Four new cases of SARS-like virus found in Saudi, Qatar

LONDON (Reuters) – A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organisation said.

The U.N. health agency issued an international alert in late September saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.

On Friday it said in an outbreak update that it had registered four more cases and one of the new patients had died.

“The additional cases have been identified as part of the enhanced surveillance in Saudi Arabia (3 cases, including 1 death) and Qatar (1 case),” the WHO said.

The new virus is known as a coronavirus and shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a 10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Among the symptoms in the confirmed cases are fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Of the six laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO, four cases, including the two deaths, are from Saudi Arabia and two cases are from Qatar.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency, which helped to identify the new virus in September, said the newly reported case from Qatar was initially treated in October in Qatar but then transferred to Germany, and has now been discharged.

Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections, such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The WHO said investigations were being conducted into the likely source of the infection, the method of exposure, and the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

“Close contacts of the recently confirmed cases are being identified and followed-up,” it said.

It added that so far, only the two most recently confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia were epidemiologically linked – they were from the same family, living in the same household.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that these two cases presented with similar symptoms of illness. One died and the other recovered,” the WHO’s statement said.

Two other members of the same family also suffered similar symptoms of illness, and one died and the other is recovering. But the WHO said laboratory test results on the fatality were still pending, and the person who is recovering had tested negative for the new coronavirus.

The virus has no formal name, but scientists at the British and Dutch laboratories where it was identified refer to it as “London1_novel CoV 2012″.

The WHO urged all its member states to continue surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections.

“Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases,” it said.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Nine arrests in Walmart protest, business still brisk

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Nine people were arrested near a Walmart store in California on Friday as part of national protests for the rights of hourly workers, even as the world’s largest retailer enjoyed what it said was its best ever start to the holiday shopping rush.

Hundreds of protesters, including some Walmart workers who skipped their shifts on the retail industry’s busiest day, spoke, chanted and sang outside of Walmart stores around the United States, making pleas for higher wages and better healthcare for Walmart hourly workers.

OUR Walmart, an organization backed by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, said it counted 1,000 protests in 46 U.S. states, including strikes in 100 cities – figures that Walmart said were “grossly exaggerated.”

There was no evidence that such activity disrupted what appeared to be a strong start for Wal-Mart Stores Inc to the crucial holiday shopping season.

The arrest of nine people in Paramount, California, who told law enforcement they intended to be arrested, occurred at around 12 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET), well after the rush of specials that kicked off at 8 p.m. the night before and culminated with a 5 a.m. round of deals on “Black Friday,” the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.

Nine people, who refused to leave the street, were peacefully arrested for refusal to disperse, said Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Three of those arrested were striking Walmart workers, OUR Walmart said.

Other demonstrations were smaller and less disruptive. At a Walmart on Chicago‘s South side, just one employee from the store’s nearly 500 staff took part in the demonstration, according to Walmart. There, four busloads of protesters marched outside and were not stopped by police or security guards.

Many of the demonstrators were not Walmart workers, but were supporters such as Candice Justice, a retired teacher who stood with dozens of others in Chicago on Friday morning.

Walmart said it was aware of a few dozen protests on Friday, and said the number of workers that missed scheduled shifts was “more than 60 percent less than Black Friday last year.”

The team organizing the protests disagreed.

“Right now there are hundreds and hundreds currently on strike,” Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, a campaign anchored by the UFCW, said on Friday afternoon. He said he could not provide a specific number of striking workers.

‘SAM WALTON WAS A GOOD MAN’

Walmart said five workers of the 250 scheduled to work at the Paramount, California store skipped shifts on Friday, while OUR Walmart said 18 did so.

One shopper leaving the store with his girlfriend said that the protest might deter him from shopping at Walmart again.

“We need to put ourselves in their shoes. I probably won’t shop here; I don’t think they should take advantage of workers,” said Joe Tegue, a 30-year-old contractor.

For its part, Walmart said it recorded its best Black Friday events ever, with more shoppers than last year and nearly 10 million register transactions between 8 p.m. Thursday and 12 a.m. Friday. It said it sold more than 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million TVs and some 250,000 bicycles.

Shares of Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart rose 1.9 percent to $ 70.20 on Friday, outpacing the gains in the broader stock market during a shortened trading session.

Rosetta Brown, who has been with the company for 15 years and works at the Sam’s Club in Cicero, Illinois, joined the protest and lamented how employees are treated now compared with the era of company founder Sam Walton.

“Sam Walton was a good man … Walmart passed away with him,” she said. Walton opened the first Walmart store in 1962 and died in 1992.

The Chicago worker who protested, Tyrone Robinson, said he earns $ 8.95 an hour working in the produce department, and that his shifts have been cut back to less than 40 hours per week.

Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the UFCW with the National Labor Relations Board last week in a bid to thwart the protests. Days later, OUR Walmart filed its own charge with the NLRB, saying the retailer was illegally attempting to deter workers from participating in strikes.

More allegations of violations are expected to be filed with the NLRB in the coming days, Schlademan said.

The NLRB regional office completed its investigation on Wednesday and submitted a report for further legal analysis, NLRB Director of Public Affairs Nancy Cleeland said on Friday.

“We don’t expect to have any announcements or decision today or during the weekend,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Dana Feldman in Paramount, Calif., David Morgan in Washington and Jon Nielsen in Dallas,; writing by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Matthew Lewis and Bob Burgdorfer)

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Bank of Canada keeps “over time” condition on rate hike

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Tim Lane repeated on Wednesday the central bank‘s message that interest rate increases will likely be needed, but only over time.

The “over time” phrase was introduced in the bank’s key guidance in its rate statement on October 23 as a way of signaling that while the next rate move is likely to be up, such a move was less imminent than it had been.

“Over time, some gradual withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will likely be required, consistent with achieving the inflation-control target,” Lane said, according to a prepared presentation he was giving on Wednesday in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Another part of the presentation, which was posted on the central bank’s website, noted: “The Canadian economy continues to operate with a small amount of excess supply.”

The Bank of Canada is alone in the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries in signaling an intention to raise rates despite expectations of modest and unbalanced global growth.

Lane forecast “very robust growth” in emerging markets, stagnation in Europe and significant dampening of U.S. growth due to fiscal consolidation. He said Canada‘s real gross domestic product was still expected to grow at a moderate pace.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)

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Chevy Chase is leaving NBC’s sitcom ‘Community’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NBC series “Community” will finish the season without Chevy Chase.

Sony Pictures Television said Wednesday that the actor is leaving the sitcom by mutual agreement with producers.

His immediate departure means he won’t be included in the last episode or two of the show’s 13-episode season, which is still in production.

Chase had a rocky tenure playing a bored and wealthy man who enrolls in community college. The actor publicly expressed unhappiness at working on a sitcom and feuded last year with the show’s creator and former executive producer, Dan Harmon.

The fourth-season premiere of “Community” is Feb. 7, when it makes a delayed return to the 8 p.m. EST Thursday time slot. The show’s ensemble cast includes Joel McHale and Donald Glover.

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Infections linked to tainted steroid injections nears 500 cases

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) – A deadly outbreak of infections linked to tainted steroid injections is approaching 500 cases nearly two months after it began, and health experts said on Wednesday it was unclear whether the epidemic had peaked amid new risks facing patients.

Many patients initially stricken with fungal meningitis are developing secondary infections, prompting a renewed effort to contact people who received the injections, said health officials in Tennessee and Michigan, the two hardest-hit states.

The outbreak, first detected in Nashville, Tennessee, in September, has stricken at least 490 people in 19 states, with 34 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“I wouldn’t want to characterize the epidemic as having reached a peak or (say) that we are over the worst part,” Dr. J. Todd Weber, the CDC‘s incident manager, said on Tuesday.

Weber said many patients face weeks to months of additional treatment, more people may get sick, and there is more to learn about the infections to ensure the best care for those stricken.

The CDC has estimated that 14,000 patients received potentially tainted steroids believed to have been prepared in unsanitary conditions by a Massachusetts-based compounding pharmacy and shipped to customers in 23 states from May to September.

The rate of infection, based on 500 cases out of 14,000 people exposed mainly through injections to relieve back and joint pain, has been about 3.5 percent so far, somewhat lower than the 5 percent rate Tennessee first forecast, Weber said.

Tennessee was the epicenter of the outbreak early on and through Wednesday had reported 84 infections, including 13 deaths. Michigan through Wednesday had reported 64 meningitis cases and 91 incidences of epidural abscesses among a total of 164 patients, a number of whom had both.

Most of the early cases were of meningitis, but reports more recently have been of abscesses at the injection sites, many times in patients already being treated for meningitis, officials in Michigan and Tennessee said on Wednesday.

INCUBATION TIME UNCERTAIN

That makes it hard to determine how long the outbreak of steroid-related infections might yet last, officials said.

“These are presenting well into the course and I don’t think with the epidural abscess that we’ve been able to establish a real concrete incubation time,” said Jim Collins, director of the Michigan health department’s communicable disease division.

Tennessee has seen 49 patients with localized infections, most of whom also had fungal meningitis, Dr. John Dreyzehner, the state’s health commissioner, said on Wednesday.

“While these infections are not as serious as meningitis, they need to be identified and treated to prevent them from becoming a more significant health problem,” Dreyzehner said.

Dr. Robert Latham, chief of medicine and director of the infectious diseases program at Nashville’s St. Thomas Hospital, echoed Weber’s words of caution about the outbreak.

“Because this is an ever-evolving situation, we still don’t know how long patients will need treatment and when we’ll really see the end,” said Latham, who said he has spent some time with all 45 patients the hospital has treated in the outbreak.

St. Thomas Hospital was hit with an early influx of patients and was the first facility where doctors began to realize something had gone horribly wrong with medications from the New England Compounding Center.

Healthcare officials first predicted the outbreak would run its course in roughly six weeks, based on the incubation period initially estimated for the meningitis infections.

That six-week period passed in early November, and the number of cases being reported to state health agencies and the CDC has slowed “but it has not stopped,” the CDC’s Weber said.

Some patients have seen quick onset or much longer incubation periods, so doctors and patients have been warned to keep a close watch for at least several months.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Todd Eastham)

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Global shares rally on brighter global economic outlook

LONDON (Reuters) – World share markets extended a week-long rally on Thursday as manufacturing surveys in China and the United States boosted confidence over the growth outlook and euro zone data was not as weak as some had feared.

The single currency also touched a two-week high against the dollar, despite data indicating the euro zone’s economy is on course for its deepest downturn since early 2009, on renewed optimism of a deal emerging to provide aid payments to Greece.

“The driving factors behind euro/dollar are that the global macroeconomic backdrop seems to be improving and people are pricing out the tail risk on Greece,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, head of currency research at Danske Bank.

The euro rose 0.3 percent to $ 1.2869, its highest level since November 7.

The prospects of a deal to help Athens were boosted when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday after the failure of overnight talks that an agreement was possible when euro zone ministers meet again on Monday.

The likelihood of a deal, combined with better economic data and a growing view that a resolution can be found to the U.S. fiscal crisis lifted the MSCI’s world equity index 0.3 percent to 325.75 points, putting it on track for its best week since mid-September.

Europe’s FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rose 0.4 percent to a two-week high of 1,101.90 points, with London’s FTSE 100, Paris’s CAC-40 and Frankfurt’s DAX between 0.3 and 0.7 percent higher.

However, trading across all markets was subdued, with U.S. markets closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

CHINA BOOST

Confidence in the global economic outlook got its biggest lift from the HSBC flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for China, which pointed to expansion after seven consecutive quarters of slowdown.

“There have been a lot of concerns regarding the outlook for global growth. In this context, any improvement in Chinese data is welcome, given that investors are still risk averse,” said Robert Parkes, equity strategist at HSBC Securities.

The Chinese data followed an report on Wednesday showing U.S. manufacturing grew in November at its quickest pace in five months, indicating strong economic growth in the fourth quarter.

PMI data on the manufacturing and services sectors in Europe’s two biggest economies of Germany and France added to the better tone, revealing that conditions had not worsened in November, though both economies are still contracting.

However, the PMI numbers for the wider euro zone remain extremely weak, pointing to the recession-hit region shrinking by about 0.5 percent in the current quarter – its sharpest contraction since the first quarter of 2009.

BOND DEMAND

Amid the improving appetite for riskier assets, Spain sold 3.88 billion euros ($ 4.97 billion) of new government bonds on Thursday, though it has already raised enough funds for this year’s needs.

The average yield on the three-year bonds in the auction was 3.617 percent, compared with 3.66 percent at a sale earlier in November and a 2012 average of 3.79 percent.

Ten-year Spanish yields were 6 basis points lower on the day at 5.67 percent, having traded above 6 percent at the start of the week.

German 10-year bonds yields, which tend to rise as investors’ anxiety over the euro zone outlook ease, were up slightly at 1.439 percent.

COMMODITIES STEADY

Commodity prices gained some support form the improving outlook for world demand from all the PMI data, but prospects of only modest global growth in 2013 kept gains in check.

London copper rose 0.6 percent to $ 7,740 a metric tonne, and spot gold inched up to $ 1,730 an ounce.

Brent crude oil dipped under $ 111 per barrel as a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers eased concerns over the impact the unrest may have on supply from the region.

Brent slipped 34 cents to $ 110.52 a barrel, while U.S. crude was steady at $ 87.38.

(Reporting by Richard Hubbard; Editing by Will Waterman)

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Greek PM presses for deal on loan

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has reacted with dismay to the European Union‘s failure to agree to release vital rescue loan funds for the debt-ridden country, with the prime minister warning it was not just Greece’s future that hangs in the balance.

The delay prolongs uncertainty over the future of Greece, which faces a messy default that would threaten the entire euro currency used by 17 EU nations.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed that Greece has done what its creditors from the EU and International Monetary Fund required. “Our partners, along with the IMF, also must do what they have committed to doing,” he said.

He said that “it is not just the future of our country, but the stability of the entire eurozone” that depend on the success of negotiations in coming days.

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Republic Wireless Now Offering $19/Month Unlimited Smartphone Service to All

Prepaid wireless carrier Republic Wireless has been offering its $ 19 per month, unlimited everything, prepaid smartphone plan since about this time last year. At the time, though, there were a few catches; you had to buy a very low-end smartphone from them, you had to use its Hybrid Calling technology for most of your calls, and you could only get in if you were lucky enough to be accepted to an exclusive “beta wave.”

Since then, Republic Wireless has upgraded to the slightly more modern Motorola Defy XT as its flagship smartphone model, and has changed to allow unlimited calling, texting, and data over Sprint’s nationwide network, for the same $ 19/month price. Now the North Carolina-based startup is dropping its last restriction; the doors are open for anyone to preorder up to four Defy XT phones, “and they’ll begin shipping in mid-December.”

​The phone

The Motorola Defy XT is designed to be dustproof and waterproof, with rubber bumpers covering each port and an unlocking switch keeping the back cover sealed. Its specs are decidedly last year’s; powered by a 1 GHz, single-core processor, it often shows Kindle Fire-style lag when swiping between home screens on its 3.7 inch display. It runs 2010′s Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with no OS upgrades announced, and it doesn’t have much room to store games and apps, although it comes with a 2 GB microSD card.

​The service

Republic Wireless’ low monthly fee is partly made possible by its Hybrid Calling technology, which is basically an app that loads on startup and lets you make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi. Call quality is generally good, although it depends on how good your Wi-Fi connection is and how many people are streaming video over it while you’re trying to make your call. You can switch off Hybrid Calling by disabling Wi-Fi, if you want to make calls over Sprint’s network instead; this happens automatically if your Wi-Fi signal drops, which has the effect of hanging up your call.

​The support

“Here at Republic,” its Support page explains, “we believe in helping each other out as much as possible.” What this translates to is that there’s no number to call for questions or tech support. Instead, customers are directed to a community wiki and forums, for answers to their issues. If all else fails, you can contact Republic using an online form, and receive a response within 24 hours.

​The price

It costs close to $ 300 to begin using Republic Wireless’ service; $ 249 for the phone, a $ 10 startup fee, and $ 19 for your first monthly fee, before any applicable taxes. That $ 19 is charged once your phone ships, and if Republic’s difficulty keeping up with orders for its first beta waves is any indication, just because the phones “begin shipping in mid-December” doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s when you’ll get yours.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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“Rise of the Guardians” Review: Magic, but you’d better believe in Santa Claus

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – There’s a really cool idea afoot in “Rise of the Guardians,” namely that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman aren’t merely responsible for their little corner of children’s lives but are actually a super-team of “Avengers” proportions. Taking their cues from the unseen Man in the Moon, they protect children everywhere from evildoers.

There’s also a really tired concept dragging down the film, namely that new Guardians recruit Jack Frost isn’t sure that he wants to join up, and he doesn’t know who he really is – and he’s, basically, the umpteenth Joseph-Campbell-reluctant-hero who pops up in seemingly every kids’ movie and superhero epic. (Arguably, “Guardians” is both.)

And as much as I often found myself enchanted by this 3D animated film, based on the series of books by William Joyce, I couldn’t help noticing that this movie falls into a conundrum I like to call (with a tip of the hat to playwright Christopher Durang) “You didn’t clap loud enough – Tinkerbell’s dead.”

As an atheist (albeit one who loves Christmas movies), I get a little twitchy about films where children are made to feel guilty about not believing in things and people that don’t actually exist. So even though it’s nice to get a non-cynical story aimed at kids, in which open-heartedness and wonder are celebrated as virtues, this is another movie that paints itself into a theological corner by suggesting that those of us who question the existence of the Easter Bunny are at fault for all the world’s ills.

In this tale, the Guardians assemble for two reasons: to welcome Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine) into their ranks and to combat Pitch Black (Jude Law), a long-suppressed boogeyman who’s out to capture the Sandman (who never speaks, but is one of the movie’s funniest characters) and to replace his golden slumbers with hideous nightmares.

Santa (Alec Baldwin) – here made out to be the jolliest Russian stevedore on Earth – welcomes Jack to the fold and assures him that he can be a hero once he figures out what he’s made of. Less convinced is the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), who has ongoing resentment against Jack for all those times that wintry weather has disrupted egg hunts.

And there’s the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), who subcontracts most of her gig out to her army of pixies; one of the film’s interesting twists is to explain why children’s teeth are so valuable and what she does with them.

When the Guardians are zipping around the planet, invisibly enchanting children and ribbing each other, “Rise of the Guardians” has a real lift to it; first-time director Peter Ramsey knows how to pace the big set pieces, and he understands that anytime you can make characters fly around (or extreme-sled) in a 3D movie, audiences’ spirits will soar too.

All too often, however, the good stuff is interrupted by the extremely pat plot beats of Jack and his voyage of self-fulfillment, and those aren’t the only mistakes screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”) makes along the way.

There’s a major plot development that takes place off-camera, which gives a large chunk of the movie a “Wait, what just happened?” confusion that’s too much of a distraction.

The young’uns at the screening I attended were entranced for much of “Rise of the Guardians” (terrible title!), so parents can rest assured that its target audience will leave satisfied. But the best family films truly appeal to the whole family, and adults may find themselves asking, and fending off, too many questions to take the plunge into this fantasy universe.

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In HP-Autonomy debacle, many advisers but little good advice

(Reuters) – When Hewlett Packard acquired Autonomy last year for $ 11.1 billion, some 15 different financial, legal and accounting firms were involved in the transaction — and none raised a flag about what HP said Tuesday was a major accounting fraud.

HP stunned Wall Street with the allegations about its British software unit and took an $ 8.8 billion writedown, the latest in a string of reversals for the storied company.

HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who was a director at the company at the time of the deal, said the board had relied on accounting firm Deloitte for vetting Autonomy‘s financials and that KPMG was subsequently hired to audit Deloitte.

HP had many other advisers as well: boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners to serve as its lead adviser, along with Barclays. Banking advisers on both sides of the deal were paid $ 68.8 million, according to data from Thomson Reuters/Freeman Consulting.

Barclays pocketed the biggest banker fee of the transaction at $ 18.1 million and Perella was paid $ 12 million. The company’s legal advisers included Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Drinker Biddle & Reath; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which advised the board.

On Autonomy‘s side of the table were Frank Quattrone‘s Qatalyst Partners, which specializes in tech deals and which picked up $ 11.6 million.

UBS, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were also advising Autonomy and were paid $ 5.4 million each. Slaughter & May and Morgan Lewis served as the company’s legal advisers.

While regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are likely to spend many months if not years investigating what happened, legal experts said on Tuesday that it wasn’t clear if any of the advisers would ultimately be held liable.

“The most logical deep pocket would be the acquired firm’s auditors, who should have allegedly caught these defalcations,” said James Cox, a professor at Duke University law school who specializes in corporate and securities law. Since both auditors missed the problems and it appeared to have taken HP a while to catch it after it took over Autonomy, the auditors may have a strong defense.

“You can have a perfectly sound audit and still have fraud exist,” he said. A Deloitte UK spokesman said the company could not comment and would cooperate with any investigations.

The law firms and the bankers will likely argue that they were not hired to review the bookkeeping and had relied on the opinion of the auditors, securities law experts said.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the HP-Autonomy transaction added that the big-name banks on Autonomy‘s side were brought in days before the final agreement was struck. These sources said the banks were brought on as favors for their long relationships with the companies, in a little-scrutinized Wall Street practice of crediting — and paying — investment banks that actually have little do with the deal.

LAWSUITS, REPUTATIONS AT STAKE

Plaintiffs lawyers said they were taking calls from investors about HP on Tuesday. Darren Robbins, a San Diego-based plaintiff lawyer who represents shareholders, said the tech icon appears to have spent billions on a shoddy company without undertaking the proper due diligence, and thus misrepresented its finances to investors.

“I think they have serious troubles,” he said.

But plaintiff lawyers may have difficulty bringing so-called derivative lawsuits against professional services firms, said Brian Quinn, an M&A professor at Boston College Law School. In those cases, plaintiff lawyers can sue third parties, such as auditors, on behalf of HP — but they must convince a judge that HP’s board is unfit to pursue those claims itself. In this situation, though, HP’s board disclosed the alleged fraud itself, Quinn said.

Even if the bankers and lawyers escape any legal problems, they could suffer a reputational hit. The scrutiny could be particularly unwelcome for Perella Weinberg: the firm advised Japanese camera maker Olympus’ acquisition of British Gyrus — a transaction that prompted investigations in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan into fees and payments made by Olympus.

Olympus had hired Perella to execute the transaction, which included a fee paid to “advisers” of $ 687 million – way beyond the usual scale for a transaction valued at only $ 2 billion. Perella was not implicated in the matter.

Meanwhile, the most controversial banker involved in the HP-Autonomy deal, Frank Quattrone of Qatalyst, represented Autonomy and played a key role in getting HP to pay a high price.

A star investment banker in the 1990s, Quattrone had worked at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, and helped arrange some of the biggest tech initial public offerings of the era, including Amazon.com Inc and Cisco Systems Inc.

But his time at the top of Silicon Valley was curtailed by charges that he blocked an investigation into IPO kickbacks. After two trials failed to resolve his case, he ultimately reached a deal with prosecutors.

His return to the Silicon Valley M&A scene has impressed many in the tech world.

“His reputation is at an all-time high right now,” said Dan Scheinman, the former head of mergers and acquisitions at Cisco who has worked with Quattrone on several deals.

Analysts almost uniformly deemed the $ 11.1 billion he got HP to pay for Autonomy as overly rich — a compliment to him at the time, but possibly a hollow success if HP’s allegations prove true.

(Reporting By Nadia Damouni and Nicola Leske in New York and Andrew Callus in London. Additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco.; Editing by Peter Lauria, Jonathan Weber, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Janet McBride)

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