The Wall Street Journal-20080125-In Brief
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In Brief
Morgan Stanley Prepares
To Lay Off 1,000 Workers
Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley is set to lay off about 1,000 people in a 2% reduction of its nearly 50,000-member global work force. Cutbacks will take place in the firm's wealth-management unit, according to people familiar with the plans, and will affect primarily U.S.-based back-office employees in technology, operations and support functions. News of the layoffs was reported by CNBC.
Wikipedia's Sister, Wikia,
Looks to Eventual IPO
Wikia Inc., a profit-oriented company set up by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, is aiming for a stock market listing in the long run, Mr. Wales said in an interview. Wikimedia Foundation -- the entity behind Wikipedia -- is nonprofit. Mr. Wales said Wikia has funding from venture capital and an initial public offering "is sort of the path we are going to take."
BofA Offering Goes Well;
Stock Analysts Laid Off
Bank of America Corp. priced $12 billion in securities offered to the public to shore up its capital ratios, twice the $6 billion it had set out to sell. The two-part deal shows the keen interest in securities from banks that have been selling to deep-pocketed sovereign-wealth funds over the past month. Separately, the bank said it laid off about a quarter of its securities analysts. It employed about 70 analysts last month.
