Nomura Narrowly Tops Goldman in Japan Merger Advice in 2011

December 30, 2011, 12:35 AM EST

By Takahiko Hyuga

(Updates with closing share price in fifth Paragraph.)

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Nomura Holdings Inc. pulled ahead of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to hold on to the top spot for mergers and acquisitions advisory work in Japan in 2011, after the two competed neck and neck during the last two months.

Nomura, the nation?s largest brokerage, this year advised companies on 134 transactions worth $65.4 billion, including Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.?s $13.7 billion acquisition of Swiss drugmaker Nycomed, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Goldman Sachs came in second after handling 24 deals worth $62.3 billion, according to the data.

Retaining the No. 1 position will require Nomura to harness Japanese demand for overseas assets. Bolstered by a strong yen, Japan?s companies spent about $88.3 billion on overseas acquisitions in 2011, the most in any of the twelve years for which Bloomberg data is available. Nomura ranked fourth among advisers of such deals, behind Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG, the data show.

?Japanese companies will increase their presence even further next year as acquirers in cross-border mergers and acquisitions as they are in a relatively strong position in business and financial performance,? Nomura?s Joint Head of Global M&A Kentaro Okuda said in an interview. ?We are already seeing this trend in our pipeline of deals which will keep our M&A bankers busy through the New Year break.?

Nomura?s shares were unchanged at 235 yen at the 3 p.m. close of Tokyo Stock Exchange trading.

Left Out

Nomura competed with Goldman Sachs for the top position since October, when the New York-based bank took first place in the rankings after advising Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. in its $22.5 billion acquisition by Nippon Steel Corp. Nomura wasn?t involved with that deal, Japan?s biggest in at least five years.

Japan saw 2,261 transactions valued at $195.9 billion this year to Dec. 29, a record for the equivalent period, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A total of 795 Japanese firms, including Mitsubishi Corp., Kirin Holdings Co., Terumo Corp. and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., made acquisitions overseas.

Nomura and Goldman Sachs were followed by Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank AG and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in the rankings, according to the data. Goldman Sachs?s Tokyo-based spokeswoman Hiroko Matsumoto declined to comment on the advisory ranking.

Tapping Koizumi

Nomura has held the top position for five years. The Tokyo- based brokerage had a 33.4 percent market share this year, the lowest in three years, according to Bloomberg data.

Among the purchases on which Nomura offered advice this year was its own acquisition of affiliate Nomura Tochi Tatemono Co. for $11 billion. It also advised on Toshiba Corp.?s acquisition of nuclear-plant designer Westinghouse Electric Co. and Tokyo Stock Exchange?s merger with Osaka Securities Exchange.

Goldman Sachs, which hasn?t been No. 1 in Japan since 2006, is the top adviser for global mergers and acquisitions this year. It also advised Nycomed on its takeover by Takeda as well as with Hitachi Ltd. on its sale of a hard disk drive business to Western Digital Corp. for $4.3 billion.

As part of its efforts to secure business after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the U.S. bank tapped former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to speak to 300 investors and company executives at a forum in Tokyo in June.

The U.S. bank has donated at least 520 million yen ($6.7 million) to help with emergency relief efforts in the wake of Japan?s largest earthquake on record, the biggest donation among 161 financial firms in Japan, according to research conducted by Bloomberg News in April.

Nomura is ranked twelfth among acquisition advisers globally.

--Editors: Mohammed Hadi, James Gunsalus

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-29/nomura-narrowly-tops-goldman-in-japan-merger-advice-in-2011.html

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The 7 most newsworthy dogs of 2011 (The Week)

New York ? From a skydiving pug to a Navy SEAL hero, the year was distinguished by captivating canines

In 2011, the news was filled with the achievements of intrepid men and women, but media attention wasn't limited to humans. Noteworthy dogs also made headlines for incredible feats, from surviving gas chambers to nailing Osama to walking on four bionic legs. Here are seven:

1. Chaser, the vocab champ
In January, a brilliant Border collie named Chaser set a new doggie-vocabulary world record when she demonstrated knowledge of the names of 1,022 unique objects ? such as distinct balls and Frisbees ? and could fetch them on command. The dog showed her mettle in a series of 838 tests over a three-year period, never scoring below 90 percent. Chaser's brilliant performance is largely credited to her owner and breeder, John W. Piley, who has spent several hours a day working with the dog since she was a puppy. "She still demands four to five hours a day," the 82-year-old says. "I have to go to bed to get away from her."

SEE MORE: Dog abuse for dollars: The 'dramatic' rise of pet insurance fraud

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2. Opal, the guide dog for a guide dog
In March, the 2-year-old Labrador made news for her unique profession: Opal serves as a guide dog for a former guide dog. Six-year-old Edward, also a Labrador, was a loyal guide dog to Graham Waspe, a partially sighted man in England, until the pup lost his own sight to glaucoma. Man and dog were devastated. Enter Opal, who now helps them both around. "Opal's been great for both of us," Waspe says. "I don't know what we'd do without her."

3. The SEAL Team Six dog
As with his human comrades, we'll never know the name of the heroic pup that was part of the mission that stormed Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound in May and killed the al Qaeda leader. This we do know: He was likely a German shepherd or Belgian Malinois, he likely repelled out of a helicopter ? just as courageously as the rest of his team ? and he got to meet President Obama following the successful mission.

SEE MORE: The 'disturbing' effects of war on military dogs

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4. Rose, the star witness (helper)
In June, an 11-year-old golden retriever named Rose did her civic duty when she took to the witness stand, a fido first for New York state. Rose wasn't testifying herself; rather, she was there to comfort a 15-year-old victim of sexual abuse as the teen gave her testimony. After the defendant was convicted, defense lawyers filed an appeal, saying the dog had unfairly swayed the jury, part of a larger national debate?about the place of service dogs in the courtroom.

5. Naki'o, the dog with four bionic legs
In June, a Red Heeler named Naki'o made the news when he bounded about on not one but four bionic legs. At five weeks old, the poor pup was abandoned by his family and wandered into an icy puddle, where his paws got stuck in the frigid water. All four frostbit paws had to be amputated, but a veterinary technician raised money to help get Naki'o a set of prosthetics. The dog responded so well to his prosthetic hind legs that the manufacturers gifted him a free pair for his front legs. "Naki'o can now not only chase after a ball with other dogs," says the vet tech Christie Tomlinson, "but he can beat them to the catch!"

SEE MORE: Should your dog get a flu shot?

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6. Otis, the skydiving pug
In August, a 10-year-old daredevil dog from California made his 64th jump from a plane, strapped as usual to his owner Will DaSilva, earning Otis the unofficial title of "the ultimate skydiving pug" (as opposed to your less superlative skydiving pugs). Otis first took to skydiving as a pup, so much so that DaSilva had a special harness rigged to bind the dog to him for their free-falling adventures. While some question Otis's safety, DaSilva says his dog is more likely "to die of a food overdose, not from skydiving" ? like any average pug.

7. Daniel (nee Otis), the gas chamber survivor
The 5-year-old beagle, first known as Otis, was headed to doggie heaven in October, but it wasn't his time. He was put in a gas chamber in a crowded Alabama shelter to be euthanized along with 18 other stray dogs. When the animal control officer opened the chamber to fetch the bodies, all of the dogs were dead, except for little Otis wagging his tail. After his miraculous survival, Otis was re-christened Daniel, after the biblical figure who was thrown in a den of lions and lived, and hundreds clamored to adopt him. He is now the poster pup for "Daniel's Law," a proposal to get pet gas-chambers banned in the state of Pennsylvania, as they are in other states.

SEE MORE: The world of dog walking: 5 surprising facts

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View this article on TheWeek.com
Get The last word: Why old dogs are the best dogs

By the numbers: How green is your pet?

Flashback: Most newsworthy dogs of 2009

EssayThe last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.

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Online shopping jumps 16.4 pct on Christmas Day (AP)

NEW YORK ? A growing number of shoppers apparently need only the briefest of breaks before diving back in, especially if they can log in to shop.

IBM found that online shopping jumped 16.4 percent on Christmas Day over last year, and the dollar amount of those purchases that were made using mobile devices leaped 172.9 percent.

IBM tracks shopping at more than 500 websites other than Amazon.com, which is the largest. It found a huge increase in the number of shoppers making their purchases with iPhones, iPads and Android-powered mobile devices.

In fact, nearly 7 percent of all online purchases were made using iPads, just 18 months after the tablet computers were released by Apple Inc., said John Squire, chief strategy officer for IBM's Smarter Commerce unit.

The online uptick was continuing on Monday. As of 3 p.m. Eastern time, shopping was up 10 percent over Dec. 26, 2010. And the expectation was that the pace of buying would increase as the day wore on and consumers clicked on sales at various retailers.

Squire said consumers were chasing sales on both Sunday and Monday. The data did not show what portion of purchases was made using gift cards.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_hi_te/us_online_shopping_christmas_day

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Idaho teen loses cancer fight after delivering son (AP)

POCATELLO, Idaho ? Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.

That much, she knew.

While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl's words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni's baby was born.

"She told the nurse, `I'm done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,'" said Diana Phillips, Jenni's mother.

In photographs, the baby's ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet and 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.

A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter's decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.

It was only 12 days past the birth ? half spent in the hospital and the other half at home ? before Jenni was gone.

Even so, her family and friends insist her legacy is not one centered in tragedy, but rather in sacrifice.

This month, her family gathered at their ranch style home in Pocatello, where a Christmas tree in the living room was adorned with ornaments picked out just for Jenni, including one in bright lime green, her favorite color. She had passed away in a bedroom down the hall.

Recalling Jenni's infectious laugh and a rebellious streak, her mother held the baby close, nuzzling his head, and said, "I want him to know everything about her, and what she did."

___

The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High School. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about two centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.

She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, some 150 miles south of Pocatello, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.

Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.

Her parents, who are divorced, remember they were brought into a room at the hospital and sat down at a long table as doctors discussed her chances of survival.

"Jenni just flat out asked them if she was going to die," said her father, Mike Lake, 43, a truck driver who lives in Rexburg, north of Pocatello.

The answer wasn't good. With treatment, the teen was told she had a 30 percent chance to make it two years, Lake said. While he was heartbroken, Lake marveled at how strong she seemed in that moment. "She didn't break down and cry or anything," he said.

But her mom recalled Jenni did have a weak moment that day.

"When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset," said Phillips, 39.

Jenni started aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, while also posting videos on a YouTube site titled "Jenni's Journey," where she hoped to share her story with updates every other day. She managed to upload only three videos, though, as her treatments left her tired and weak.

On her second video, posted Nov. 20, 2010, Jenni appears distraught while a family friend records her having lunch with her mom.

"Last night, like, I was just lying in bed and I was thinking about everything that was going on and it just like, it just hit me, like everything, and I don't know, it made me cry," Jenni says on the video.

Her mom is shown burying her face in her hands. "Do you know how hard it is to be a mom and know that she's sick and there's nothing you can do," she says, before collapsing into tears.

Jenni persists: "It's hard. It's like, I don't know how long this is going to last and I just want it to go away ... I feel like this is holding me back from so much ..."

By March of this year, the tumors had started to shrink, the family said.

In a picture taken at her prom in early May, Jenni is wearing a dark blue strapless dress and gives the camera a small smile. There's a silver headband in her hair, which is less than an inch long. Chemotherapy took her shoulder-length blond tresses.

Her boyfriend, Nathan Wittman, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, is cradling her from behind.

___

Jenni started dating Nathan a couple of weeks before she received her diagnosis. Their adolescent relationship withstood the very adult test posed by cancer, the treatments that left her barely able to walk from her living room to her bedroom, and the gossip at school.

"The rumors started flying around, like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer," said Jenni's older sister, Ashlee Lake, 20, who tried to squelch the mean-spirited chatter even as the young couple ignored it.

They were hopeful, and dreamed of someday opening a restaurant or a gallery.

Jenni had been working as an apprentice in a local tattoo shop. "She was like our little sister," said the owner, Kass Chacon. But in May, Jenni's visits to the shop grew less frequent.

She had been throwing up a lot and had sharp stomach pains. She went to the emergency room early one morning with her boyfriend and when she returned home, her family members woke up to the sound of crying. "We could hear Jenni just bawling in her room," said her sister, Kaisee, 19.

She had learned that she was pregnant, and an ultrasound would show the fetus was 10 weeks old.

Jenni's journey was no longer her own.

From the start of treatment, she was told that she might never have children, her mother said, that the radiation and chemotherapy could essentially make her sterile.

"We were told that she couldn't get pregnant, so we didn't worry about it," said Nathan, 19.

Jenni, the third of her parents' eight children, had always wanted to be a mom. She had already determined to keep the baby when she went to see her oncologist, Dr. David Ririe, in Pocatello two days after she found out she was pregnant.

"He told us that if she's pregnant, she can't continue the treatments," Phillips said. "So she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again."

Dr. Ririe would not discuss Jenni's care, citing privacy laws, but said, generally, in cases in which a cancer patient is pregnant, oncologists will consider both the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment, such as chemotherapy.

"There are times during pregnancy in some situations, breast cancer being the classic example, where the benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk to mother and baby," Ririe said. "There are other times where the risk outweighs the benefits."

There was no discussion about which path Jenni would choose. Her parents didn't think of it as a clear life or death decision, and Jenni may not have, either. They believed that since the tumors had already started to shrink earlier, she had a strong chance of carrying the baby and then returning to treatment after he was born.

"I guess we were just hoping that after she had the baby, she could go back on the chemotherapy and get better," her mother said.

___

Jenni and Nathan named the baby Chad Michael, after their dads. Nathan has legal custody of the child, who is primarily cared for by Nathan's mother, Alexia Wittman, 51.

"Nathan will raise him," she said. She brings the baby to Jenni's house to visit her family whenever they ask.

Jenni didn't show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.

Jenni's last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said: "I can kind of see him."

___

Jenni's Journey: www.facebook.com/jennis.journey

Jenni's YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/jennisjourney

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_on_re_us/us_jenni_s_journey

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Doctors, moms take on No. 1 polluter in Utah (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? When winter comes to Utah and atmospheric conditions trap a soup of pollutants close to the ground, doctors say it turns every resident in the Salt Lake basin into the equivalent of a cigarette smoker.

For days or weeks at a time, an inversion layer in which high pressure systems can trap a roughly 1,300-foot-thick layer of cold air ? and the pollutants that build up inside it ? settles over the basin, leaving some people coughing and wheezing.

"There's no safe level of particulate matter you can breathe," said Salt Lake City anesthesiologist Cris Cowley, who is among a number of Utah doctors raising the alarm over some of the nation's worst wintertime air.

The doctors and a lobby group of Utah mothers are blaming a company that mines nearly a mile deep in the largest open pit in the world for contributing one-third of Salt Lake County's pollution. The rest is from tailpipe and other emissions.

They have filed a lawsuit against Kennecott Utah Copper, accusing it of violating the U.S. Clean Air Act. The company operates with the consent of state regulators who enforce the federal law.

The company is the No. 1 industrial air polluter along Utah's heavily populated 120-mile Wasatch Front and operates heavy trucks and power and smelter plants. It says the claims are "without merit."

Kennecott cites the blessing of Utah regulators for expanded operations and new controls that hold emissions steady.

Utah's chief air regulator, however, acknowledged Kennecott is technically violating a 1994 plan adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that limited the company to hauling 150 million tons of ore a year out of the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Utah has twice allowed the company to exceed that limit, most recently to 260 million tons, as the company moves to expand a mine in the mountains west of Salt Lake City. In each case, Utah sought EPA's consent, but the EPA didn't take any action.

The lawsuit could force EPA's hand, said Bryce Bird, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality.

Bird said the old limit would defeat changes Kennecott made to curb dust and emissions since 1994.

The EPA rules that set production instead of emissions limits puts many companies in a similarly "awkward position" and undermines confidence in Utah's air pollution permits, Bird said.

Kennecott disputes the doctors' figure and says it contributes about 16 percent of Salt Lake County's overall emissions.

An examination by The Associated Press of emissions figures provided by Kennecott to state regulators shows the company's share of pollutants ranges from 65 percent of Salt Lake County's sulfur dioxide emissions to 18 percent of its particulates.

Particulates are tiny flecks of dust that doctors say can attract heavy metals. The particulates are ingested through the nose and lungs and can become lodged in brain tissue. They are especially damaging to the development of children.

Medical research has found that the first few minutes of exposure to air pollution does the most damage, with many people's bodies able to react and fight off longer bouts of exposure, the doctors said.

Yet exposure to dust, soot and gaseous chemicals constricts vessels and send blood pressure soaring, making some people's hearts flutter and spiking emergency hospital visits while putting fetuses in the womb at risk, the doctors say.

"Rio Tinto is making our blood vessels act as if they were seven years older," said Dr. Claron Alldredge, an opthamologist at LDS Hospital. "One year after returning to Utah after practicing elsewhere, I began to have high blood pressure myself."

Kennecott is a subsidiary of the international mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, which posts billions of dollars of profit a year and can afford to clean up its act, said Cherise Udell, founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air.

"This is not an attempt to shut down their mine," she said.

Kennecott said its takes improving air quality seriously, and Bird noted that while Kennecott is Salt Lake County's largest industrial source of air pollution, it has accomplished the largest reductions through better emissions controls.

"Kennecott has and continues to operate within the parameters of its air permits and is consistently in compliance with U.S. EPA and Utah Division of Air Quality regulations, which are based on strict standards for protecting human health," the company said.

The doctors are members of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, which joined Udell's group in the lawsuit filed at Salt Lake City's federal court last week by lawyers for WildEarth Guardians of Santa Fe, N.M.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111225/ap_on_he_me/us_air_quality_utah

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Giving Windows Phone A Chance

If you take a look at Techmeme right now, you'll notice that the top conversation in the tech blogosphere is about Windows Phone, and more specifically why it has failed to catch on compared to Android smartphones in particular (according to Charlie Kindel, former GM of the product division). I've read people's different views on this with great interest, but I feel like something's missing: the opinion of an actual Windows Phone owner and user with no real skin in this game. Enter, well, me. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop using my HTC Sensation (Android 2.3) and iPhone 3GS (iOS 5) in parallel and made the switch to Nokia's Lumia 800 (Windows Phone 7.5). As you can tell, I'm not exactly married to any company or product - it's just not in my nature. I switched to Windows Phone mainly to see if it can hold its ground when used intensively.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Yk87TtHX6fw/

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