VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Japan's struggling electronics maker Sharp Corp is set to post a net loss of 180 billion yen ($1.45 billion) in the current year through next March, Kyodo News reported on Thursday, without citing sources.

U.S. mutual funds are placing bigger bets on privately held companies to get a head start finding the next IPO superstar, a strategy that has yielded some dramatic payoffs and flameouts.

When Dan Mosley became head of Kentucky's Harlan County government this year, he promised - like those elected before him - to defend the state's beleaguered coal industry. But Mosley also vowed to do something else for his county: help build a new economy based on something other than coal.

Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) and T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N) are in talks over a merger that would combine the second-largest satellite TV operator in the United States with the fourth-largest wireless carrier, the Wall Street Journal reported.

A persistent sell-off in bond markets left financial market confidence in short supply on Thursday, with stocks lower globally and not even traditional safe havens like gold and the Swiss franc providing much of a refuge.

Hamburger chain Wendy's Co (WEN.O) will buy back $1.4 billion of shares, including $211 million from Nelson Peltz's Trian Group, its largest shareholder, in its biggest repurchase program.

Oil fell nearly 3 percent on Wednesday as traders and investors ignored a fifth straight weekly decline in U.S. crude stockpiles to focus instead on a big build in distillates, including diesel, as the peak season for U.S. road travel gets under way.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, helped by optimism that Greece was close to an agreement to avoid default and as further gains in bond yields lifted financials.

Greece will not make a June 5 repayment to the International Monetary Fund if there is no prospect of an aid-for-reforms deal with its international creditors soon, the spokesman for the ruling Syriza party's lawmakers said on Wednesday.

German debt yields added to their biggest jump in almost three years and the euro held on to its gains on Wednesday, as investors waited to hear the ECB's view of a turbulent run for markets and its hopes for a Greek aid deal.

AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) (AZN.N) would consider acquiring a developer of a new type of cancer therapy aimed at supercharging the body's immune response, Bloomberg quoted Chief Executive Pascal Soriot as saying on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank aims to launch three technology innovation labs in Berlin, London and Silicon Valley this year designed to accelerate development of so-called "fintech" companies which could aid the banking sector and its clients.

China's economic growth, already at its slowest in decades, will get worse before it gets better, as economists say it will take time before liberalizing reforms turn net positive, and Beijing needs to bite more such bullets for a sustainable turnaround.

It may be impossible for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates until the rest of the world economy improves, Fed board member Lael Brainard said on Tuesday, in the most direct acknowledgement yet of how weak global markets could handcuff the U.S. central bank.

U.S. stocks eased on Tuesday as a jump in bond yields hit utilities and other top dividend payers, but energy gains and optimism Greece is near a deal with creditors limited losses.