Report:DOJ Approves of CVS-Aetna Merger

According to trade publication Reorg Research,the relevant US Department of Justice staff will not oppose the merger of drugstore chain/pharma benefits manager CVS Health with health insurer Aetna,sending a sigh of relief through the sector and an uptick in share prices.The 69 billion dollar transaction is a move seen at least partly as a reaction to the entry of electronic commerce giant Amazon into the health care field.Another possible reaction was by health insurer Cigna as it seeks to merge with pharma benefits manager Express Scripts.
In January 2018,Amazon,Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase,which collectively employ more than 500,000 people,announced they are forming a joint enterprise to provide care for staff at a reasonable cost by enabling simplified,high quality and transparent health care through technology.JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon explained:
The three of our companies have extraordinary resources,and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our US employees,their families,and,potentially,all Americans.*
Reorg Research provides automated docket updates;breaking news;and analysis for distressed debt investors;lawyers;and restructuring professionals.The New York-based company seeks to provide independent,insightful and timely market intelligence and analysis for better business and investment decisions.*
The DOJ staffers will submit their recommendation to their superiors for final approval at the end of July.*
Aetna Inc (AET),Cigna Inc (CI),CVS Health (CVS),Express Scripts (ESXR)

Investing Today:Top Positions February 2015

I think stocks are fairly valued,relatively cheap compared to bonds,said famed money manager Bill Miller,Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Legg Mason Global Asset Management;but I also think there are too many cross-currents here:Greece,Ukraine.There's a fair degree of interest in the Fed of moving off the zero mark.I think they want to do it because of the very low rates.I would think the 10-year Treasury will settle somewhere at 4-5%,its normal rate.
Amazon had a bad year last year,and after Q4 we went into it heavily,to our largest position.They have a market cap of 170 billion;they haven't sold stock;and they make a lot of cash,which to me is more important than profits.The Apple Pay and Apple Watch should do very well this year.If Apple struggles to reach her highs,the whole market struggles.Intrexon is a synthetic biology company.It's going to rewrite DNA,with applications for health care,energy and the environment making it a consumer company.
The S&P Homebuilders etf is a top ten position,along with Intrexon,Mr.Miller revealed.*
Halliburton Oil is cutting 8% of its workforce-not surprising since prices are still below the level needed to sustain the industry,according to energy analyst Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James Financial.Fifty or fifty-five dollar oil doesn't cut it medium-term.If oil stays in the fifties,global supply will decline in 2016,being self-correcting.Oil supply is stabilising by the end of this year,as supply will be flat or down slightly.*
Amazon(AMZN),Apple Computer(APPL),Intrexon(XON),SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF(XHB),Halliburton Oil Company(HAL)

Commentary:Amazon Drones No Time Soon

Those who think they will see urban delivery drones within a few years will have to think again.The drones are being tested,said Craig Berman,Vice President of Global Communications at Amazon.They're still years away.They can carry objects up to five pounds and deliver them in thirty minutes,but there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
It's not science fiction.We see it as something that's viable,but years down the road.With a ten mile radius,they can travel from a fulfillment center to a customer and back.They are robotic aircraft.We would just input GPS coordinates into autonomous vehicles.
We're excited about it.Over 80% of our items weigh less than five pounds.There's gonna be a lot of experimentation.I don't want to get too far ahead.It's really early in the process.*
For instance,they don't have a see and avoidance system yet.It's not possible in five years.We're interested in this from a known location to a known location,delivering vaccines on a lifesaving basis,said Johnathan Downey,CEO of Airware.We're focused on commercial applications such as agriculture and land management.
They are better suited to remote parts of Africa than dense,built-up environments such as US cities.Whether it's books and whether it's Amazon I'm sceptical-certainly about its being in the next three or four years,the Airware chief confided.
There's no platform to build on top of.Sensors and low level electronics are being invented for a common platform for the various applications.There are no regulations yet,either.*
Commercial drones are currently illegal.The FAA says it will carefully develop regulations for remotely piloted drones within several years,not even mentioning autonomous ones.*
It's a powerful concept,but is at the intersection of the two hardest challenges in the drone world today:reliable sense and avoid technology and regulatory approval for autnomous flights over built-up areas,observed Chris Anderson,3D Robotics CEO.*
In sum,Amazon's announcement was a bit premature from both a legal and technical point of view.A ten year time frame for an urban drone seems more reasonable than five years,given that the concept is still in its infancy and the government isn't in a hurry.

What Twitter's All About

We're all very proud of the company,said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo following the firm's public listing on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning.It's been our users who have gotten us to where we are today.We have a lot of work to do,and I'm anxious to get back to the office tonight and get started on that.All the capital raised today is going into the company.
It's all about making it very simple for new users to come to the platform.It's all about the very,very long-term business we're trying to build,growing the business for all the 2.4 billion connected people to all become users of the platform.
We made it clear that we had every intention to remain an independent company.We'll be making sure that we have people on the ground around the world driving unique regional content onto the platform.We have 94 of the Ad Age Top 100 already working with us this year.We are public;real time;coversational;and distributed.It's all about amplifying the characteristics that we already have,being the indispensible companion to the live experience.
These startups always evolve from those who were originally there.I don't have any time to think about what happened three years ago,Mr.Costolo declared.*
Twitter is very agressively priced at 40 times earnings;there will be better entry points later on,said Mark Mahaney,managing director at RBC Capital Markets.Amazon,Priceline,Netflix and Facebook are better buys right now.The Internet ecosystem generates a lot of wealth.If you pick the right 5-6 companies,that's how the individual trader can make money.
The stock closed at 44.90,down slightly from the 45.10 opening price.
Twitter(TWTR),Priceline(PCLN),Netflix(NTFX),Amazon(AMZN),Facebook(FB)

Joy Covey,Helped Grow Amazon.com

Joy Covey,a high school dropout who rose to become a formative leader of Amazon.com,was killed Wednesday,September 18 in San Mateo County,California.She was struck by a minivan while cycling downhill on Skyline Boulevard near Portola Valley and was pronounced dead at the scene,a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.She was fifty years old.
The brilliant and beautiful blonde had been named to Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business 1999.The daughter of a doctor and a nurse,she dropped out of San Mateo High School in her freshman year,but passed the high school equivalency exam and graduated from Cal State Fresno in 1982 at age 19,when she passed the CPA exam,scoring second best in the nation.She worked for accounting firm Arthur Young LLP before attending Harvard,from which she earned her MBA and JD degrees in 1989.
Ms.Covey worked in Silicon Valley as chief financial officer for audio software firm Digidesign,Inc.,shepherding it through its IPO and eventual sale to Avid Technology,Inc. before accepting the CFO position at the fledgling Amazon.com in Seattle in 1996.At the time,it had only 150 employees.Her special role at Amazon was to help founder Jeff Bezos recruit senior management and be the firm's Wall Street liaison,sharing the money-losing company's vision with nervous investors.This freed Bezos to focus on the retailer's all-important customer experience.
A multimillionaire from her Amazon stock options compensation,Covey resigned from the rat race in 2000 to pursue her interests in extreme sports and the environment,earning her pilot's license and becoming a trustee and Treasurer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.She was appointed to the board of JetBlue Airways in 2003.
Ms.Covey is survived by her son Tyler,eight.Our sincere condolences to her friends and family.

Should You Invest in Microsoft

I think Microsoft will move the office and server business to the cloud,said Rick Sherlund,Managing Director and Director of Technology Research at Nomura Securities,to align internally and focus their business model around the cloud.Their primary competitor in the cloud is Amazon.
It's gonna be important that they deliver higher end software,not just infrastructure.A lot of enterprises run Microsoft,so hopefully you can draw above average margins.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer own a little less than 9% of the stock.The stock rallies on restructuring reports.On fundamentals,the stock is pretty uninteresting right now.A lot of it is gonna have to come from increasing shareholder value.
Microsoft owns 10% of privately held Israeli  navigation and traffic report app Waze Ltd,which Google will reportedly purchase for 1.1 billion dollars.Microsoft would receive 100 million for its stake in the app.
Neither Google nor Waze will comment on the prospective deal.
In Monday trading,Microsoft stock closed at 35.47,down 0.56%.
Microsoft(MSFT),Google(GOOG),Amazon(AMZN)