Market Round-up (GM, IDC, MHP, PSO, TRI, GSK, VZ, VOD, JNJ, OCR)
General Motors (NYSE: GM) has provided €650 million (or $935 million) in fresh funding to Opel, effectively more than doubling its investment in the division. GM has also finished a management shuffle in which it has named GM Europe chief, Nick Reilly, as the managing director of Opel.
Interactive Data Corp (NYSE: IDC) jumped by 12.3% after it confirmed that it is looking at potential buyers. The data provider, in which Pearson (NYSE: PSO) has 61% stakes, may be acquired by McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) or Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI).
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) has shipped H1N1 flu vaccines worth a total of £835 million ($1.4 billion) to various governments in Q4. This figure falls short of the consensus expectations of £1 billion, as several countries had canceled their orders.
Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone Group (NASDAQ: VOD), has re-priced its plans, with basic wireless costs slashed by about $29 per month. It has, however, urged more customers to trade up for data. Pali Research said that the new Verizon Wireless prices amount to about a 30% cut in voice and a 50% hike in data, effectively resulting in an 8%-10% effective cut to the more popular high-end rate plans.
The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), alleging Medicaid fraud via pharmacy kickbacks. The department has alleged that JNJ used to recommend drugs to nursing home patients. The issue had come to the notice of the authorities when a Chicago pharmacist, who worked for Omnicare (NYSE: OCR), blew the whistle on the largest pharmacy supplier to nursing homes in the US.
