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Internet
Yahoo! Inc. shares dropped below $10 for the first time in more than five years after Microsoft Corp. chief executive officer Steve Ballmer squelched speculation that he would revive takeover talks.
“We've moved on,” Ballmer, 52, said Wednesday at a shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Wash. He reiterated that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet-search market is “an interesting possibility.” Ballmer's stance may force Yahoo's next CEO to find another way to revive the company's profit, which has declined in 10 of the past 11 quarters as sales growth have stalled.
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who spurned Microsoft bids of as much as $47.5 billion this year, announced plans two days ago to step down. Bloomberg News
Bonds
Ambac Financial Group Inc., the second-largest bond insurer by outstanding guarantees, agreed to pay $1 billion in cash to cancel default protection on $3.5 billion of collateralized debt obligations, further freeing itself from the largest source of losses in its industry.
The settlement will result in positive adjustments to Ambac's mark-to-market and impairment reserves, and improve its standing in rating-firm models, according to a statement Wednesday from the New York-based company.
Bloomberg News
Banking
Citigroup Inc. shares hit a 15-year low Wednesday as an analyst predicted the bank will have to cut the value of some of its assets by an additional $3 billion.
Citi shares fell $1.96, or 23 percent, to $6.40. Earlier in the day, shares hit a 15-year low of $6.25. Citi, which has been battered by the ongoing credit crisis, has seen its shares lose 53 percent of their value in November.
Also this week, Citi said it will cut an additional 53,000 jobs on top of 22,000 cuts it previously announced as it tries to return to profitability. Associated Press
