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Hewlett-Packard Co ( id="symbol_HPQ.N_0"> HPQ.N ) must defend against a lawsuit accusing former management at the world's largest personal computer maker of defrauding shareholders by abandoning a business model it had long touted, causing more than $16 billion of market value to be wiped out. District Judge Andrew Guilford in Santa Ana, California said shareholders had raised a "strong inference" that officials including former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker in June and July 2011 misled them about HP's commitment to the WebOS operating system and related products, including the TouchPad tablet PC. "It is far from implausible that a corporate executive who had spent months building excitement and momentum around important, new technology products might recklessly misrepresent the inability to deliver on those promises," the judge wrote in a decision dated May 8 and made public the next day. The lawsuit was filed after Apotheker shocked inve

Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc have mounted an aggressive challenge to Michael Dell's controversial $24.4 billion offer to take Dell Inc private, offering $21 billion in cash to shareholders while vying to wrest control of the company from its co-founder. Michael Dell, major shareholders such as Southeastern and billionaire activist investor Icahn are waging a battle over the future of the world's third largest personal computer maker, once a tech-industry high flyer, but now struggling to evolve as people embrace smartphones and tablet computers. Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake want to take the company private for $13.65 per share, making it the largest buyout since the 2008 financial crisis. But many shareholders, including Southeastern and T. Rowe Price, complain that offer severely undervalues the company. Instead, Icahn and Southeastern, two of Dell's biggest shareholders, proposed a deal that gives shareholders $12 of cash for

The Dow and S&P 500 ended at record highs on Friday, and stocks posted a third consecutive week of gains as a rise in Google and other technology shares offset a slide in energy stocks. Nasdaq led gains, boosted by a 1 percent rise in Google's ( id="symbol_GOOG.O_0"> GOOG.O ) stock, which also led the S&P 500's rise. Indexes were flat for much of the session but managed a late-day surge. On Thursday, the S&P 500 broke a five-day streak of record closing highs. Stocks have risen on the Federal Reserve's accommodative monetary stance and some encouraging corporate earnings , but analysts said momentum could wane without further positive signs. "I think it's going to hard to maintain these levels in the short term," said Natalie Trunow, chief investment officer of equities at Calvert Investment Management, which has about $13 billion in assets. "There are not a lot of positive catalysts to keep it going," she said, not

A new "jumbo" option contract on the popular S&P 500 tracking ETF debuted on the BOX Options Exchange on Friday, but at least one rival has opted not to list the product for now because of concerns it will hurt liquidity in existing options on the fund. The new product, known as the Jumbo SPY Options, is ten times the size of a traditional options contract on the fund, and is designed for institutional investors who prefer larger-sized contracts when executing their strategies. Its introduction comes at a time when competing exchanges are trying to innovate and meet the demand of their customers. "There are 11 option exchanges competing for order flow and innovation is the lifeblood of their future growth," said Andy Nybo, head of derivatives at research firm TABB Group. BOX received the go-ahead from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week to trade the Jumbo SPY contract. Other option venues can list the contract after submitting a rule fil

T. Rowe Price Group ( id="symbol_TROW.O_0"> TROW.O ) lost one of its top stock fund managers on Friday, as Joseph Milano quit to pursue other opportunities. _0"> Milano, who ran the $4 billion New America Growth Fund( id="symbol_PRWAX.O PRWAX.O ) for the past decade, will be replaced by Dan Martino, manager of the Baltimore firm's Media and Telecommunications Fund ( id="symbol_PRMTX.O PRMTX.O ) and related accounts, spokesman Brian Lewbart said. Milano could not be immediately reached. _1"> Under Milano, the New America fund has been among the better performers in its category, according to data from Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters. _2"> The fund gained an average of 9.15 percent a year over the past 10 years through the end of April, better than 62 percent of similar funds. Over the past five years, the fund's average annual return of 6.74 percent beat 79 percent of its peers. But the fund's performance lagged this ye

A meeting of U.S. Fiat dealers to discuss future products, including the arrival of Alfa Romeo models, has twice been postponed and no new date has been set, several Fiat dealers said this week. Some of the 204 U.S. Fiat dealers are struggling to turn a profit selling several versions of the Fiat 500 subcompact and some dealers said they anxiously await more details from Chrysler and its Italian parent, Fiat SpA ( id="symbol_FIA.MI_0"> FIA.MI ), on plans to expand products beyond what has been already announced. Fiat returned to the U.S. market in March 2011 with 40 dealers after a 16-year absence selling a single product, the two-door Fiat 500, largely known outside North America as the Cinquecento. The Italian carmaker, led by hard-charging Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne, took over management of Chrysler after the No. 3 U.S. automaker's 2009 bankruptcy, partly on the promise it would make the company less reliant on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUV

Bank of America Corp ( id="symbol_BAC.N_0"> BAC.N ) has fired back at New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after he threatened to sue the bank for violating the terms of a $25 billion settlement designed to end mortgage servicing abuses. In a letter to Schneiderman, lawyers for Bank of America said they were "surprised and disappointed" the attorney general thought the bank engaged in "flagrant violations" of the timeline to process mortgage modifications. The lawyers also said Schneiderman cannot sue until the bank has an opportunity to cure any alleged violations. "Bank of America has not committed any potential violations ... let alone failed to cure those potential violations," attorneys Meyer Koplow and Theodore Mirvis, of Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz, wrote in the May 7 letter. Reuters obtained a copy of the letter on Friday. Schneiderman announced on Monday that he planned to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo &