• A federal judge rejected the SEC’s $33 million settlement of Bank of America’s (NYSE:BAC) Merrill bonus deal, calling the settlement a “contrivance”
• Citigroup (NYSE:C) has asked its investment bankers to provide options to enable the company’s sale of the US government’s 34% stake, raising capital through a stock offering or enabling the government to sell its 7.7 billion shares
• Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) accelerated its plans to reduce its headcount, planning to eliminate 5,000 jobs, or almost 14% of its workforce, by 2011. The company said the cuts would lower annual costs by $1 billion
• According to the NY Post, Kraft (NYSE:KFT) might sweeten its rejected, $17.0 billion Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) bid with funds raised through sales of some assets
• Motorola (NYSE:MOT) reported it is in talks with large US operators to sell its Cliq smartphone, which runs on the Android operating system
• Lubrizol (NYSE:LZ) raised its full-year earnings guidance to $5.87 to $6.17 a share, including items, beating current Street projections
• Pall Corp (NYSE:PLL) reported fourth quarter earnings of 57 cents a share, a nickel above Zacks projections, on revenues of $652 million, which beat estimates of $630 million
• Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) shares shed 3.4% in after-hours after the firm announced a planned offering of $500 million in class A common stock, providing underwriters the option to purchase another 15%
• Smithfield Foods (NYSE:SFD) shares fell 3.9% after hours following news the firm expects to strengthen its balance sheet and lower debt through the sale of $250 million shares
• Synovus Financial (NYSE:SNV) shares dropped 7.9% after-hours on its planned offering of up to $350 million in common stock for general corporate purposes
