Corporations and securities brief ~ FTC to halt Blockbuster deal News
Corporations and securities brief ~ FTC to halt Blockbuster deal

[JURIST] Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, staff at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] will recommend the agency block Blockbuster Inc.'s [corporate website] prospective bid to buy Hollywood Entertainment Corp. [corporate website] saying the deal would hurt competition in the market for video rentals. The staff will make a formal recommendation to the agency's five commissioners in the next several days. Read the Blockbuster press release about its offer for Hollywood Entertainment. Reuters has more.

In other news…

  • Minneapolis-based restaurant operator Buca Inc. [corporate website] announced the firing of two executives over an internal investigation which revealed accounting irregularities. AP has more.
  • Siebel Systems Inc. [corporate website], the world's largest maker of customer-service software, moved for a dismissal of charges brought by the SEC related to allegations it gave market-moving information to certain investors. Siebel argues the charges should be dismissed because regulators have no enforcement authority. This is the first legal challenge to the government's fair disclosure rule. Inside Bay Area has more.
  • Research In Motion (RIM) [corporate website] announced it will pay $450 million to BlackBerry maker NTP to settle a patent suit. The settlement allows RIM to continue its BlackBerry-related wireless business without interference. Read the RIM press release. CNET News has more.
  • American International Group Inc.'s [corporate website] chairman Hank Greenberg [Wikipedia profile], who resigned as chief executive officer of the world's largest insurer earlier this week, also may give up his role as chairman. The resignation of the posts comes in the wake of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's [official website] examination into Greenberg over allegations he initiated a reinsurance transaction in 2000 which manipulated earnings. Bloomberg has more.
  • Swire Pacific [corporate website], the owner of Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways, announced it will not relinquish control of the airline following reports of a possible takeover bid by Air China [corporate website]. Read the Swire Pacific press release [PDF]. The International Herald Tribune has more.
  • A Tokyo District Court has upheld its previous ruling which allows for a hostile takeover bid by Japanese internet company Livedoor of Nippon Broadcasting System. The court had blocked Nippon's attempt to issue massive amounts of new shares to stop the takeover. AP has more.
  • President Bush will nominate Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz [official biography] as his choice to be president of the World Bank [official website]. CNN has more.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.