Icahn says has mulled Netflix takeover, no decision made

(Reuters) – Activist investor Carl Icahn, who holds an almost 10 percent stake in Netflix, said on Thursday he has considered a hostile takeover bid for Netflix, but it was uncertain he stood a chance of acquiring the Internet streaming service.

Asked by TV network CNBC whether he would “go hostile” on Netflix, Icahn said, “The thought had certainly entered my mind. I have to admit I think about it, but we haven’t made that decision.”

While Icahn said a hostile takeover was “certainly an alternative,” he downplayed the possibility several times. He added that he would not be able to pay as much for Netflix as a “synergistic buyer” looking to acquire an Internet movie and TV subscription service.

Netflix has been the subject of periodic acquisition speculation, with potential names tossed around from Microsoft Corp to Amazon.com Inc.

Icahn last month disclosed he had amassed control of 9.98 percent of Netflix shares. Most of his purchases were in the form of call options that expire in September 2014. The billionaire, who is known for shaking up corporate management, has said Netflix was undervalued and an attractive acquisition target for a number of companies.

Netflix has since adopted a poison pill defense to prevent a hostile takeover, a move that Icahn on Thursday called “reprehensible.”

A Netflix spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Icahn’s remarks.

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York; Additional reporting by Katya Wachtel and Sam Forgione in New York and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Ex-oil man to be next Anglican leader: UK media

LONDON (Reuters) – A former oil executive who went to the same exclusive school as Prime Minister David Cameron will shortly be named Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, British newspapers said on Thursday.

Justin Welby, 56, the Bishop of Durham, who has had a meteoric rise up the Church of England hierarchy since quitting the world of commerce in 1992, will be announced as the next archbishop as early as Friday, the reports said.

The nomination follows weeks of speculation that the Church body assigned to elect the future archbishop was split over choosing a reformer or a safe pair of hands to maintain the status quo.

Cameron’s spokesman said an announcement would come “soon”.

Welby, who went to the same exclusive school, Eton College, as Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson and Princes William and Harry, has already accepted the position, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Bookmaker William Hill stopped taking bets on the future archbishop after a run of bets on Welby on Tuesday.

“In the space of less than an hour we had to cut the odds three times, so took the decision to close the book as we know a decision is already overdue and it seems word may have leaked out,” the bookmaker said in a statement

Welby will replace left-leaning incumbent Rowan Williams, who has said his successor as head of the global Anglican Communion will need “the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros”.

Welby is widely reported to be against gay marriage but broadly in favor of the ordination of women bishops, two of the most divisive issues in the communion.

The new archbishop will earn about 74,000 pounds ($ 120,000) a year. He will have lodgings in the Old Palace in Canterbury, southeast England, and the historic riverside Lambeth Palace in London. His tenure will last until retirement at 70 or until he decides to move on.

(Reporting By Alessandra Prentice; editing by Steve Addison/Maria Golovnina)

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UK police open inquiry into breast cancer surgeon

LONDON (AP) — British police say a surgeon is being investigated by both detectives and the country’s General Medical Council over allegations about his treatment of more than 1,000 breast cancer patients.

Ian Paterson is alleged in negligence suits filed by former patients to have performed up to 1,150 “unnecessary, inappropriate or unregulated” operations.

The General Medical Council, which licenses doctors, suspended Paterson’s registration in October pending its inquiry.

West Midlands Police, in central England, said Thursday it was opening a criminal inquiry.

Lawyers allege 700 cases involve procedures in which some breast tissue was left behind after a mastectomy. Other patients allege they received invasive breast surgery when a biopsy may have been sufficient.

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Stock futures rise after selloff, data on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures rose on Thursday ahead of job market data a day after major equity indexes posted their largest drops in months.

Equities slumped more than 2 percent Wednesday as investor focus returned to Europe’s economic troubles and as the electoral victory by President Barack Obama turned markets’ focus to the looming “fiscal cliff.”

Investors worry that if no deal is agreed in Congress over some $ 600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in early next year, it could derail the U.S. economic recovery.

“To the extent we start to see some clarification of what (Congress) is thinking about, whatever it may be, it will provide some confidence,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He said the open-ended nature of what the fix may be for taxes has flooded markets with uncertainty.

Futures added to early gains as the euro slightly cut losses versus the U.S. dollar after the European Central Bank held its main interest rate at 0.75 percent, despite dovish comments Wednesday from ECB president Mario Draghi that stirred market rumors of a rate cut.

A rise in the U.S. dollar also weighed on equities Wednesday.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.8 points and were up in terms of fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 22 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 9 point.

Wednesday’s retreat marked the biggest daily drop for the S&P 500 since June 1; the index closed below the key 1,400 level for the first time since August 30. Despite Wednesday’s selloff, the benchmark S&P 500 is still up more than 10 percent so far this year.

The latest reading on the labor market will come with the release of weekly jobless claims, due at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT).

Qualcomm Inc late Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that beat expectations, sending shares up more than 7 percent in premarket trading.

Whole Foods Market Inc reported earnings that met expectations but its shares fell 3 percent before the market opened.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Ghana building collapse traps dozens, kills 1

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A five-story shopping center built earlier this year in a bustling suburb of Ghana‘s capital collapsed Wednesday, killing at least one person and leaving several dozen people trapped in the rubble, authorities and eyewitnesses said.

Rescue crews used cranes to try and remove debris from the top of the building amid fears that machinery sifting through the wreckage could injure trapped survivors. Crowds of bystanders gathered as rescuers sifted through cement and glass.

The fatality at the Melcom Shopping Center at Achimota, a suburb of Accra, was confirmed by Public Affairs Officer of the Ghana Fire Service Billy Anaglate. “We are still working to find out the fate of others who may be trapped under,” he said.

Other officials told The Associated Press that the death toll was likely to rise.

An AP reporter at the scene saw at least one man pulled from the debris, covered in dust and who was then whisked into an ambulance.

A Greater Accra Regional Public Affairs officer, deputy superintendent Freeman Tettey, confirmed that one person died and told the AP that 51 have been rescued and sent to hospitals around the capital.

“I was on my way to the shop when l saw it crumpling down,” Kojo Boadi, an eyewitness, said.

President John Mahama declared the scene a disaster zone and cut short his election campaign in the north of the country to be able to visit the site. The presidential election is scheduled for December.

The five-story store opened in February is part of the Melcom chain owned by Indian immigrant magnate, Bhagwan Khubchandani. His late father arrived in Ghana in 1929 as a 14-year-old to work as a store boy in the-then Gold Coast.

The store sells a variety of cheap, imported household goods and appliances that are popular with working-class Ghanaians.

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DoubleLine’s Gundlach says Apple may drop to $425/share: CNBC

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple shares could come under further selling pressure and drop to $ 425 a share over the next year on lack of innovation, said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital LP.

Gundlach, who recommended betting against Apple in mid-May at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York, told CNBC the company’s stock is “overbelieved” and that its recent debut of the iPad mini is not an innovation.

“The product innovator, as I’ve said over and over again, isn’t there anymore,” Gundlach said in reference to Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs.

Shares of Apple, whose latest quarterly results failed to meet Wall Street’s lofty expectations, has fallen more than 20 percent from a record high of $ 705.07 in September. Shares slid as much as 4.6 percent on Wednesday to a low of $ 555.75 before ending the day down 3.8 percent at $ 558.0019.

Wednesday, Apple shares were under pressure as investors grew more uncertain about its ability to fend off unprecedented competition and untangle a snarled iPhone 5 supply chain.

Gundlach, whose firm oversees more than $ 45 billion in assets, said that the stock could fall to around $ 425 a share.

With regard to the benchmark S&P 500′s 2 percent decline on Wednesday, Gundlach said that investors may be anticipating the impact of higher taxes on capital gains that U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to implement.

“If you’re going to think about higher tax rates, maybe you want to sell the stocks before the tax rates go up, and I think that may be pressuring stocks in general,” Gundlach said.

Gundlach said that the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts set to begin at the start of next year could be “punted down the road,” but that it could also prove a “monumental” shock to markets if investors doubt its potential impact.

Gundlach also said that his DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has roughly 15 percent of its assets in cash and that he expects markets to become more volatile.

“I really am looking for higher volatility in the market as a general theme,” he said.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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CBS’s ‘Elementary’ gets prized post-Super Bowl slot

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – CBS’s freshman Sherlock Holmes drama “Elementary” will get a big boost in February, when it airs following Super Bowl XLVII, the network said Monday.

The series, which stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, delivers a modern-day take on the Sherlock Holmes saga, with both the detective and his sidekick Watson living in contemporary New York.

The special episode will air Sunday, February 3 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, following the network’s post-game coverage.

The series, which also stars Aidan Quinn, has already proven to be a hit for the network, regularly winning its Thursday at 10 p.m. timeslot. “Elementary,” which premiered September 27, has averaged a 3.5 rating/10 share in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic, and 14.2 million total viewers.

Even so, the exposure that a post-Super Bowl slot provides certainly can’t hurt. The second-season premiere of NBC‘s “The Voice” after the Super Bowl, meanwhile, scored the highest ratings of any entertainment telecast since 2006.

“The Voice” scored a 16.3 rating in the key demo and 37.6 million total viewers overall. It was the best rating since a 16.5 for “Grey’s Anatomy” after the Super Bowl on ABC in 2006, and provided a welcome boost for fourth-place network NBC. The show was up 47 percent in the demo and 40 percent in total viewers over the episode of “Glee” that aired after the Super Bowl on Fox last year. (“Glee” scored an 11.1 and 26.8 million total viewers.)

The ratings victory gave “The Voice” a huge start to its second season. It spent much of 2011-12 neck-in-neck with the Wednesday night edition of “American Idol” to be the highest-rated show on television after “Sunday Night Football.” “Idol” ultimately beat “The Voice” on Wednesdays, but just barely.

The Super Bowl is typically the most-watched program of the year, and this year’s game set a record as the most-watched television program in U.S. history, with 111.3 million total viewers.

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Insomnia doubles risk of heart attack, stroke, research shows

The study by researchers in Taiwan found that people with insomnia were twice as likely to have heart attacks or strokes than those without the sleep disorder during the trial’s four-year period. The research was presented Monday at the American Heart Association meeting in Los Angeles.

The findings add to previous research showing not enough sleep can contribute to high blood pressure, and waking too early may raise heart risks. Sleep should be part of the patient-doctor discussion during checkups, said Kristen Knutson, a sleep researcher who wasn’t part of the study.

“A lot of people and many physicians don’t ask about sleep,” said Knutson, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. “The first thing is to talk to their patients and also for the patients to talk to their doctors about their sleep and discussing sleep as one of the many important health behaviors like diet and exercise.”

No one is certain how lack of sleep contributes to heart attacks and strokes, she said. It may be that the body’s “fight or flight” system is more active with not enough sleep, which can increase heart rate and over time increase blood pressure and raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, she said.

Chronic insomnia affects about 1 in 5 adults and is also a risk factor for depression, substance abuse and impaired waking function, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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Markets brush off Obama win amid gridlock concerns

LONDON (AP) — The re-election of President Barack Obama gave markets a short-lived boost Wednesday, before concerns over his ability to get a budget agreement from a divided Congress and more grim economic news out of Europe turned sentiment around.

Obama easily clinched a majority in the electoral college, holding on to a raft of key swing states in Tuesday’s vote — despite only just winning the popular vote over his rival Mitt Romney.

Though America has been spared a re-run of the protracted election of 2000, its arms of government remain divided, with the Democrats holding onto their majority in the Senate and the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives. That could still lead to a logjam in policymaking, not least over the parlous state of the country’s public finances, and that’s unsettled investors.

In Europe, stocks gave up their morning gains. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.2 percent at 5,872 while Germany‘s DAX fell 0.4 percent to 7,358. The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent lower at 3,465.

Wall Street was poised for a retreat too in contrast to earlier predictions, with both Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.7 percent.

The most pressing matter facing the U.S. government is the so-called “fiscal cliff” — a combination of higher taxes and government spending cuts that automatically take effect unless Congress agrees on a new budget by Jan. 1. Economists warn that a failure to reach a concrete decision will push the world’s largest economy back into recession.

“The initially favorable reaction has evaporated with the ugly task of dealing with the fiscal cliff eclipsing earlier optimism,” said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.

Sentiment has also been hit by a downbeat set of European economic forecasts from the European Commission. The executive arm of the European Union now expects the 17-country eurozone to contract by 0.4 percent this year and to grow by only 0.1 percent next.

The turnaround in stocks markets was evident in currencies too— when risk appetite wanes, the dollar usually finds support. By early afternoon London time, the euro was 0.4 percent lower at $ 1.2754, a full cent lower than where it had been trading earlier.

Investors are also turning their gaze towards a crucial vote in the Greek Parliament later. If lawmakers don’t back a €13.5 billion ($ 17.3 billion) package of spending cuts and tax increases, the country faces the prospect of losing access to its bailout lifeline and potentially defaulting on its mountain of debt and leaving the euro.

That toxic combination could have massive negative repercussions in financial markets, regardless of whether a bipartisan budget solution is reached in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

“Strange to think that over 100 million votes cast in the U.S. may have less impact upon the markets over the next month or so than some 300 votes due to be cast in the Greek parliament this evening,” said Gary Jenkins, managing director of Swordfish Research.

Earlier in Asia, Japan‘s Nikkei 225 index closed marginally lower at 8,972.89. Hong Kong‘s Hang Seng added 0.7 percent to 22,099.85. South Korea‘s Kospi gained 0.5 percent to 1,937.55.

Mainland Chinese shares edged lower, with Shanghai Composite Index slipping marginally to 2,105.73. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.2 percent to 851.64

Also on investors’ radar is Thursday’s opening of China‘s Communist Party congress — the once-in-a-decade forum to name China’s top leadership. Although current Vice President Xi Jinping is almost certain to be China’s next leader, markets will be looking for hints on how the new leadership plans to tackle the nation’s economic slowdown.

In the oil markets, a price of benchmark New York crude was down $ 1.21 to $ 87.51 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Canada firms to capitalize on nuclear trade with India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Canadian firms will be able to export uranium and nuclear reactors to India for the first time in almost four decades under an agreement between the two nations, their prime ministers said, but more work is needed to implement the deal.

Once implemented, the agreement will end a ban on nuclear cooperation Canada imposed in 1976 after India secretly exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1974, commonly called the “Smiling Buddha”, using material from a Canadian-built reactor in India.

“Being able to resolve these issues and move forward is, we believe, a really important economic opportunity for an important Canadian industry, part of the energy industry, that should pay dividends in terms of jobs and growth for Canadians down the road,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday on a visit to New Delhi.

A negotiator with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks, said that what remained was a careful legal review of the language; translation into French and Hindi; and then a signing.

This is not expected to take very long, he said. The two sides have set up a joint committee to liaise on nuclear issues, but he said it would not be negotiating.

India aims to lift its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW in the next 20 years by adding nearly 30 reactors. The country currently operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780 MW, or 2 percent of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited.

Canada’s ambassador to India, Stewart Beck, said on Monday his country wanted to be able to track all nuclear material, but that India felt it only needed to report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It was not clear who made concessions in the talks and how effective the safeguards would be to ensure that Canadian material did not get used again for making nuclear weapons.

However, the CNSC official said India would now be required to notify Canada of any transfers to a third country and trade could only go to facilities that are safeguarded by the IAEA.

PROBABLY BEATING AUSTRALIA

Harper said the CNSC had worked to “achieve all of our objectives in terms of non-proliferation”.

Canada is in a race against Australia, its strategic ally but a commercial rival in the uranium business. Australia is also trying to nail down safeguards under which it too could sell uranium to India.

“We are effectively ahead of the Australians,” the CNSC official said, noting however that Russia and Kazakhstan were already supplying into India.

Opening up the Indian market would be a big help to Canada’s Cameco Corp, which is the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer but which recently cut its long-term output targets due to the Fukushima disaster.

“Anytime we can reduce the roadblocks to selling our product around the world is always helpful,” Cameco chief executive Tim Gitzel told Reuters in Canada. “It opens a new market for us with the appropriate safeguards in place. So this is good news.”

Another potential beneficiary is Canadian engineering firm SNC Lavalin Group Inc, which bought the government’s commercial nuclear division, which designed the Candu reactor that is in use in numerous countries.

“As far as the sales of reactors goes, we would normally now request that Canada be accorded the same treatment as the Russians, the French and the Americans and that a site be designated in India for the implementation of at least a twin- unit Candu nuclear power station,” SNC Lavalin International President Ronald Denom, part of Harper’s delegation in India, told Reuters.

He also said it should open up the market to service the existing reactors in India.

Harper also said Canada welcomed foreign investment, after the country temporarily blocked Malaysian state oil firm Petronas’ C$ 5.17 billion ($ 5.19 billion) bid for gas producer Progress Energy Resources on October 20.

Late on Friday, Canada extended to December 10 its review of a $ 15.1 billion bid made in July by China’s CNOOC Ltd for Canadian energy producer Nexen Inc.

“Those decisions have to be taken looking at the global evolving economy in which we operate,” Harper said.

($ 1 = C$ 0.9965)

(Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Toronto; Additional writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Michael Roddy)

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