Facebook is expected to file initial paperwork with regulators on Wednesday morning for a billion initial public offering. The social networking site has hired five underwriters, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS – News) taking the lead role. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS – News), Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC – News), Barclays Capital and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM – News) round... 

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Facebook is widely believed to be readying its first initial-public-offering papers this week, with its prospective IPO looming as one of the biggest market debuts in history. Reuters Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg co-founded the company as an undergrad at Harvard. The documents to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will provide investors with their... 

If there is one thing to keep in mind about the 2008 financial crisis it is the number of ”experts” that emerged after the fact to point out all the telltale indicators that we willfully ignored. While Europe’s version of financial meltdown is still unfolding, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the global markets view of their problems as serious, but also contained and not... 

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – F3 Technologies, Inc. (Pinksheets:FTCH.PK) today announced that FargoTunes(TM), its music distribution service for artists, has begun marketing efforts to brand itself as an ‘Artist Royalty Management & Distribution’ (ARMD) service. “FargoTunes was created with the artist in mind,” commented Frank Connor, F3 Technologies’... 

Mitt Romney is favored to defeat Newt Gingrich in today’s presidential primary in Florida, home to the largest and most diverse Republican electorate and the biggest bloc of convention delegates to date. Surveys of Florida Republicans show that Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, leads Gingrich, a former U.S. House speaker, by more than 10 percentage points in a contest that will award all... 

By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone unemployment has risen to its highest level since the euro single currency was introduced, data showed on Tuesday, a day after EU leaders promised to focus on creating millions of new jobs to try to kickstart Europe’s floundering economy. Seasonally adjusted unemployment among the 17 countries sharing the euro rose to 10.4 percent in December,... 

By Chang-Ran Kim TOKYO (Reuters) – Honda Motor Co forecast a worse-than-expected 65 percent drop in profit for the year to March after natural disasters in Japan and Thailand hammered it harder than its rivals while the strong yen delivered an added blow. Japan’s No.3 automaker was the slowest to recover from supply chain disruptions after the earthquake and tsunami in March, while it was... 

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – News) will replace two company group chairmen in charge of its unit that makes Tylenol, following a series of recalls of its popular medicines, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an internal company announcement. The company will replace Patrick Mutchler, who was put in charge of overseeing the McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit last April, and... 

By Dan Levine (Reuters) – A California judge has dismissed a fraud claim brought by Oracle Corp against Hewlett-Packard Co in the bitter legal battle between the two companies over the Itanium platform. Last year, Oracle decided to discontinue its support for Itanium, a heavy-duty computing microprocessor, saying that Intel Corp made it clear that the chip was nearing the end of its life and... 

By William James and Axel Bugge LONDON/LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal‘s slide towards becoming the next Greece – needing a second bailout to avoid bankruptcy – accelerated on Monday as untrusting underwriters hiked the cost of insuring Lisbon‘s bonds to new highs and insisted it be paid up front. Business and consumer confidence also hit record lows, the latter battered by...