Kerkorian reacquires GM stock
Detroit Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian is acquiring 12 million shares of General Motors Corp. stock, matching the number of shares he sold in December, a federal regulatory filing showed on Wednesday.
Kerkorian’s private equity firm, Tracinda Corp., bought 5 million shares of GM stock on Monday for an average purchase price of $21.40, or approximately $107 million, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On Tuesday, Tracinda agreed to purchase an additional 7 million GM shares in a private transaction for $22.25 per share, or approximately $155.8 million.
Those purchases would boost Kerkorian’s stake in the world’s largest automaker to 9.9 percent, the same as it was before Beverly Hills-based Tracinda Corp. sold 12 million shares in December.
Tracinda said at the time that it sold the shares so that it could end its fiscal year with a capital loss, making it eligible for certain federal and California income tax breaks.
But it left open the possibility of reacquiring shares, and it waited only a short time after so-called wash rules lapsed. Federal tax rules prohibit a taxpayer from claiming a loss on the sale of stock if replacement shares are acquired within 30 days.
Microsoft concedes to EU on blueprints
Brussels, Belgium Under threat of daily fines by European Union antitrust regulators, Microsoft Corp. agreed Wednesday to let competitors examine some of the blueprints to its flagship Windows operating system.
Microsoft said it would offer commercial rivals access to a “pretty significant” chunk of the source code governing communications between servers. The code is from its Windows workgroup server and its desktop operating systems.
Responding to a 2004 EU antitrust ruling, Microsoft in December offered rivals thousands of pages of documentation and free technical support on the communications protocols for its software for running servers, the machines powering Web sites and other Internet services.
But an independent monitor nominated by Microsoft last month called the documents “totally unfit for its intended purpose.” The European Commission then threatened to fine Microsoft up to $2.36 million a day, retroactive to Dec. 15, saying the software giant was proving intransigent about sharing data with competitors.
Although Microsoft insists what it had provided was adequate, the company said it was releasing the source code to address any lingering regulatory concerns.
“The source code is the ultimate documentation,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief counsel. “It should have the answer to any questions that remain.”
He described the announcement as a “bold stroke” by Microsoft.
The European Commission said it would study Microsoft’s offer carefully once it had received the full details, adding that it looked forward to receiving by the Feb. 15 deadline Microsoft’s reply to the charge sheet it sent in December.