Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The SEC voted unanimously to propose new disclosure standards that would force companies to reveal, in “plain English,” more information about benefits and perks given to top executives.
- Crude oil rose above $65/bbl. in NY on fears that Iranian and Nigerian shipments may be disrupted as consumption grows.
- The US dollar rose against the euro and the yen as US manufacturing reports bolstered speculation the world’s largest economy is growing at a healthy rate.
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) agreed to buy Business Wire, the world’s largest distributor of corporate press releases, as the European Union imposes new disclosure requirements.
- Boston Scientific(BSX) raised its bid for cardiac device maker Guidant(GDT) to $27 billion, topping the $24.2 billion offer that Guidant’s board accepted last week from Johnson & Johnson(JNJ).

Wall Street Journal:
- Cephalon(CEPH), Wyeth(WYE), Johnson & Johnson(JNJ) and other pharmaceutical companies have settled lawsuits over patent challenges from generic-drug companies, as a way of removing uncertainty and boosting their stock prospects.
- Rob Solomon, former vice president at Yahoo! Inc., has been named CEO at the travel search company SideStep Inc.
- Stephen King’s latest novel about an apocalyptic mayhem set off by cell phones is being marketed by his publisher, CBS Corp.’s(CBS) Scribner, with text messages to 100,000 phone subscribers.
- China’s steel industry is heading into a consolidation amid declining profit margins and increased pressure from government planners.
- Salesforce.com(CRM), which sells Internet-based customer-management software, said it has added to its system of offering online software to customers with partners including Adobe Systems(ADBE) and eBay’s(EBAY) Skype Technologies.

CNBC:
- Merrill Lynch(MER) may be looking to buy a medium-sized bank to get into commercial banking to sell small business loans.

NY Times:
- The FDA is close to reviewing weight-loss drugs developed by Sanofi-Aventis SA(SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline Plc(GSK).

USA Today:
- Texas Instruments(TXN), ChevronTexaco(CVX) and other US companies are starting to help children of employees prepare for college admission as part of the benefits they provide to retain valued workers.

RIA Novosti:
- Russia’s government will spend $5.8 billion buying and maintaining weapons and other military hardware this year, almost 50% more than last year, Defense Minister Ivanov said.