The potential merger between the California-based Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York would have created the ninth-largest firm in the country.
Regions
Wal-Mart CEO steps down; Chief of International Unit to take over
Wal-Mart CEO and President Mike Duke will officially step down on Feb 1, 2014 and will be replaced by Doug McMillon who is the head of Wal-Mart's international division. Duke will continue his role as Chairman and will be advising the new CEO for a year.
Russian, Italian state funds agree investment deal
Russia's state-backed private equity investment fund and Italy's strategic state investment fund have agreed a deal to invest up to 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) in companies and projects in the two countries, officials said on Monday.
Kingsoft Office secures USD 50 million from Morningside, GGV and Shunwei China Internet Fund
Kingsoft Office Software, a China-based software company, which was recently incorporated in the U.S, has secured USD 50 million in new funding from Morningside Group, GGV Capital, and Shunwei China Internet Fund.
Optoro secures Series B funding from Swan & Legend Venture Partners
Optoro Inc, a Washington, DC-based reverse logistics company has raised an undisclosed further Series B funding from Swan & Legend Venture Partners. Earlier this year, they have secured an earlier Series B funding amounting to USD 23.5 million from Revolution LLC and Grotech Ventures.
Latest News
Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin will reportedly get upset about the Russian state chief's latest economic policy to freeze prices starting next year, Bloomberg said in its report.
WePopp, a social planning app based in Paris, France, announced that it has secured EUR 130,000 from a small group of France-based angel investors. The newly injected funds will then be used to lure in more users to its system.
VMware's newest product called the vCloud service was said to be a testament to the software company's bet in hybrid cloud technologies, according to a VentureBeat article.
The acquisition by Virgin Connect-affiliate Trivon AG of The MegaMax Group in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia dispelled a rumor about the former's business in trouble in the region.
According to Xinhua, China Mobile will be the first carrier to provide 4G LTE in China starting Dec 18th. It would certainly boost Apple, of which the latter is eager to regain a significant market share that was lost to Android, said TechCrunch.
Blackstone Group LP's decision to sell its La Quinta Inns & Suites hotel chain was reportedly done in order to obtain higher returns as oppose to conducting a private sale, sources said to Bloomberg.
Line, a message app based in Japan, proudly announced at a press conference in Tokyo that it has added another 100m people to its registered user count, totaling the number of registered users since its launch at 300 million. It hopes to hit 500 million registered users by 2014.
Despite positive Purchasing Managers Index data in both the manufacturing and services sectors, Markit's recent industry report also reflected a slowdown of hiring in the private equity sector.
Harris Interactive Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Nielsen
Holdings N.V., a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.
