BOSTON (Reuters) – Investigators were seeking a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings and whether others were involved as they awaited a chance on Sunday to interview the surviving ethnic Chechen suspect.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in a Boston hospital seriously wounded and unable to speak, after he was captured late on Friday at the end of a huge manhunt that shut down Boston.

BOSTON (Reuters) – With the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings lying seriously wounded in a hospital, investigators worked on Saturday to determine a motive and whether the ethnic Chechen brothers accused in the attack acted alone.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured late on Friday after a gunfight with police that ended a daylong manhunt and sent waves of relief and jubilation throughout Boston. His brother Tamerlan, 26, was killed on Thursday in a shootout with police.

BOSTON, April 17 (Reuters) – Victims of the Boston Marathon
bombings will eventually win some kind of compensation, but it
is far too early to know how much money there will be, whether
private donors or insurers will provide most of it, and how long
it might take to distribute.

Late on Tuesday, state and city officials said they had
established One Fund Boston, designed as a central source of
compensation for victims. John Hancock, a Boston-based insurer
owned by Manulife Financial Corp, has contributed $1 million in
seed money. Boston law firm Goodwin Procter will run it.

April 9 (Reuters) – The board of J.C. Penney Co Inc
is facing scathing criticism from retail investors and corporate
governance experts after ousting Chief Executive Ron Johnson and
replacing him with his own embattled predecessor, Myron Ullman.

Hours after the switch was announced on Monday, there was at
least one call for the entire board to resign, while others
suggested shareholders might vote out current board members at
the company’s next annual meeting.

By Ben Berkowitz and Lauren Tara LaCapra

(Reuters) – Warren Buffett has given up his chance to become Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) largest shareholder by converting his warrants into a smaller stake in the bank at no additional cost to his Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Buffett received the warrants as part of a 2008 deal during the depths of the financial crisis, when his investment in Goldman was seen as a vote of confidence in the firm. Under that deal, Berkshire had the right to buy about 43.5 million Goldman shares – or a roughly 9 percent stake – at an exercise price of $115 (75.83 pounds) per share, for $5 billion in total.

By Ben Berkowitz and Lauren Tara LaCapra

(Reuters) – Warren Buffett will become one of Goldman Sachs’ (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) ten largest shareholders essentially for free, after he and the bank amended a 2008 deal to exchange his potential profit on Goldman warrants for stock.

The exchange, which Goldman detailed on Tuesday, saves Buffett billions of dollars in upfront costs and lets Goldman minimize dilution to its stock. Under a 2008 deal, Buffett had held the right to acquire about 43.5 million shares of stock at an exercise price of $115.

By Ben Berkowitz and Lauren Tara LaCapra

(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will give Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) millions of shares in the bank in place of warrants that date to the financial crisis, a deal that saves Berkshire money upfront and reduces dilution risk for Goldman.

The deal will make Berkshire, the conglomerate led by investor Warren Buffett, one of Goldman’s 10 largest shareholders.

March 4 (Reuters) – MBIA Inc on Monday won the
dismissal of a lawsuit by Bank of America Corp and
Societe Generale SA challenging its 2009
restructuring, sending the bond insurer’s shares up as much as
25 percent.

New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick said Eric
Dinallo, the state insurance superintendent at the time, was not
“arbitrary and capricious” in authorizing a split of MBIA’s
traditional municipal bond business from a structured finance
unit that had suffered big losses from guaranteeing debt backed
by risky mortgages.

By Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway may end a long streak of outperforming the S&P 500 this year, Chief Executive Warren Buffett warned shareholders on Friday, even as he said he was still eagerly hunting for acquisitions to grow the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate.

In his annual letter to investors, Buffett opened up with a warning that this year, for the first time, the growth in Berkshire’s book value per share may underperform the growth in the S&P 500 when measured over a five-year period.

March 1 (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway may end a
long streak of outperforming the S&P 500 this year, Chief
Executive Warren Buffett warned shareholders on Friday, even as
he said he was still eagerly hunting for acquisitions to grow
the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate.
In his annual letter to investors, Buffett opened up with a
warning that this year, for the first time, the growth in
Berkshire’s book value per share may underperform the growth in
the S&P 500 when measured over a five-year period.
“To date, we’ve never had a five-year period of
underperformance, having managed 43 times to surpass the S&P
over such a stretch,” he wrote. “But the S&P has now had gains
in each of the last four years, outpacing us over that period.
If the market continues to advance in 2013, our streak of
five-year wins will end.”
Buffett said he expects the growth in Berkshire’s intrinsic
business value will over time exceed the S&P’s returns by small
margins. But at the same time, he said the firm would
underperform in a strong market like this year.
Long-time Berkshire investors said they detected almost a
sense of frustration in this year’s letter.
“He’s gotten away from some of the things that used to just
matter to him so much,” said Bill Smead, chief investment
officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. “He has so much
capital I don’t think he can just rely on a stock portfolio the
way he used to.”
Just last month, Berkshire struck a deal to put $12 billion
toward the $23 billion cash buyout of ketchup maker H.J. Heinz
Co, but Buffett said he and vice chairman Charlie Munger
were not done.
“But we still have plenty of cash and are generating more at
a good clip. So it’s back to work; Charlie and I have again
donned our safari outfits and resumed our search for elephants,”
Buffett said in the annual letter.
Berkshire reported $47 billion of cash on hand at Dec. 31.

MORE NEWSPAPERS
Buffett did not hint at what sort of companies he would like
to acquire, except to note that one thing he will buy more of is
newspapers.
Despite a years-long aversion to the business, Berkshire has
of late been buying up papers in smaller communities across the
country. Buffett said Friday he will continue to do so.
“At appropriate prices – and that means at a very low
multiple of current earnings – we will purchase more papers of
the type we like,” he said.
Berkshire employs more than 288,000 people worldwide in
dozens of business. Buffett serves as chairman, chief executive
and chief investment officer. When he leaves, at least four
people will replace him in those various roles.
Buffett’s annual shareholder letter is one of the most
closely read public statements by any investor or executive in
corporate America. It often comes out early on a Saturday
morning, and Buffett devotees have been known to set aside an
entire weekend to read and digest it.
(It was released Friday night this time for scheduling
reasons related to SEC filing deadlines).