The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today’s highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
GOLDMAN SAYS FACEBOOK IS WORTH $50 BILLION The social media site raised $500 million worth of investments from Goldman Sachs (GS), which paid $450 million, and a Russian investor. The deal should turn back $1.5 billion for investors at Goldman at the $50 billion valuation. It also signals powerful financial backing for Facebook, which, at $50 billion, would be worth more than companies including Yahoo! (YHOO) and eBay (EBAY). [New York Times]
IPHONE SNOOZES for the first days of the new year. A glitch in Apple’s (APPL) signature mobile prevented the alarm clocks on people’s phones from going off, triggering a flurry of angry blog posts and tweets from customers. The problem should be fixed today, the company said. [BBC]
BANK OF AMERICA IN DEFENSE MODE The company is launching a major counterespionage effort in response to WikiLeaks director Julian Assange’s threat in November, to “take down” a big bank. Bank of America (BAC) shares have fallen since then, reflecting speculation that it’s the bank in question. [New York Times]
STILL DRILLS in the Gulf even two months after the moratorium. Big oil companies including Chevron (CVX) and Shell (RDSA) have complained that they can’t get new leases approved for drilling in the gulf, although though the government ban on offshore drilling is technically over. [Wall Street Journal]
BLACK BOX BLUNDER Federal safety officials have accused the American Airlines (AMR) of illegally downloading data from the black box of one of its planes that ran off a Wyoming runway instead of turning over the information to The National Transportation Safety Board first. The board barred the airline from investigating the incident with the aircraft–which marks the first time that punishment has been doled out in decades. [Wall Street Journal]
HEY BIG SPENDER 2011 should be the year that several big corporations shell out, after thriftily stashing cash in 2010. Fortune 500 company 3M (MMM) aims to spend to expand in foreign markets, and GE (GE) announced a similar strategy. GE, along with Honeywell (HQN) and Intel (INTC) recently boosted dividends. [Wall Street Journal]
