BofA to exit correspondent mortgage business

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina | Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:54pm EDT

(Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) is looking to sell its correspondent mortgage business, continuing a push to shed parts of its home loans division, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

The largest U.S. bank by assets decided to exit the correspondent channel, which employs more than 1,000 people, because it no longer fits with the long-term strategy for its mortgage unit, Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said.

“We intend to sell the correspondent mortgage lending division or, if a suitable deal is not identified, we will consider other options,” said Frahm.

The potential sale is also the latest in the bank’s broader move to shed assets as it looks to raise capital to meet new industry standards, and potentially absorb billions in home loan-related losses.

Within its home loans business, Bank of America has eliminated its reverse mortgage business and its wholesale mortgage operation, along with selling Balboa Insurance — which provides lenders insurance on foreclosures.

Correspondents fund loans and sell them to larger lenders.

Banks typically use correspondent lending to generate more mortgages to, in turn, sell to investors and service them.

Loans purchased from correspondents accounted for 47 percent of Bank of America’s mortgage originations, or $27.4 billion, in the first quarter of 2011, the Wall Street Journal said citing Inside Mortgage Finance.

The biggest U.S. bank plans to cut 3,500 jobs in the next few weeks, its Chief Executive Brian Moynihan had said in a memo to staff on August 18, as it tries to come to grips with $1 trillion of problem home mortgages.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott and Gunna Dickson)

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Icahn offers to backstop a Clorox auction

By Dhanya Skariachan and Paritosh Bansal

NEW YORK | Tue Aug 30, 2011 7:21pm EDT

(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on Tuesday his nominees for Clorox Co’s (CLX.N) board would try to sell the bleach maker if elected, with him backstopping an auction with a $10.26 billion bid.

The move is the latest salvo in an intensifying battle for Clorox, where Icahn launched a proxy fight after the board rejected two of his buyout offers, the last one worth $10.52 billion, or $80 a share. Icahn is Clorox’s largest shareholder, with a 9.51 percent stake.

Icahn also sought to resolve questions about how he would finance his latest $78 per share bid, saying he would pay at least half in cash and the rest in bonds.

That effectively means Clorox shareholders would have to partly financehis bid. Icahn did not give any details of who would issue the unsecured notes or what the terms would be.

For his earlier bids, Icahn had secured a “highly confident” letter of financing from Jefferies Group Inc (JEF.N), which unlike committed financing does not guarantee the funds.

Doubts remained about the latest move by Icahn, whose bid is widely seen as an attempt to see if any other buyer will emerge.

The shares of the 99-year-old company, which makes a range of products from bleach to Burt’s Bees lotions, were up 2.7 percent, but were nearly $8 below Icahn’s offer of $78 per share.

“Other potentially strategic buyers have continued to sit on the sidelines despite his efforts to provoke them,” Morningstar analyst Erin Lash said.

Icahn is a billionaire many times over — his net worth was pegged at $12.5 billion by Forbes as of March — but even for him a deal on his current terms would mean writing a massive check.

Clorox said the proposal substantially undervalues the company and is not credible.

“Icahn is now looking to fund up to half of the purchase price of his inadequate, highly conditional proposal by borrowing from Clorox stockholders,” it said.

Clorox is the latest battle for the 75-year-old investor, whose very foray into a stock is known to strike fear in the hearts of corporate directors.

But the fortunes of the corporate raider-turned-activist are far from even and results are not guaranteed, as he draws on his well-known playbook.

On Tuesday, he agreed to shed his stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N) after a long battle.

Earlier this month, he lost a proxy battle at Forest Laboratories Inc (FRX.N). But he also saw his years-long investment in Motorola turn around when Google Inc (GOOG.O) agreed to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (MMI.N) for $12.5 billion.

RAISING PRESSURE

Icahn first offered to buy Clorox in July for $76.50 per share, a 12 percent premium at the time. After Clorox rejected the bid and adopted a poison pill to make an unwanted takeover more expensive, Icahn raised his bid but was again spurned.

Icahn stepped up the pressure earlier this month, saying he wanted to replace the entire Clorox board. He said he wanted to nominate himself, his son and nine other people for election to the board at the company’s next annual shareholder meeting.

Icahn said on Tuesday that a deal would be subject to the approval of the new Clorox board and would be voted on by Clorox shareholders.

“The Clorox shareholders should have the right to decide for themselves whether to accept my bid or a better bid, which I believe will be forthcoming from the sale process,” he said.

But analysts and bankers said Icahn may have trouble persuading Clorox investors the bid was high enough.

Using the multiple that Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) paid for Alberto Culver earlier this year as a guide, Morningstar’s Lash said Clorox would be worth about $90 per share.

Chances are low the bid will pass muster with Clorox’s existing board or investors, these experts said.

“Clorox has shown no interest, so lowering the bid and offering notes isn’t that compelling,” said an investment banker, who is not involved in the deal.

“I don’t think this move is going to motivate anyone to change their mind. Even if Icahn won board control, it doesn’t mean anyone will bid,” said the banker, who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Clorox shares closed up $1.89 at $70.52 on Tuesday.

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Fed to hold hearings on Capital One, ING deal

By Dave Clarke

WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 26, 2011 6:23pm EDT

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that it will hold three public meetings on the proposed purchase of ING Groep NV’s online bank ING Direct by Capital One Financial Corp.

The hearings will be held in September and October in Washington, Chicago and San Francisco.

The Fed also announced that it will extend the public comment period on the deal through October 12.

The Fed said the hearings will help it determine if the deal will “produce benefits to the public” that “outweigh possible adverse effects, such as undue concentration of resources, decreased or unfair competition, conflicts of interests, unsound banking practices, and risk to the stability of the U.S. banking or financial system.”

Capital One agreed in June to buy ING Direct from the Dutch banking and insurance group for $9 billion in stock and cash. ING had to sell the business, one of the jewels of its retail banking franchise, as part of a deal with the European Commission following its October 2008 Dutch government bailout.

Capital One said in a statement on Friday that it respects the board’s decision to hold hearings and looks forward to “telling our story.”

Some consumer groups and members of Congress have called on the Fed to further scrutinize the deal.

Earlier this month, Representative Barney Frank, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote the Fed asking that hearings be held and the comment period extended.

“This proposed purchase would create the fifth-largest bank in the United States,” Frank wrote. “For this reason alone, care should be taken to thoroughly examine the impact.”

Consumer groups have questioned the deal, arguing it would create the type of “too big to fail” bank that the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law is suppose to discourage.

They also have taken aim at Capital One, arguing the bank does not provide enough home loans to low-income communities and has “predatory” credit card practices.

“We have serious concerns about the impact of the deal on consumers, communities and theeconomy,” National Community Reinvestment Coalition President John Taylor said in an August 17 release. “Why rush to create another Too-Big-to-Fail bank?”

Capital One has pushed back against complaints, arguing the new entity would have a little more than $300 billion in assets, far less than the biggest U.S. banks.

“In each of our prior bank acquisitions, we have substantially increased our investments that serve lower income communities, providing $2.2 billion over and above those predecessor banks in their footprints,” the bank said in a statement on Friday. “Furthermore, we are actually adding thousands of jobs to (the) economy at a time when many financial services companies are announcing sizable reductions.”

(Reporting by Dave Clarke, Editing by Carol Bishopric and Tim Dobbyn)

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Apple fans pay tribute to “industry icon” Jobs

By Sarah McBride and Melanie Lee

SAN FRANCISCO/SHANGHAI | Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:02am EDT

SAN FRANCISCO/SHANGHAI (Reuters)- From San Francisco to Seoul to Sydney, fans of Apple Inc paid tribute to Steve Jobs after he resigned as CEO, calling him an icon for the entire technology industry, not just the company he co-founded.

The extraordinary outpouring on blogs and Twitter began minutes after Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, announced he would leave the chief executive’s post but carry on as chairman of Apple.

“Steve Jobs was the Leonardo da Vinci of our age,” said popular British novelist and journalist Tony Parsons on his Twitter page. “So thank you — without you, it would have all been ugly, difficult and dull.”

In Asia, home to legions of Jobs fans as well as scores of rip-offs of the products he helped design, customers at Apple stores said the resignation had taken them by surprise.

“I’m surprised he resigned right before the iPhone 5 launch,” said Belinda Liu, a 26-year-old at an Apple store in Shanghai. “I was shocked when I heard the news.”

Apple is likely to launch the iPhone 5, the latest model of its iconic smartphone, in October.

“I make phone calls every day with my iPhone3, send Weibo messages by iPhone4, jog to podcasts downloaded from iTunes, listen to music on my iPod, use applications from the App Store and surf the net with my Mac — never before has a company been entwined so deeply into my life,” said Wang Lifen in a tribute to Jobs on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

Wang is a founder of Umiwi.com, a website that profiles corporate leaders and focuses on news for young people.

At the company’s flagship San Francisco store, the only sign something was amiss was a few groups of employees, huddled together discussing the news. They heard by word of mouth, they said, with no formal announcement by late afternoon on Wednesday to retail workers.

Some customers, however had already heard.

Robert Cory, waiting for help with a broken laptop, learned of Jobs’ resignation from a news alert on his phone. “I feel bad,” said the New York resident. “But Apple will be okay.”

Other customers echoed that sentiment. San Francisco resident Erich Blazeski proclaimed that “Apple is not Steve Jobs.”

MIGHTY JOB

In Australia, customers outside Apple’s flagship two-storey glass-fronted store in downtown Sydney discussed Jobs’ resignation as a musician played inside, using an Apple device that connected an electric guitar to a Mac computer.

“I think it’s rather sad because it reflects his illness but in terms of its influence on the company, I’m sure they’ve been planning for this for quite some time,” said Clive Allcock, a psychiatrist.

“He has done a mighty job getting Apple up and running, it’s a great tribute to him personally and he’ll be well remembered in the world of computing. But I’m sure that it won’t materially affect the company.”

In tech-savvy Singapore, Apple users said the news was unlikely to change anything for the firm, in the short-term.

“Jobs’ departure is unlikely to affect my decisions as to whether I will purchase Apple products or not,” said 25-year-old Sean Xie, who works in the science and technology sector.

“Jobs has built a company and culture over a long time, and that doesn’t change overnight.”

The chief financial officer of a major Apple supplier in Taiwan also said there should be no material effect on the company.

“He’s the king,” said the officer, of Jobs. “Apple has already laid out the road map for future generations of products, it will not affect us as a supplier.”

Some of the most effusive tributes to Jobs came from rivals in the tech industry.

“I think his brilliance has been well-documented, but what gets forgotten is the bravery with which he’s confronted his illness,” Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony, said in a statement.

“For him to achieve this much success under these circumstances doubles his legacy.”

An employee at Samsung, which could benefit the most if Apple relaxes its grip on the smartphone and tablet markets, dismissed the idea that its rival would be hit by Jobs’ departure.

“Apple has already gained a strong foothold as an icon and for its products, so I don’t think something major is going to happen to Apple because of the absence of Jobs,” said the employee, who gave her name as Kim.

“Steve Jobs is not our enemy. He is a veteran and senior figure in this business.”

Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt, a friend of Jobs for years before the Internet search giant’s move into mobile software and devices strained their relationship, wrote a moving testament to the legacy of his erstwhile business partner.

“Steve Jobs is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years,” he said. “He uniquely combined an artist’s touch and an engineers vision to build an extraordinary company… One of the greatest American leaders in history.”

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Amy Pyett in SYDNEY, Clare Jim in TAIPEI, Charmian Kok in SINGAPORE and Jason Subler in SHANGHAI; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnanand Miral Fahmy)

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Romney says would not put limits on emissions

By Jason McLure

LEBANON, New Hampshire | Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:54pm EDT

(Reuters) – Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in danger of losing his 2012 Republican primary front-runner status, on Wednesday he would not place restrictions on carbon emissions if elected.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, also said he does not know if human activity is the primary cause of climate change and does not favor spending heavily on climate solutions.

Asked about global warming at a town hall meeting in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Romney said he believed the world is getting hotter and humans contribute in some way to the change — but could not judge to what extent.

“Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that but I think that it is,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans.”

“What I’m not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.”

In June, a day after launching his second bid for the White House, Romney caused a stir by saying he thought humans had contributed to climate change to some extent.

At that time he made a call for a reduction of “emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that might be significant contributors” to climate change — a suggestion that was not made on Wednesday.

A Romney aide said the candidate has not altered his position on climate change.

A study by the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 found that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities and poses significant risks.” That view is backed by most climate scientists. But surveys have shown that many Republicans do not agree — especially those who are more likely to vote in the primary elections.

Two polls on Wednesday showed Romney, a narrow front-runner in the Republican field for much of the year, has lost the lead in the Republican nominating contest, trailing Rick Perry by double digits. The Texas governor recently jumped into the race.

Campaigning in New Hampshire last week, Perry, who is typically more of a social conservative, called climate change a “theory that still has not been proven” and labeled the science behind it “politicized.”

Romney also said on Wednesday that he would make weaning the United States from imported energy from the Middle East a priority over reducing carbon emissions.

Still, using additional domestic nuclear, natural gas, and other resources could have a side benefit of cutting carbon emissions, Romney said. “My view is pursue a strategy which gets us into energy independence which has as a byproduct it gets us into less CO2 emitting.”

He criticized a bill backed by President Barack Obama that would have capped carbon emissions and allowed polluters to buy and sell rights to emit carbon.

“I do not believe in cap and trade and I do not believe in putting a carbon cap” on polluting industries, Romney said.

(Reporting by Jason McLure; editing by Ros Krasny and Bill Trott)

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Exclusive: Groupon taps Citydeal team to boost sales

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee

BANGALORE | Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:22pm EDT

(Reuters) – No. 1 daily deals website Groupon Inc is turning to executives from Citydeal — the European business it bought last year — to help boost slowing growth in its domestic business, ahead of a planned public listing.

The company appointed Christopher Muhr as its sales chief, taking over from Darren Schwartz, a source familiar with the matter who did not want to be named, said.

Muhr is moving from London where he was managing director of Groupon UK.

The move seems aimed at tapping into the strength of the company’s international team as growth in its domestic market starts to mature.

In June, Groupon filed to raise up to $750 million in an IPO, expected to be one of the most high-profile new listings of 2011.

Groupon’s valuation has dropped 20 percent to $16 billion in the latest private auction of shares, according to brokerage Wedbush Securities.

Wedbush partly blamed that on the market slump, but also highlighted slowing sales growth as a concern.

“Groupon’s recently amended S-1, indicating rapidly decelerating Q2 growth, did little to help drive investor interest in the shares,” Wedbush wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday.

Second-quarter revenue at the company, which offers group-buying deals on everything from spa treatments to flying lessons, was up 36 percent, down from the 63 percent increase it posted in the first quarter.

Groupon ended the second quarter with just over 115 million subscribers — an increase of 32.6 million subscribers — which Wedbush called “disappointing.” Most of the slowdown in growth was in the U.S., Groupon’s most mature market.

Revenue per subscriber fell 12 percent to $8.57 in North America, according to Yipit, which tracks the daily deal industry.

Joining Muhr at the company’s Chicago headquarters are members of the international management team, including fellow Citydeal co-founders Rajen Ruparell, Emanuel Stehle and Jens Hutzschenreuter, the source said.

The changes were communicated to Groupon employees last week, the source said.

When contacted, a Groupon spokeswoman did not immediately confirm the appointments.

Germany’s Citydeal, which Groupon bought last year, was used by the company to kick-start its international operations.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Anthony Kurian, Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Analysis: HP – Dial “M” for mayhem

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO | Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:23pm EDT

(Reuters) – Leo Apotheker’s credibility as a CEO is falling along with Hewlett-Packard’s stock price.

Apotheker, who gained a reputation for sharp business acumen when he headed up SAP, thoroughly flummoxed HP shareholders last week with what some analysts have called a “value destroying” $11.7 billion deal to buy British software maker Autonomy and for sticking a for-sale sign on HP’s PC division — thus scaring off clients for the year or so it will take to decide on the division’s future.

In a resounding rejection of Apotheker’s grand vision, shareholders sent HP shares down almost 20 percent on Friday, wiping out $16 billion of value in the worst single-day fall since the Black Monday stock market crash of October 1987.

Since Apotheker joined HP early last November, the company has lost almost 44 percent of its value, and he has lost a significant amount of investor support.

“We wonder whether activist investors will — and should — begin to exert pressure on the board,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein. “If HP’s results don’t improve, the company will ultimately restructure its portfolio and/or replace its leadership.”

Pat Becker Jr., fund manager at Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc, which owns HP shares, noted that Apotheker has continually failed to instill confidence in his conference calls with investors.

“Every time he has gotten on the call, the stock has gone down substantially,” Becker said.

On a conference call last Thursday following the announcements on Autonomy and the PC division, Apotheker failed to fully address key questions from analysts, including why HP was paying a large premium for Autonomy. When asked about the vision for HP’s PC unit, he said the decision could range from an outright sale to a spinoff to a “potential “nontransaction.”

“That call — was that an ‘A’ performance by a CEO on that acquisition?” asked Becker, whose firm holds HP shares.

An HP spokeswoman said the “strategic transformation” is intended to position the company for a new future and drive long-term shareholder value.

While investors applaud Apotheker’s long-term plan to get out of HP’s commoditized PC business, and the Palm WebOS tablet and smartphone business — considered a capital sinkhole — that goes with it, the $11.7 billion bill for Autonomy and haphazard articulation of the spin-off strategy left many shaking their heads.

HP’s purchase price is a stunningly rich 10 times sales of Autonomy, a cloud search specialist whose revenues are equal to only about 1 percent of HP’s.

HP’s Personal Systems Group, which includes the PC business and the now-defunct TouchPad tablet — faces an uncertain future, which may undermine the business and benefit Dell, whose shares ended up nearly 2 percent on Friday in a broadly weak market.

Even more worrying, HP’s new strategic road map marked an about-face on several crucial fronts, signaling a lack of direction. Executives as recently as May had touted how WebOS would be on every HP product from printers to PCs. In March, they had played up the advantages of serving both consumers and enterprise.

In addition, Apotheker has been forced to slash HP’s sales estimates three times since he took over last November.

IN BIG BLUE’S FOOTSTEPS

It is not the first time HP seems behind the curve. it agreed to buy Compaq in 2001 in what turned out to be a rocky merger. IBM, on the other hand, transformed itself by selling its PC arm to China’s Lenovo in late 2004 and establishing its dominance in enterprise IT. HP appears to be trying to replicate Big Blue’s success.

Some analysts and fund managers hold out hope that the company is at least now on the right track and can still catch up by making smart acquisitions.

“Just because they didn’t make the move earlier doesn’t mean they still can’t skate to the where the puck is going,” said Tony Ursillo, an analyst with Loomis Sayles Value Fund.

But he added, “HP has overpaid for every acquisition it has made” in the past year.

One thing that could take the sting out of the steep price tag for Autonomy is the sale of HP’s PC division, which industry experts estimate could fetch as much as $10 billion.

And Apotheker did make at least one correct decision by retiring the TouchPad. Sacconaghi estimates the business lost about $250 million last quarter, or 9 cents a share.

INTERNAL DISARRAY

But the events of last Thursday have done little to build confidence in Apotheker. The afternoon of high drama kicked off with a series of rapid-fire announcements: disclosure of acquisition talks with Autonomy; confirmation a deal had been done; announcement that HP was killing its TouchPad and other WebOS devices.

HP also disclosed its results an hour earlier than scheduled, marking the second straight quarter that the company had to release earnings ahead of schedule. And in another small sign of disarray, TouchPad ads featuring “Glee” star Lea Michele continued to run on CNBC on Friday.

While HP’s dire competitive position was in the making well before Apotheker’s arrival, shareholders do not view the CEO’s track record as impressive.

“I was skeptical coming in about whether he had the right background for the job,” Ursillo said. “So far the results are not encouraging.”

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Peter Lauria, Edwin Chan and Leslie Adler)

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Fed’s Dudley says tempers U.S. recovery expectations

NEWARK, New Jersey | Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:50am EDT

(Reuters) – U.S. economic growth in the first half of the year has been “quite a bit slower” than expected, a top U.S. central bank official said on Thursday, causing him to temper his expectations about the pace of economic recovery.

William Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told business leaders in New Jersey that only some of the restraints on growth in the first half of the year, such as high oil prices and Japan’s earthquake, can be considered temporary.

“It is clear to me that not all of the weakness was due to these one-time factors, and in light of this, I have revised down my expectations for the pace of growth going forward,” he said.

The central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) took the unprecedented step last week of promising to keep interest rates near zero for a set period of time, at least until 2013. The Fed also said it was weighing other options to help strengthen a weak recovery.

Dudley noted that market interest rates fell after the announcement, “which should help provide some additional support for economic activity and jobs.”

Expanded hiring and output nationally would help boost activity in many New Jersey industries, he added.

Dudley was visiting the state to discuss regional economic developments. The state faces challenges in high debt and delinquency levels and a jobless rate slightly above the national rate, he said, but job growth in New York City should provide opportunities.

(Reporting by Edith Honan, Writing by Steven C. Johnson, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Apple, Qualcomm, others eye InterDigital

By Nadia Damouni and Sinead Carew

NEW YORK | Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:46pm EDT

(Reuters) – Apple Inc, Nokia and Qualcomm Inc are among several technology companies pondering bids for InterDigital Inc, sources familiar with the situation said.

The auction of the wireless telecommunications specialist — expected to be heavily contested as giant tech companies fight to shore up patent portfolios — will be postponed from next week until after Labor Day, the sources said.

Shares in InterDigital, which has a market value of about $3 billion, leaped as much as 12.2 percent on the news. But it quickly backtracked and was up $4.38 or 6.8 percent at $68.41 in afternoon trade.

Key potential bidder Google Inc has not formally withdrawn from the auction but it is unclear whether the Internet leader will bid for the company, the sources told Reuters.

InterDigital is up for sale and is forging ahead with its auction, despite Google agreeing to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for $12.5 billion. That triggered a 23 percent drop in InterDigital’s shares on Monday.

First-round bids have been postponed because bidders asked for more time to complete due diligence on the company’s patents, the sources said.

To make up for that delay, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company expects to accelerate the second round, the sources said.

Google’s presence in the auction would be crucial to how much InterDigital could fetch, an analyst said.

“The problem InterDigital has is that Elvis has left the building. He’s got his date,” Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff said.

Modoff also questioned whether any other technology companies need InterDigital enough to pay the high price at which its shares are currently trading.

He noted that Qualcomm already has a good portfolio of patents, and so may not want to pay up for the business.

“The problem is finding somebody else to whom it’s necessary.” Modoff said. “It could get acquired, but not at where the stock is at (now).”

InterDigital’s stock had soared last month on reports that Google was in talks to buy the company. Bidders have been eager to get their hands on the company’s 8,800 patents — including crucial 3G and 4G/LTE patents to strengthen operating software for smartphones.

Some analysts have said that InterDigital has one of the best quality patent portfolios that remains on the market after bankrupt Nortel Network’s sold its patents to a consortium led by Apple and Microsoft Corp last month.

Just over 50 percent of the current 3G market is already under license with InterDigital. Its partners include Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Apple, Research In Motion Ltd and HTC Corp, among others. The company’s 4G portfolio is relatively unlicensed.

InterDigital hired Evercore Partners and Barclays Capital on July 19 to explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company.

InterDigital declined to comment. The other potential bidders were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Nadia Damouni; editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Gunna Dickson)

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Dollar climbs to session high vs Swiss franc

NEW YORK | Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:33pm EDT

(Reuters) – The dollar climbed to a session high against the Swiss franc on Tuesday on speculation the Swiss National Bank may take drastic measures to curb gains in the currency by setting a cap on the franc and pegging it to the euro.

The dollar climbed as high as 0.7950 Swiss francs on electronic trading platform EBS, before easing slightly to 0.7942 francs, up 1.3 percent on the day.

The euro was last up 0.9 percent at 1.14340 Swiss francs after earlier climbing to 1.1485 Swiss francs on EBS.

(Reporting by Nick Olivari, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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