Harold Maass of The Week The Best of Today's Business

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Phone giants join forces

Nokia and Siemens today announced that they were merging their telecommunications network equipment units. The deal will help them compete with market leader Ericsson. It will also fuel further consolidation in the industry. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) The 50-50 joint venture will allow Helsinki-based Nokia and Munich-based Siemens to cut up to 6,000 of their 60,000 combined jobs. The merged firm -- Nokia Siemens Networks -- could help the companies save 1.5 billion euros annually by 2010. Shares of both companies were up this morning on the news. (MarketWatch.com)

Expansion through weight-loss

Nestle has bought weight-loss company Jenny Craig for $600 million. Switzerland-based Nestle is already the world's largest food company. The purchase of the California-based Jenny Craig will help it expand its high-margin nutrition and health business by tapping into the booming U.S. diet business. Jenny Craig -- founded by weight-loss guru Jenny Craig in 1983 -- sold over $400 million of its prepared meals and exercise programs in the last year. "The U.S. is a very big market for nutrition and wellness," said Vontobel analyst Claudia Lenz. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs' new management team

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has named two allies of new CEO Lloyd Blankfein as co-presidents. Blankfein -- the former president who was tapped as CEO after outgoing chief Henry Paulson was nominated as Treasury secretary -- helped build the firm into Wall Street's biggest trader. Co-presidents Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried are veterans of the trading side of the firm, which surged under Paulson and now accounts for 63 percent of revenue. (Bloomberg) To address fretting on the investment banking side of the firm, the board picked John Weinberg -- a veteran investment banker -- as vice chairman. (The Wall Street Journal, paid subscription required)

Video game makers crash

The four major publicly traded video game publishers have lost a collective $6 billion in market capitalization since May 1 -- nearly a 25 percent drop. Sales have suffered due largely to the transition to a new generation of game consoles, including Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii. Everything from production delays to high console prices have cut into demand for new games, depressing shares of Electronic Arts, Activision, and other game makers. But with record numbers of adults playing video games, said analyst Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities, "I'd be buying these stocks with both hands." (The New York Times, free registration required)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

Time for a checkup

With interest rates rising and financial markets convulsing, says Andrew Leckey in the Chicago Tribune (free registration required), a "midyear financial checkup" is "more important than usual this year." Check your income against your monthly expenses to make sure you have a positive cash flow. Develop a plan for paying down your "highest-rate debt." Make sure you are saving as much as you can for retirement. And look at your half-year gains and losses in stocks. If your portfolio needs rebalancing, "seek out today's bargains."

Mutual funds are back

Mutual funds have weathered the recent market turmoil surprisingly well, says Lauren Young in BusinessWeek. Critics have long skewered funds for failing to beat market indexes, and the criticism grew louder after so many investors "got burned" when the "market cratered from 2000 to 2002." But mutual funds hauled in net inflows of $145 billion through April, followed by just $6 billion in net outflow after the markets turned volatile. One reason is that funds have beaten the market since 2002. Many have also reduced fees that can cut into gains. "So much for the death of mutual funds."

GOOD DAY FOR: Hedging bets, as some large corporations are increasing their donations to Democrats after a decade of favoring Republican congressional candidates. Democrats could pick up seats in 2006 midterm elections, said Greg Casey, head of the Business-Industry Political Action Committee, and "the reality is beginning to set in here."

BAD DAY FOR: Venturing out of the house, as World Cup fever has fueled a global boom in sales of huge flat-panel TVs. Sharp credits soccer fans for its 50 percent sales jump in Japan this year. "The quality is just incredible," said Christopher Belton, a British freelance writer who spent about $4,000 on a 46-inch, high-definition Sony LCD TV. "It's better than actually being at the stadium."

NOTED: Charitable giving in the U.S. hit $260 billion last year, just shy of the inflation-adjusted record set at the end of the tech boom in 2000. A report by the Giving USA foundation said the 6 percent rise over the previous year stemmed largely from outpourings of donations after the tsunami in Asia and hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. (Associated Press)