It appears that Alaska Airlines has won in the pursuit of Virgin America’s operations, beating out rival JetBlue for the former Richard Branson venture. Alaska announced this morning that “had agreed to acquire Virgin America for $2.6 billion in cash”—though when it comes to deals these days [cough, Starwood, cough, cough], it’s wise to wait until the ink’s actually dried and money transferred – NYTimes and WSJ
Meanwhile, French telecom firms Orange and Bouygues have called off a merger after “failing to agree on a proposed deal worth 10 billion euros, or $11.4 billion”—yet another in a string of European mergers in the industry that’s fallen apart – NYTimes and Bloomberg
The rise of subprime lending in China (often via peer-to-peer lenders) has prompted regulators to intervene in hopes of preventing an American-style bubble burst & potentially recession-inducing fallout – WSJ
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed rules that would “subject crowdfunding portals to the same standards as brokers-dealers,” all in an effort to “curb money laundering, terrorist financing an d other financial crimes and cover a gap left by recent regulations” – Law360
A recent WikiLeaks revelation of internal IMF conversations about the future of Greece has prompted Greek leadership to ask for official clarification from the Fund and exposed the “fraught behind-the-scenes political machinations that have led to a deadlock on how to deal with a country still regarded as Europe’s weakest link” – NYTimes and Bloomberg
The dollar depreciates – who knew? – WSJ [not that the world doesn’t still love it – WSJ]
CA AG Kamala Harris has sued Morgan Stanley alleging that it “violated the False Claims Act and securities laws by concealing the risks of faulty mortgage-backed securities from California state pension funds” – Law360
In the face of the SEC Chief’s recent warning to Silicon Valley about the fascination with (and often overvaluation of) unicorns, current mythical beast of the moment Slack—the “popular workplace collaboration start-up”—is “galloping” along. It raised $200 million in new venture financing on Friday, which effectively raised its valuation another $1 billion to a cool $3.6 billion – NYTimes
UK-based Standard Chartered successfully invoked a lack of personal jurisdiction to escape the ongoing Forex MDL currently before SDNY’s Judge Lorna Schofield – Law360
The Minneapolis Fed’s new chief—Neel Kashkari—made a big splash in his first week on the job by calling for the breakup of Wall Street’s biggest banks. If he has his way, it won’t be a one-time thing – WSJ and MinnPost
The Fed’s reversed course and will now allow banks to use a “limited amount” of muni bonds in their calculation of “high quality liquid assets that can be converted into cash in a crisis” – Law360
MarketWatch channels its parent org (the Journal) and gives us “5 things to know” about the so-called “Panama Papers”—with intrigue worth of a le Carré novel, in keeping with the scandal’s fantastic name – MarketWatch
