says the report, agents and brokers will be spending more ad dollars with online media than with the newspaper.

Banking group HSBC yesterday revealed an extra 1.4 billion US dollar (£700m) hit in its American mortgage business as it continues to suffer from the country's sub

The rate of online ad spending growth continues to ebb, but continues to outpace that of every other major medium, expanding at 25.3% - or by $1.1 billion - during the third quarter of 2006, according to figures released this morning by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. While marketing a slowdown from the third-quarter 2006's 33% rate of growth, online ad spending continues to expand on a sequential basis, with third quarter 2007's ad dollar volume rising nearly 3% over the second quarter of 2007. The results, published in the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, show that all three quarters in 2007 have set new highs - Q1 at $4.9 billion, Q2 at $5.1 billion, and now Q3 at $5.2 billon. Revenues for the first nine months of 2007 totaled $15.2 billion, up nearly 26% over the $12.1 billion recorded during the first nine months of 2006. IAB President-CEO Randall Rothenberg attributed the ad dollar expansion to headway made with marketers who are "increasingly" understanding the benefits of interactive advertising. "Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy," he sated. Peter Petrusky, director of PWC 's Entertainment, Media and Communications Practice, said that based on the current figures, online ad spending is exceeding a $20 billion "run-rate," and growth continues to be stimulated by the expansion of newer online ad platforms, such as broadband video, rich Internet applications, mobile, and social media. The point of view on the latter's contribution may be the subject of debate, following a speech given this weekend by Publicis Chairman-CEO Maurice Levy, who said the zeal surrounding the advertising potential of social networks may be hyper inflated. Levy called Microsoft's $340 million acquisition of 1% of Facebook, "crazy."

BHP Billiton says a merger with Rio Tinto could harness $4 billion in synergies, as the major miner continues to push for discussions with a reluctant target.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- American Tower Corp., the Boston developer of broadcast and wireless-communications sites, reported on Wednesday that third-quarter earnings jumped on 10% higher revenue. Earnings reached $59.6 million, or 14 cents a share, from $3.5 million, or 1 cent, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $367.6 million from $333.5 million. A survey of analysts by Thomson Financial produced a consensus estimate of 7 cents of profit on $363 million of revenue. Demand for tower space continues "robust," Chief Executive Jim Taiclet said in a statement. AMT increased its estimate for total revenue in 2007, now pegging the figure at around $1.42 billion. Thomson's survey is looking for $1.44 billion. The company has $477 millon remaining on its stock-buyback plan and expects to complete the plan by the end of February.

CHINESE brokerages will likely see growth enter a "golden period" in the coming two years on the backdrop of a booming stock market and regulatory support to new businesses, industry analysts said. However, domestic securities firms are expected to meet a raft of challenges including moves to lessen dependence on brokering incomes and measures to retain existing clients, insiders noted. The combined brokerage commission income of Chinese mainland stock houses may reach 150 billion yuan (US$20.1 billion) to 170 billion yuan this year, jumping nearly five-fold from a year before, according to estimates by Everbright Securities Co. The cumulative brokering commissions had reached about 137 billion yuan in the first three quarters during which the benchmark stock index in Shanghai more than doubled amid hectic turnover. "The brokerage business will still be the key to shoring up stock firms' bottom line in the next few years," said Wei Quanhui, a Huatai

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- House Democrats on Friday said they would move to quickly override President Bush's veto of a $23 billion bill funding a range of water projects. A veto override requires two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate. The bill previously cleared both chambers by veto-proof majorities -- 381-40 in the House and 81-12 in the Senate. "As with Iraq, children's health care and other national priorities, the president continues to stand in the way of progress," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Bush, in a message to the House, said the package was fiscally irresponsible. "The authorization and funding of federal water resources projects should be focused on those projects with the greatest merit that are also a federal responsibility," Bush said.

As the mobile operator continues to lose customers in its core business and looks for a new CEO, it's considering a switch in strategy for the $5 billion next-generation wireless network, according to a news report.

NEWY YORK (MarketWatch) -- SPX Corp. on Wednesday said third-quarter net income rose to $92.9 million, or $1.75 a share, from a loss of $48.1 million, or 85 cents a share in the year-ago period. Income from continuing operations increased to $1.71 a share from 87 cents a share. Revenue climbed 19% to $1.23 billion from $1.03 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast earnings of $1.20 a share and revenue of $1.24 billion, on average. The Charlotte, N.C. manufacturer increased its 2007 profit forecast to $4.70 to $4.80 a share from $4.50 to $4.70 a share. "Our focus on power and energy infrastructure continued to drive strong organic growth in the third quarter, and we are pleased with the solid margin improvement in three of our four segments," the company said. "As expected, our Test and Measurement segment continues to experience difficulties related to the domestic automotive market."

The joint operation with Vodafone recorded $11.3 billion in revenue with a total of 63.7 million customers in its third quarter.