December 18 Biz Minute

Google is in talks to acquire the popular reviews website Yelp. Reports suggest that the search engine giant is prepared to pay as much as $500 million for the San Francisco startup.

Mojave-based Xcor Aerospace, a California company developing a rocket plane for space tourism announced yesterday that it has an agreement with Yecheon Astro Space Center, a nonprofit group in South Korea, to conduct launches in that nation.

General Motors said today it will shut down Saab after talks to sell the brand to a Dutch carmaker collapsed, marking the third time this year that a deal by GM to sell an unwanted brand has fallen through.
MEANWHILE -
Ford Motor Co. said they plan to speed up their debt repayment as their financial condition continues to improve.


Irish airline Ryanair said today it had pulled out of talks to buy 200 aircraft from Boeing and would now trim investment from 2011 to cut costs and free up cash to pay to investors.

Thornburg Mortgage Inc, once one of the leading providers of "jumbo" residential mortgages with some $24 billion of assets, became one of the biggest casualties of the subprime housing crisis when it filed for bankruptcy last May. Today they gained court approval to auction the company's $11 billion mortgage servicing portfolio early next year.

Citing the billions of dollars in taxpayer aid that his firm has accepted, Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack is forgoing a year-end bonus for the third straight year.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Google
• Yelp
• Xcor Aerospace
• Yecheon Astro Space Center
• rocket plane
• space
• south korea
• General Motors
• GM
• Saab
• Ford
• Ryanair
• Boeing
• hornburg
• thornburg mortgage
• morgan stanley
• jonh mack