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Regulators on Friday shut down two banks in Georgia, bringing to 126 the number of U.S. bank failures this year in a climate of economic struggle and deepening loan defaults.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Buckhead Community Bank, based in Atlanta, with $874 million in assets and $838 million in deposits, and First Security National Bank, based in Norcross, Ga., with $128 million in assets and $123 million in deposits.
The FDIC expects the cost of bank failures to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years. The 126 bank failures are the most in a year since 1992 at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis.
The federal government is speeding up plans to produce more renewable fuels, announcing Friday it will spend nearly $600 million to help build plants that turn wood chips, cornstalks and algae into fuel.
The government and private companies will create 19 biorefinery projects in 15 states. The government’s $564 million share will come from the stimulus and will be combined with $700 million in private investments.
The projects have the potential to create an entire new industry and thousands of jobs, especially in rural America where agriculture and forest waste is cheap and plentiful, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who attended the news conference in Toledo, where a pilot plant will turn agriculture waste into diesel fuel.
Microsoft and Yahoo have signed off on their plan to team up against Google in Internet search. The step announced Friday seals the terms of a preliminary agreement announced in late July.
Government regulators still must approve the proposed partnership. The two companies believe they will clear that final hurdle early next year. If regulators give their blessing, Microsoft will begin to power Yahoo’s search engine.
Even if they are allowed to join forces, Microsoft and Yahoo still will be processing half as many search requests as Google.
Kraft Foods Inc. took its $16.3 billion hostile takeover offer for Cadbury PLC straight to shareholders of the British candy company on Friday.
The deal is nearly unchanged from an earlier offer that was rejected by Cadbury. But by putting it directly in shareholder hands, Kraft starts the clock on a series of regulatory deadlines and might flush out rival bids.
Under British regulations, Cadbury, the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate and Dentyne gum, has two weeks to give a formal response to the offer.
The Treasury Department said Friday it received $146.5 million for the warrants of Capital One Financial Corp. in the first auction of the warrants the government received as part of the $700 billion financial bailout.
The auction, conducted by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. on Thursday, resulted in a price of $11.75 per warrant. Warrants are financial instruments that allow the holder to buy stock in the future at a fixed price.
The auction was held because Capital One, based in McLean, Va., and the government could not agree on a price for the warrants after months of negotiations.
