State Street, known for its middle-of-the-road custodial and ETF services, is not immune from the risky bets leveling Wall Street. The institutional money manager said it will take a $279 million fourth-quarter charge after making bad bets on subprime mortgages and other debt, and replaced its investment management chief. Bill Hunt, who had led the State Street Global Advisors unit, resigned after only three years in the job. The 71-cent-per-share charge addresses legal and other costs related to exposure to and illiquidity in subprime mortgages, and addresses “customer concerns as to whether the execution of these strategies was consistent with the customers’ investment intent,” the company said.

U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co formally identified top Indian auto maker Tata Motors as the front-runner to buy its European brands Jaguar and Land Rover. Tata, along with Mahindra & Mahindra and U.S.-based private equity firm One Equity Partners, had emerged in November as the last bidders left in the race for the two luxury brands and Tata had long been viewed as leading the pack. India has not been timid about its interest in overseas investment. Tata Steel bought Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus last year for 6.2 billion pounds ($12.3 billion).

The Weather Channel is reportedly putting itself up for sale, and could fetch $5 billion. The New York Times says interest is seen coming from NBC, News Corp, and Comcast. The sale is reported to be part of a larger breakup of its parent, Landmark Communications, a privately held company controlled by the Batten family of Norfolk, Va., which also owns daily newspapers and other media properties. The Times notes that the Weather Channel’s Web business, which ranks as the nation’s 18th-largest media site by traffic, is bigger than CNN and Facebook.

Activist billionaire investor Nelson Peltz has taken a “small” stake in insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc, The Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared Peltz and his companies to buy Marsh & McLennan shares earlier this week.

Philips Electronics has extended its $2.7 billion takeover offer for U.S. lighting maker Genlyte Group Inc to Jan. 16, saying not all regulatory approvals have been obtained yet. The company still needs anti-trust approval in a “small number of countries outside of North America,” a spokesman said.