Muriel Siebert's Brokerage Said to Seek Buyers After Her Death

Siebert Financial Corp., whose late founder Muriel Siebert was the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, is exploring a sale, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The brokerage is working with Raymond James Financial Inc. to seek a buyer and could fetch more than $50 million in a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public. Siebert Financial's shares closed at $2.04 yesterday, giving it a market value of $45 million.

The company is too small to appeal to private equity and could draw interest from larger Coupon Codes brokerages such as E*Trade Financial Corp., TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and Scottrade Inc., two of the people said.

Known as Mickie, Siebert broke into the all-male membership of the exchange by paying $445,000 for a seat in 1967 after a career as a financial analyst. She died of complications from cancer in August at age 84. She started Muriel Siebert & Co., in 1969 and retooled it as a discount brokerage in 1975 as Wall Street adopted negotiated commissions rather than fixed ones.

At her funeral, she was remembered for her devotion to her dog, Monster Girl, and love of fast cars. She got her start on Wall Street as research analyst with Bache & Co. Siebert was also the first female superintendent of banks for New York State, and in 1982 unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Siebert Financial "has been exploring opportunities to grow and enhance the firm's offerings, including through strategic alliances, since the death of our founder," according to an e-mailed statement from spokesman Tom Butler. "The board of directors will explore any options that enhance our competitive position and expand our product offering."

Billionaire Status

Siebert Financial, which went public in 1996, has 35,000 client retail accounts containing $7.2 billion in assets, according to today's statement. The brokerage offered clients the option to trade online, and for two brief periods in 1999, as Internet-related stocks soared, her ownership stake briefly made her a billionaire. Within months, some $700 million of that disappeared.

Spokesmen for Raymond James and E*Trade declined to comment on the sale. Representatives for TD Ameritrade and Scottrade didn't reply to phone calls seeking comment.

Siebert Financial's third-quarter loss widened to $1.6 million from $912,000 a year earlier, according to regulatory filings. Siebert held 90 percent of the company's stock as of April 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company is starting an investment management venture with Palladiem Partners LLC and Brinker Capital next month, according to today's statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Monks in New York at mmonks1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mohammed Hadi at mhadi1@bloomberg.net James Callan

Here's a Couple Screens from the New 'True Skate' Skatepark, Called The Warehouse

<Promotional Codep>One of my favorite pastimes is spending hours skating around the virtual world of True Skate [$1.99] from True Axis. While contains missions to complete and a scoring mechanic that put it squarely in "game" territory, myself and many others enjoy it simply as a virtual skateboarding toy. The physics engine and numerous skateable objects in True Skate mean you're only limited by your own imagination when it comes to things to do in the game.

True Axis has been great about updating the game too. Since its initial release in October of 2012, True Skate has gained numerous new features, tweaks, and even brand new parks. The first of those new parks came just over a year ago, an indoor skatepark named Inbound, with its second new park hitting just last month, a street-style level named Schoolyard. The Schoolyard level was just the first of four new skateparks planned for the game, and today True Axis has sent over the first images of the next upcoming park, dubbed The Warehouse.

As you can see, The Warehouse is a similar indoor park like Inbound, but much more spacious. I love Inbound, but some of its elements do feel sort of cramped, so I'm looking forward to trying out this roomier indoor park. The update with the new Warehouse level is already submitted to Apple and pending approval, and tentatively has a release date of this Thursday should everything go smoothly with said approval. If not, well, at least it won't be long to wait until we can get our hands on some tasty new virtual skating terrain in True Skate.

Man Uses 17-Year-Old Coupon for Frozen Pizza Bundled With PC Game

The man known as the Lazy Game Reviewer was given by a viewer an old copy of the 1997 combat flight sim Red Baron 2 for the PC, and inside was a Price Compare for 75 cents off a Red Baron frozen pizza.

The coupon did not have an expiration date, however, and so our lazy friend took it to a grocery store to try to use it. Lo and behold, it actually worked.

The moral of this story, of course, is that you definitely need to buy a bunch of old PC games off eBay or Amazon Marketplace like right now. The other moral is that there should be more coupons in boxed games.

Early Offer: One of KC's best taking it slow

The Early Offer is RecruitingNation's regular feature, giving you a daily dose of recruiting in the mornings. Today's offerings: One of the Promo Code 2015 prospects in Kansas City learned a lesson about how to handle the recruiting process by watching his teammate go through it this past fall; Iowa picked up commitments earlier this week from twin offensive linemen, helping the Hawkeyes make recruiting waves in the Big Ten; and a West Coast running back is starting to move up the charts with coaches.

Moore savvy about process

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The TouchArcade Show - 145 - Consistently Mediocre

<Deal Nowp>We've got a super XXL sized podcast today that was... surprisingly on topic. It begins with an email from a concerned listener asking us to stop talking about which inexplicably lead into a discussion about Flappy Bird. We're trying to stop, I swear. From there, we get on to talking about the hottest games of the week (of which there were many) and then we discuss the parallels between people who get mad about IAP and our childhood when we thought the people who ran pizza places with arcade machines were jerks. It's an oddly identical comparison, weirdly enough.

Don't forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read 'em all, even if they don't make it into the podcast.

As always, you can listen to us with the links below... And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-145.mp3, 90.5MB

GAMES NEWS

Milk price, production comparison tool

Dairy producers are often exposed to not only the highly variable nature of milk Super Sale, but also the highly variable costs of the feeds they supply to their herds. This variability often creates a situation where dairy farmers are tasked with making many choices affecting milk production and feed costs without being able to visualize the outcome.

Milk price is affected by several factors including milk volume, milk components (fat, protein, and other solids), and any bonuses or deductions applicable to the producer. While milk volume is important, many of the performance indicators of today's industry overlook the value of a herd with slightly lower milk volume and higher solids. Additionally, feed choice may have an impact on milk volume or solids. The effect of using different feeds to boost milk volume or milk solids is not only hard to calculate, but also to compare and contrast.

An example of this situation would be a farmer making the decision to spend more money on new feeds to boost component production. If this feed were to increase the production of milk solids, it may be more economically justifiable than the current feed, even if it costs more. This new feed could be more economically justifiable if it increased milk components, milk pay price, and income over feed cost values.

In order to visualize and quantify the economic impact of changes to milk volume, milk composition, milk price, and feed costs to dairy farm profitability, the University of Kentucky and DFA have developed a dashboard tool. This tool can be found at: http://afsdairy.ca.uky.edu/productioncomparison.

This tool allows farmers to quantify the difference slight changes in milk production and component levels could have on milk price. An additional feature of this tool is to compare feed costs, and their impact on milk income. Within this tool, you will find places to input production values, milk check values, and feed costs. From these inputs, economic values are computed, giving a better picture of the viability of herds with varying milk prices and feed costs.

In short, this tool will then allow you to:

• Calculate your milk price
• Compare possible production scenarios and their effects on milk price
• Compare income over feed costs between different production and feed cost situations

Instructions

The arrows on the following pages will help to direct you in using the actual Milk Price and Production Comparison Tool. While the arrows in the following pages will not appear on the actual tool, using these pages as a guide will assist you in utilizing each element of the tool to its fullest potential.

Softbank CEO's merger plans for Sprint, T-Mobile face long odds

Credit: Reuters/Issei Kato

Softbank Corp President Masayoshi Son speaks during a news conference in Tokyo July 30, 2013.

It is no secret that Son, known to have threatened self-immolation to get his way in the past, wants to combine sprint plans Corp (S.N), which Softbank acquired last year, with T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N) as part of his vision to create a global industry leader.

Son plans to lay out his broader vision for the U.S. wireless communications industry at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. next Tuesday. Speculation is rife that he will talk about a bid for T-Mobile, although a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday that was not the plan.

Anticipation about a merger has already pushed up shares of Sprint and T-Mobile 15.6 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively, since December 13, when media reports first emerged about Softbank's interest in pursuing a deal as soon as the first half of 2014.

Three sources familiar with the undertakings of the companies involved spoke on condition of anonymity for this article because they are not authorized to speak publicly about them.

Son's advisors are telling him to cool his heels for the time being, given the low odds of gaining antitrust approval, after they met lawmakers and regulators over the past several weeks in Washington and consulted with T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE).

Son, who has eyed T-Mobile for years, would rather move sooner than later, before T-Mobile gets stronger and more expensive. He reiterated his interest in a deal just last week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, according to the people familiar with the matter.

"Everyone wants to do this deal; Sprint does, DT does, Softbank does, the investors want it, the customers want it; only the regulators don't want it," one of the sources said.

Whether customers actually want or would benefit from a merger is debatable. Some consumer advocacy groups have warned it could result in higher prices, job losses and fewer choices for consumers.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler also expressed his skepticism about a potential merger in meetings with Son and Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse on February 3, according to an FCC official briefed on the matter.

His viewpoint echoed earlier comments from William Baer, assistant attorney general for the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Baer, at a meeting of the New York State Bar Association on January 30, gave long odds to a regulatory approval of mergers between any two of the top four wireless phone companies.

U.S. regulators previously rejected AT&T Inc's (T.N) $39 billion takeover bid for T-Mobile US in 2011. They have since argued that T-Mobile US has grown stronger, proving that the market can sustain four companies.

Additionally, the FCC is under pressure to maximize revenue from a spectrum auction scheduled for mid-2015. Proceeds from the auction will be used to compensate broadcasters and to contribute toward the building of a $7 billion national public safety communications network.

For the auction, TV stations will voluntarily relinquish their low-frequency airwaves but their willingness to sell depends on the prices they can get, a reason for regulators to seek as many bidders as possible.

Such airwaves can cover greater distances and penetrate walls and buildings more easily than high frequency spectrum, which makes them highly coveted, especially by wireless carriers Sprint and T-Mobile, which have less low-frequency spectrum than AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).

Deutsche Telekom would like to sell T-Mobile because it sees its fourth position in the United States, behind Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, as limiting long-term profitability. It does not want a repeat performance of its failed attempt to sell the unit to AT&T.

Deutsche Telekom's new CEO Timotheus Hoettges was a key negotiator in that deal and knows the risks and costs involved in a failure better than anyone. He negotiated a breakup fee of cash and spectrum that amounted to $6 billion, but the company had to contend with an exodus of customers amid the uncertainty of waiting for regulatory approval that in the end never came.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

To be sure, Son, who once threatened to set himself on fire as he pushed Japanese regulators to let him set up a high speed Internet service, has shown he does not give up easily. That is why people close to Son still have not ruled out the possibility he will try a merger anyway this year.

One of the sources, who has worked with Son, said he is learning how U.S. politics work and is still working on making his case despite the odds.

"He's learning to deal with politics," the person said. "His English is good but it's not nuanced so he says exactly what he thinks and that can be challenging in D.C. politics," the person added.

Softbank's arguments are that a combination of the third and fourth mobile operators would create a strong competitor to AT&T and Verizon, the industry leaders.

Looking outside the United States, Son can point to Britain and Australia as well as his home turf of Japan where regulators approved mergers between third- and fourth-ranking mobile players.

Son has also argued that to build the super-fast network he envisions for the United States, it would only be economically viable were it to serve a larger subscriber base.

Representatives for Softbank and Sprint have declined to comment on any potential deal with T-Mobile.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)