Briefcase

Government, AIG ready stock sale

NEW YORK – Bailed-out global insurance company American International Group Inc. and the federal government are offering to sell a total of 300 million AIG shares to the public.

The stock sale would be a big step by the government toward disentangling itself from the company. The government stepped in to rescue AIG from collapse with $182 billion in 2008 – the biggest bailout of the financial crisis.

AIG and the government didn’t specify a price for the shares in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. But 300 million shares of AIG were worth about $8.89 billion at Tuesday’s closing price of $29.62.

AIG shares rose $1.03, or 3.5 percent, to close at $30.65 Wednesday.

Associated Press

First Chromebooks go on sale in June

SAN FRANCISCO – The first laptops running on a Google-designed software system will go on sale in the U.S. and six other countries next month.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Acer Inc. are making the first Chromebooks. They will sell for $349 to $499 in the U.S.

Acer’s Chromebook, at $349, will have an 11.6-inch screen display and up to six hours of battery life. Samsung’s version, selling for $429 to $499, will have a 12.1-inch screen and up to 8.5 hours of battery life. Both models will have keyboards, but no hard drives for storage. The machines will be like computer terminals dependent on a connection to the Internet. The laptops come with 16 gigabytes of flash memory – the kind found in smartphones, tablet computers and some iPods. They have slots to plug in other storage devices you buy separately.

Associated Press

Fed to unveil banking rules this summer

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed will unveil new regulations this summer that would protect the U.S. economy from another meltdown of the nation’s largest banks and financial companies.

Congress directed the Fed to write the rules when it passed last year’s financial regulatory overhaul, in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The rules are likely to contain stricter capital requirements for the biggest banks, hedge funds and insurance companies whose failure could throw the financial sector into another crisis.

Bernanke says in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee the Fed will allow the public to comment on the rules before implementing them in January 2012.

Associated Press

PIN pads altered at Michaels outlets

IRVING, Texas — Michaels Stores Inc. says the PIN pads at stores in 20 states – including several in Western Washington – were tampered with, potentially exposing customer’s credit and debit card information.

Michaels said it has identified roughly 90 PIN pads in its 964 U.S. stores that showed signs of tampering. The company disabled and quarantined suspicious PIN pads and removed another 7,200 as a precautionary measure. Michaels is also screening all PIN pads in its Canadian stores

Michaels found out about the tampering after banking and law enforcement officials contacted the company following reports of fraudulent transactions by customers.

Michaels urges customers to check their accounts for unauthorized transactions. Customers whose accounts were compromised should contact their card issuer.

A complete list of the stores locations where tampered PIN pads have been detected is at http://www.Michaels.com/ ConsumerNotices.

Associated Press