GOLDMAN SACHS

Robert W. Baird & Co. CEO Paul Purcell speaks to IBTimes about his firm's performance during the financial crisis, navigating the financial services industry after the crisis, and the advantages of being a privately-held financial services firm.

South Africa is about to join the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) grouping and will attend the first summit of the leading emerging economies in April this year, but doubts remain over the suitability of the African nation to be in the exclusive club of the fast-growing economies.

Social networking site Facebook is now valued at $50 billion taking it ahead of companies eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner as it raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor.

Many investment banks and commodity analysts have taken a highly bullish stance on crude oil prices for 2011, based largely on economic recovery in the U.S., continued money-printing by the Federal Reserve (thereby, weakening U.S. dollar) and persistent high demand from the emerging markets, particularly China and India.

Wall Street appears to be almost universally bullish about U.S. stocks for 2011.

The race to the top of the global mergers and acquisitions league table looks set to end with Goldman Sachs retaking the honours from the rival which derailed its nine-year grip on the ranking last year.

South Korea, among other countries, would be a better candidate than South Africa to join the BRIC group of prominent emerging market nations, said Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and the man who first coined the “BRIC” term.

U.S. retail sales rose in the week before Christmas as shoppers hurried to finish their gift-buying, putting holiday sales on track to hit the high end of estimates, according to data released on Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs has adopted a new long-term bonus plan that lets the board award cash and stock on top of existing compensation, but lets the firm take back money if the employee takes too much risk, the investment banker said in filing with securities regulators.

As the global economy is entering arguably another tumultuous year, spotlight is sharply on the prospects, policies and risks of China's economy, which has all but sailed past Japan's as the world's second largest after the United States.

Mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity has surpassed $2.2 trillion for the first year since 2007 and it could be still busier in the coming year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Internet search engine Google Inc raced ahead of consulting firm McKinsey as India’s most preferred employer in business schools in 2010, according to a study by The Nielsen Company.

The stock market is up slightly as Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) jumped 8.41 percent and financial stocks rose broadly. However enthusiasm was tempered by the downgrade of American Express (NYSE:AXP).

The world's largest exchange traded gold fund - the New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore-listed SPDR Gold Trust - added 15 tonnes to its holdings on Friday, the largest one-day addition since the height of the Greek deficit crisis in May.

Securities regulators have broadened their inquiry into the mortgage industry, asking big banks about the early stages of securitizing home loans, two sources familiar with the probe said.

U.S. regulators have opened a new line of inquiry in their mortgage foreclosure probe and are asking big Wall Street banks about the beginning stages of mortgage securitization, two sources familiar with the probe said.

Amid a report Microsoft will introduce a slew of tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show, analysts say the company could be in trouble if it doesn't get its mobile act together.

Scientific instruments maker Thermo Fisher Scientific said it agreed to acquire chromatography systems maker Dionex Corp. for about $2.1 billion to expand in Asia-Pacific regions such as China.

A unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc has won the auction for UK-based Paternoster , the specialist pensions business, for an undisclosed sum.

A jury on Friday convicted a former Goldman Sachs computer programer on criminal charges of stealing secret high-frequency trading code from Wall Street's most influential bank.

A jury convicted a former Goldman Sachs computer programer on criminal charges of stealing secret high-frequency trading code from Wall Street's most influential bank.