DealBook: K.K.R. Profit Rises 22% on Investment Gains

Improving markets lifted the fortunes of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in the fourth quarter, as the investment firm reported a 22 percent rise in profit.K.K.R. said on Thursday that it earned $347.7 million for the quarter, as all of its businesses showed strong gains. For the year, the firm reported earning $2.1 billion.The fourth-quarter profit, reported as economic net income and which includes unrealized...

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R.I.P., Barney: How 'Barney Cam' made George W. Bush's dog a Web star

"Mr. Orr, this is the White House operator."As a White House spokesman, I received phone calls like this all the time. But this...

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Amazon Launches Its Own Currency to Make It Easier to Spend on the Kindle

Following in the footsteps of Microsoft and Nintendo, Amazon has announced its own virtual currency for game, app, and in-app purchases, called Amazon Coins, on the Kindle Fire HD. The e-commerce giant is billing it as a way for developers to make more money by making it easier for shoppers to buy apps and games.Android and iOS app developer Zak Tanjeloff agrees that Amazon Coins...

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Ipswich Journal: Paul Mason Is One-Third the Man He Used to Be

Paul Nixon PhotographyPaul Mason in 2012, two years after gastric bypass surgery stripped him of the unofficial title of “the world’s fattest man.” IPSWICH, England — Who knows what the worst moment was for Paul Mason — there were so many awful milestones, as he grew fatter and fatter — but a good bet might be when he became too vast to leave his room. To get him to the hospital for a hernia operation,...

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Postal Service Plans to End Saturday Delivery

Jim Wilson/The New York TimesA postal worker delivered mail in San Francisco last year. WASHINGTON — The Postal Service is expected to announce on Wednesday morning that it will stop delivering letters and other mail on Saturdays, but continue to handle packages, a move the financially struggling agency said would save about $2 billion annually as it looks for ways to cut cost. The agency...

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Friends, investigators seek answers in killing of O.C. couple

They met in college, two highly regarded basketball players who seemed to have the same winning touch on the court and off.After...

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Late-Night Infomercial Reviews: The Horror of the WaxVac

When you’re an insomniac freelance writer who works from home, you end up seeing a lot of infomercials, and eventually, those things will wear you down. No matter how skeptical you might start off, you will eventually get to a point where you’ll start to wonder if there actually is somebody out there with a better way to fry eggs, chop tomatoes and make milkshakes in the comfort of your...

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NBCU’s Bonnie Hammer to run Cable; Joe Uva to run Telemundo

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – NBC Universal‘s executive lineup underwent a shift of responsibilities on Monday, with Bonnie Hammer, NBCU‘s chairman of cable entertainment and cable studios, taking control of NBC Universal’s full cable portfolio, and executive Lauren Zalaznick being promoted to a new role, and former Univision president and CEO Joe Uva taking over NBCU’s Spanish-language network Telemundo.Under...

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The New Old Age Blog: In Blended Families, Responsibility Blurs

Every year, Fran McDowell waited for the summer week when she would sing in a choral festival in the North Carolina mountains, then spend a few days in a lakeside cabin with close women friends.That getaway grew more complicated to arrange — but perhaps more necessary — after her husband, Herb Beadle, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. They had a “gloriously happy” marriage — her first, his second...

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DealBook: Dell Announces $24 Billion Buyout, Biggest Since 2007

9:32 a.m. | Updated Dell announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to go private in a $24.4 billion deal led by its founder and the investment firm Silver Lake, in the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis.Under the terms of the deal, the buyers’ consortium, which also includes Microsoft, will pay $13.65 a share in cash. That is roughly 25 percent above where Dell’s stock traded before...

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