Verizon to Buy AOL & Other News You Need to Know Now

Good morning! Here’s what we’ll be keeping an eye on today: the Job Openings & Labor Turnover survey is due; earnings include GoDaddy, Vivendi and Zlllow; and Barack Obama will announce the site of his presidential library, probably the University of Chicago.

Verizon announced it's buying Internet pioneer AOL for $4.4 billion. That's $50 a share — an 18% premium over yesterday's close. For those of us who were users when AOL was a startup with a few hundred thousand members and it was considered the onramp to the internet, joining forces with a wireless carrier as the world goes unapologetically mobile seems a fitting fit for the Internet pioneer times seemed to have passed by. And it's not a bad turnaround job by Tim Armstrong, the Googler whom the tech savvy thought was nuts to sign on as CEO. Wonder if this is giving a certain ex-Googler at Yahoo any ideas ... For a while now there was semi-serious speculation that AOL's best merger hopes (it was taken as gospel that it had to join forces with someone) would be with Yahoo, run by ex-Googler Marisa Mayer. AOL's decision to be acquired by Verizon will certainly heat up that conversation again. And it is being acquired, which may mean that it will likely avoid the cart-leading-the-horse disaster that it was its previous attempt to join forces with a bigger company: Who can forget the train wreck that was AOL-Time Warner? If this deal works, all is forgiven. (John C Abell)

A new earthquake has hit Nepal. The magnitude 7.4 quake near the Chinese border was felt all the way to New Delhi. No reports yet, as of this writing, on damages or casualties. Get updates here. The previous, magnitude 7.8 quake killed more than 8,000 people. 

Google’s self-driving cars can’t bend the laws of physics. After an initial AP report, Google’s director of self-driving cars, Chris Urmson, came clean: the vehicles have had 11 accidents – light damage, no injury, and never the car’s fault – in six years and 1.7 million miles of testing, mostly because they couldn’t get out of the way of a misbehaving driver. These scrapes, if anything, demonstrate the crazy things we all get up to on the road, Urmson argues. But because we’re talking about an intimidating new technology, the inevitable first accident to injure or kill someone will create an uproar. 

Banks did indeed misbehave in the lead-up to the 2008 mortgage crisis. There was little doubt in public opinion, but now a US federal judge ruled that Nomura Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland willfully misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in selling them misrepresented, toxic mortgages. “The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous,” the judge wrote. Sixteen other banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, preferred to settle the case for a collective $18 billion. 

Citigroup is confident it won’t be charged for rigging foreign exchange markets. The DOJ dropped its investigation, Citi said in its quarterly earnings report. Six major banks have been investigated on three continents for seven years for colluding to fix the LIBOR, which commands the valuation of $350 trillion of loans and securities. One trader is scheduled to face a judge later this month in London. 

Shell could start drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean again. The US Department of Interior issued a conditional permit, subject to approval from other regulators and the state of Alaska. Shell stopped exploring the Arctic Ocean two years ago after safety failures. Environmental organizations are not happy. 

Greece has signed the check. Or rather put in the transfer order for the €750 million it owes the IMF today, officials say. Greek and EU negotiators were cautiously optimistic after talks yesterday. They’ll be at it again tomorrow. 

Uber is giving in to cash in India. Customers in Hyderabad for now will be able to pay for rides the old-fashioned way, like with taxis, rather than through the app. Uber is used to imposing its way onto foreign markets, whatever the legislation, but when you’ve got an opportunity of nearly 400 million urban Indians, and only 20 million have a credit card, you adapt. That’s the power of having 1/5th the world’s population. Don’t miss what’s happening in this fascinating economy, follow India editor Ramya Venugopal for daily updates. 

Tesla is giving in to electrical standards in China. “Range anxiety” has been a big blocker to Tesla sales in the country. Soon owners will be able to charge in facilities built by China’s State Grid  rather than Tesla’s proprietary network. That’s the power of having another 1/5th of the world’s population. 

There’s a new record for most expensive artwork ever. Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” sold for $179.4 million at Christie’s. The buyer remained anonymous.

Tim Cook is feeling the love in China. Traveling to what is now the iPhone’s #1 market, the Apple CEO signed up for Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service, and attracted 300,000 followers in the time it takes me to write a post like this. Not jealous…

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