People on the stock market have been expecting this for more than a year to see the acquisition of BEA Systems (NASDAQ:BEA), which Cramer founder of TheStreet.com already pinpointed on Monday. He said it loud and clear “Buy BEA Systems before it gets a bid” and it looks like today was the day.

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) had made an (uninvited) offer to buy BEA Systems that went up to $6.7B, cash, which translates in about $17 a share and was 25% higher than what the company was selling on the stock market, $14. They also mentioned that this is not going to be a hostile bid though it happened before with companies like PeoplSoft, for example. Carl Icahn, the activist shareholder with 13.2% of the company declared that he will try to push management to a sale, so I guess he could use the money.

However, Oracle is not the only company interested in taking over BEA Systems. The Germans at SAP (NYSE: SAP) may also be interested and rumors say their offer - seems like some private offers have been made - could go up to $21 a share because they need to fill some gaps in their products line.

The expected happened and BEA Systems denied the $6.7B offer from Oracle, by saying that the 25% premium could be set higher because the company is “worth substantially more”. It looks like they’re trying to get the most out of the bidders and decided to start a bidding war. With all these BEA Systems’ price on the stock market rose by 38.18% up to $18.82 so that puts Oracle behind.

The stock market is a very smart system. It dictates the right price set by those that bring along with their cash, the trust in a company. BEA acted wisely by rejecting the first offer, even if analysts consider it would do good in Oracle’s yard, because I think they can increase to more than $21 if they play ball the right way. BEA Systems is involved in transaction processing, billing, customer service, provisioning an securities trading so it’s obvious why people are so interested.

Let the bidding war begin!

United Auto Workers (UAW) union which is responsible for starting the second strike at Chrysler affecting 18 manufacturing plants and 30 other facilities across 14 states, ended just seven hours later, after reaching an agreement: “shifting an estimated $18 billion in future retiree health costs from the company to a union-controlled trust fund.”

It all started when negotiations failed to deliver better healthcare for aprox. 31,000 UAW members working for Chrysler and it looks the deal they’ll sign these days is indeed good if the strike lasted only 7 hours. It’s also true, that the union wanted a quicky this time so that production won’t be greatly affected.

Sources say, the deal might be a “$3,000 signing bonus, along with three subsequent lump-sum payments equal to between 3 and 4 percent of the workers’ annual pay” and not a raised base-pay rate for employees.

Next on the strike list, with about 58,000 UAW members could be Ford Motors in a few weeks or maybe months, this time.

News came today announcing that the two producers of the well renowned beers, Coors and Miller Lite, have teamed up to create a joint venture that will have to compete with Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD), leader with over 40% of the brewing operations in U.S. and producer of Budweiser, Michelob and Bud Light.

The joint venture between Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP), with 42% and London’s SABMiller plc (LON:SAB) with 58% will be called MillerCoors and will be responsible for selling Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, Coors, Coors Light and Molson Canadian.

Beside the fact that they want MillerCoors to become the number one beer producer in the US with an estimated production of 69 million barrels that accounts for $6.6 billion, the $500 million cost saving in the next three years sounds pretty good. They will reduce shipping distances, optimize production and eliminate duplicate departments like marketing to make their joint-venture more profitable but killing costs brings up a few problems.

Who will handle the marketing campaigns and who will be the mind behind the TV spots because I am sure some like Miller’s and some like Coors’. Another problem I can see is, delivering the news to the employees. It’s not easy to tell people they need to search for another job.

Though I brought up those negative things up, I do believe that MillerCoors will do great  fighting for the first place in such a market. Investors should also be happy, because from what Cramer said, this is an under evaluated company with great financial support.

We’re always into finding some buzz from these big companies we always hear about and it looks like we got something. Sprint - Nextel’s (NYSE:S) CEO, Gary Forsee is no longer with the company after resigning from the top position without even using an lie excuse.

Gary Forsee has been under the eye for some time now, because the company was “quietly” looking to replace him since August. Apparently a few investors were a little bit unhappy with the latest acquisitions (Nextel and WiMAX) that never confirmed and with the lousy results for the last year. Sprint never managed to catch Verizon (NYSE:VZ) or AT&T (NYSE:T) in sales, staying calmly on the 3rd place after losing about 337,000 contract subscribers in the third quarter.

Sprint announced that until December, when a new CEO is supposed to arrive, the interim will be realized by CFO Paul Saleh and James Hance, Jr.  as acting chairman. and that the new CEO that will take over the management, will not be from within the company. I guess those head hunters will have something to do now.

The stock price dropped by 51 cents after the news was confirmed, sending the company down to $18.50 a two-year low.

Today, in Kentucky, started the deliberations on a trial that’s been advertised so much until now. Louise Ogborn, 21, is suing one of the biggest fast food companies in the world, McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), after being fooled intro stripping by a hoax policeman named “Officer Scott” that pretended she has stolen a purse from a customer. Louise was 18 at that time, with a “white as milk” clean record and great references.

Summers, 51, conceded later that she had never known Ogborn to do a thing dishonest. But she nonetheless led Ogborn to the restaurant’s small office, locked the door, and — following the caller’s instructions — ordered her to remove one item of clothing at a time, until she was naked. Courier Journal

Ogborn is also suing Donna Jean Summers, her manager at that time that never protected her from the fake cop or investigating if the case was real, hiding under a very “solid” excuse of running the restaurant on a busy Friday night. Why is she on trial here, is pretty obvious. Though she followed the general rule in business, “the client always comes first”, she failed in being a moral person that can decide between good and wrong and that thing cost her a conviction for unlawful imprisonment.

All I can say right now is that Louise Ogborn has a pretty good case and that I hope her to win, because this is not just a McDonald’s lawsuit, is a trial to demand good morals and dignity, besides money.

via AssociatedPress

** Update: Friday, October 5th, the jury awarded $5 million in punitive damages and about $1.1 million in compensatory damages to Louise Ogborn. Donna Summers and Kim Dockery, another assistant manager for McDonald’s were named as defendants in Ogborn’s suit, but the jury ruled they did not have to pay any damages.

We’re fans of technology and the news we’ve heard today really made us think if Apple’s iPhone will have a real candidate to fight with . There’s lot of buzz today about the new lineup of cellphones, Verizon will launch in the next couple of weeks that consists of Samsung Juke (U470), Blackberry Pearl (8130), LG Venus (VX8800) and of course the one I’m going to give full attention, LG Voyager (VX10000).

LG Voyager is a full touchscreen display cellphone with a QWERTY keyboard that sports a secondary display if you unfold it. The biggest advantages I can see are internet functions that should work great on Verizon’s Wireless network, which supports much higher speeds than AT&T and if I were to make a comparison with the iPhone, it has everything. Expandable memory slot to reach 8GB - checked, camera - checked, web browsing - checked, email -checked, and so on.

With all the buzz created, I really think there will be some damage done to iPhone sales, even if the marketing campaign wasn’t anything like Apple’s. I guess people need something new every half a year. If you would like to find out more about Verizon’s LG Voyager, check the link. Meanwhile I’m waiting a confirmation for the $250-$300 price that’s been rumored and a clear release date.

A “good” guarantee for a good start in life is education. Education means money and this is what students don’t have and of course the solutions are the student loans, which are getting pricier and pricier. If we add that to the recent subprime lending problems that are the shaking America right now the vision for the next 10-20 years is not great.

If we take for an example a graduating student that has to pay $150,000 or so for his private and student loans that kept him in college and sent him to proper higher education, then I am sure his $2,000 salary is not enough for a “consumer”economy. No traveling, no going out, which is less money spent in the market.

Why everything ended up here is a very good question because Alan Greenspan was considered one of the best economists in the world, with top-notch performances, and the economy was going great. Apparently not, and since tuition fees increased by a few times in the last decade, the education system is becoming very picky on who to choose for their classes. Consider those $23,000 in scholarships for four years. Enough? Of course not because the fees are somewhere near $51,000 for public colleges and $121,000 if you choose private.

I will finish with asking THE question: “will the students be able to repay their loans?” because we all grow up and we have children. Money needed again! What do you think?

It’s not a secret that blogs networks are becoming more and more popular, but how you do it is the most important. BM authors, have the knowledge and the desire to write for our readers to give tips, news and opinions on a few and we only select the best. So what we do? We write, whenever we need to tell something to the world. Where we do it from is not that important, but we’re in the Balkans.

So far we only cover about 10 niches but as soon as possible, that should go to at least 20 quality informative blogs included in our network.

Let’s hope it’s for the best.

Cheers,
Alex