Russian President Dmitry Medvedev takes his plea for foreign investment and technology directly to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and Nokia Oyj as he hosts business leaders this week in his native St. Petersburg. A year and a half after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rejected Dell Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell’s offer to assist Russia’s computer industry at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Medvedev will ask investors to help build a Russian “Silicon Valley” to cut the country’s oil addiction. “Medvedev is on a very serious marketing campaign right now,” said Jack Barbanel, managing director at Moscow-based Strategic Investment Group, which focuses on technology and healthcare in the former Soviet republics. “It’s a major change because previously Russia wasn’t doing much.” –Bloomberg
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) will take a minority position in Green Dot, a provider of prepaid debit cards, according to several media reports. The financial company already sells its prepaid cards at 50,000 locations, including Wal-Mart stores. "In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this month, Green Dot said it had issued 2,208,552 shares of Class A common stock to Wal-Mart," Reuters reports. Green Dot, which filed for an IPO earlier this year, has been in talks with federal officials to buy its own bank to extend the reach of its business. Wal-Mart offers some bank-like services, including check-cashing, but state regulators have prevented it from actually owning a bank. –Daily Finance
Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) downgraded DreamWorks Animation (NASDAQ:DWA) to neutral from buy, saying it believes the film studio has gone too far in trying to maximize profit from its Shrek franchise. "We believe management should consider re-evaluating its less-profitable ancillary revenue streams in order to preserve some scarcity value for characters and to allow audiences a chance to miss characters," the broker said. –MarketWatch
Renewed talk of a bailout for fiscally strained Spain weighed on financial markets ahead of a key labor-market reform the government will present later Wednesday. Spain’s risk premium, as measured by the yield spread on Spanish bonds over German bunds, hit its highest level since the creation of the euro after El Economista reported the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the U.S. Treasury are preparing a €250 billion ($308.68 billion) liquidity facility for Spain. Spain’s government, banks and companies have faced increasing difficulties financing themselves in recent weeks as investors fret over the country’s double-digit budget deficit. –The Wall Street Journal
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