Kraft, SAC Capital: Monday's Headlines

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are the top stock market headlines for the morning of Monday, Nov. 9, 2009.

Monday's Early Headlines

• Kraft Formalizes Hostile Takeover of Cadbury -- Kraft Foods (KFT Quote) is taking it's offer for Cadbury (CBY Quote) directly to the U.K. confectionary maker's shareholders. Kraft's bid values Cadbury at 9.8 billion pounds, with the U.S. company set to offer 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft Foods shares for each Cadbury Share, as well as 1,200 pence in cash and 1.0356 new Kraft Foods shares for each Cadbury American Depositary share. Kraft faced a deadline Monday of 5 p.m. London time set by the U.K. Takeover Panel to make a formal offer for Cadbury or walk away for at least six months.
• SAC Capital Surfaces in Insider Trading Probe -- The Wall Street Journal reports that the widening insider trading investigation is expected to examine transactions at Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, citing people familiar with the matter. The newspaper notes that a plea agreement between the government and a cooperating witness in the investigation, Richard Choo Beng Lee, indicates that he has agreed to provide information to prosecutors about a hedge fund where he worked between 1999 and 2004. That firm is SAC, according to people familiar with the matter, the Journal reports.
• GE, Comcast Value NBC Universal at $30B -- The Wall Street Journal reports that General Electric (GE Quote) and Comcast (CMCSA Quote) have agreed to value NBC Universal at around $30 billion, citing people familiar with the matter. The two companies are now ironing out the final details of an agreement. An announcement could be made as early as the end of this week, the people said, the Journal reports.
• Fed's Bullard: Uncertainty High Over Inflation -- The Financial Times reports that James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said in an interview that uncertainty over the outlook for inflation "is as high as it has ever been since 1980." Bullard added that "For 2009, in particular, and maybe a little bit into 2010, you have to worry about getting out of the recession, establishing your recovery, making sure the recovery has really taken hold. And then, at the appropriate time, when things are all going forward, you have to switch gears and watch whether the inflation rate is coming up."
• Morgan Stanley to Sell China Investment Bank Stake -- Reuters reports that Wei Sun Christianson, Morgan Stanley's (MS Quote) China chief executive, said the U.S. bank is seeking a buyer for its 34% stake in investment bank China International Capital Corp. Private equity firms Bain Capital and General Atlantic are among potential buyers in a deal that could fetch more than $1.2 billion, Reuters reported last week.
• Sprint Nextel Could Invest $1 Billion More In Clearwire -- The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint Nextel (S Quote) plans to pump at least $1 billion more into Clearwire (CLWR Quote), citing two people familiar with the matter. An announcement of the new investment could come as soon as this week, according to the newspaper. The latest funding infusion comes about 18 months after Sprint, Intel (INTC Quote), Comcast and other partners put $3.2 billion into Clearwire, which is struggling to build a fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile broadband network, the Journal notes.
• Apple to Launch Verizon iPhone in Q3 2010: Report -- Web blog AppleInsider reports that Apple (AAPL Quote) has contracted a Taiwan handset supply chain to produce a UMTS/CDMA hybrid iPhone due in the third quarter of next year that will enable the company to sell a single global handset to all carriers, and specifically to Verizon (VZ Quote) Wireless in the U.S. The blog post cites a report by OTR Global, which says the new "worldmode" iPhone will gain compatibility with CDMA2000 networks, including Verizon's U.S. network, which is currently incompatible with existing iPhone models