Skip to main content
top business stories

These are stories Report on Business is following Wednesday, May 18. Get the top business stories through the day on BlackBerry or iPhone by bookmarking our mobile-friendly webpage.

Follow Michael Babad and the top business news on Twitter

Markets await LinkedIn LinkedIn Corp. prices its initial public offering today amid questions amid questions surrounding the lofty valuation not only over the professional networking site, but of other social media concerns as well.

As the first major social media company to go public, LinkedIn's IPO will be a test among investors for the Facebooks, Twitters and Groupons of the world. Its shares will begin trading tomorrow after the pricing late today.

LinkedIn set the stage yesterday with a hefty increase to its anticipated price range, boosting it to between $42 (U.S.) a share and $45, up from an earlier $32 to $35. That new price range values the company at more than $4-billion.

That's far too rich for some investors.

"I wouldn't touch the stock, I wouldn't own it, not at $45, not at $43," Eric Jackson, managing member at hedge fund Ironfire Capital, told Reuters, suggesting he could buy it at, say, $25.

Still, those running the IPO should have their fingers on the pulse of the market.

"The underwriters have to be absolutely sure they have the price right," Scott Sweet, managing director of IPO Boutique, a research firm, told The Wall Street Journal.

"There is no way they would risk blowing up this deal when they very well could be chosen for Twitter, Groupon, Zynga or Facebook's down the road."

Bombardier sees market rebound Bombardier Inc. says it's beginning to see a recovery in the commercial aircraft market.

"China, India and other developing regions are leading the global industry recovery and are expected to capture an increasingly important share of industry orders in both the business and commercial aircraft markets," the Montreal-based aircraft and train manufacturer said today in its annual 20-year forecast.

Bombardier projected "a return to sustained growth in business aviation," with industry-wide business jet manufacturing of 24,000 between 2011 and 2030. That would be worth more than $600-billion. The first 10,000 of those will come in the next decade, it said.

For commercial aircraft, Bombardier forecasts more than 13,000 in the 20- to 149-seat segment, worth almost $640-billion, up from its last projection.

It also cited a continued shift toward larger commercial aircraft.

Still, the company fears some headwinds, including high fuel prices.

"An area of concern in the industry continues to be the rising cost and volatility of oil prices, which creates uncertainty in the planning activities of many airlines," it said.

"Combined with the political changes taking place in many of the oil producing countries, and recent climatic events such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the global demand for air travel has slowed in the short term. However, in the long term, the price of oil will drive airlines to accelerate the retirement of older, less efficient aircraft, increasing the demand for new-technology, more fuel-efficient aircraft."

Greece must do more, IMF warns Even though the Europeans have coined a new term - soft restructuring - pressure is still mounting on Greece to do more.

The embattled country has to meet its targets under a joint €110-billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, and so far has been unable to do so. Last year, its deficit was more than two percentage above its target, at 10.5 per cent, and it has a long was to go this year.

Today, according to Reuters, the IMF's chief of mission to Greece, Poul Thomsen, told a conference in Athens that Greece won't meet its deficit-fighting targets unless it gets even more aggressive. This comes amid continuing protests and violent strikes in the country.

"The program will not remain on track without a determined reinvigoration of structural reforms in the coming months," Mr. Thomsen said. "Unless we see this invigoration, I think the program will run off track."

Earlier this week, the EU's Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, got the markets thinking with his suggestion that his group will look at the idea of a "soft restructuring" or "reprofiling" that would push out maturity dates for Greece. Despite what the market increasingly believes, Mr. Juncker rejected the idea of a major restructuring of Greek debt.

In International Business today

Pork treated with steroids, industrial chemicals in milk and now exploding watermelons - to read the headlines these days, it's a wonder anything on Chinese supermarket shelves is safe to eat. But that these headlines are more frequent than before is a sign that China's government has begun to use the media in its ongoing struggle to keep the country's food supply safe. Carolynne Wheeler reports from Beijing.

Celso Amorim, the former Brazilian foreign minister, was in New York this week to talk about his country's dramatic rise. One of the country's secrets: A commitment to polygamy. Trade polygamy, that is. Kevin Carmichael examines the issue from Washington.

In Personal Finance today

There's a difference between what you can and what you should borrow to buy a home, Rachel Mendleson explains in this excerpt from The MoneySense Guide to Buying and Selling Your Home.

If you rely on your laptop for work, go for higher quality and a better warranty, writes Home Cents blogger Shelley White.

In this week's Cash Clash, a Toronto woman is eyeing her underperforming RRSP as her credit-card debt rises, but her husband is urging her to think twice about cashing in her retirement savings.

From today's Report on Business

Interact with The Globe