Warrants that the U.S. holds in Citigroup (NYSE:C), once the most valuable bank in the nation, may provide the lowest return for taxpayers who stepped in with $45 billion to save the company. The Treasury Department, which delayed plans to sell Citigroup shares after a December 16th offering priced them below what the agency paid, may get no more than $179.3 million for the warrants, based on estimates from Nomura Securities, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) paid $1.1 billion to buy back warrants, and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) netted $936.1 million. Both banks received less federal money than Citigroup. “There has been no decision from Citi as to whether they intend to repurchase the warrants directly from the Treasury or allow the warrants to be auctioned,” Williams, the Treasury spokesman, said. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), which paid back TARP on December 9th, and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) haven’t said what will happen with their warrants. -Bloomberg
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is about to snap up local information company Yelp for $500 million. The purchase comes on the heels of a $750 million takeover of AdMob in November. The company may also be in the process of buying online real estate information company Trulia for northwards of $200 million. There have also been smaller deals, like the November purchase of ad optimizing company Teracent or a possible acquisition of document collaboration company DocVerse for about $25 million, according to some reports. However, investors are often concerned about Google’s massive spending on hiring. So, having to pay top dollar for other companies demonstrates Google’s inability to take advantage of emerging Web trends itself, despite devoting major resources to the cause. And buying other companies has yet to solve that problem, either. –Daily Finance
The U.S. stock market is wrapping up what is likely to be its worst decade ever. In nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history, no calendar decade has seen such a dismal performance as the 2000s. Investors would have been better off investing in pretty much anything else, from bonds to gold or even just stuffing money under a mattress. Since the end of 1999, stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange have lost an average of 0.5% a year thanks to the twin bear markets this decade. –The Wall Street Journal
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) disclosed today that the company will team up with Ma’aden, the Saudi Arabian mining company, to invest roughly $10.8 billion in the development of an integrated aluminum industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Alcoa and its partners will own 40% of the project while Saudi Arabia will own 60%. -MarketWatch
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