This is what’s in the news for Tuesday, May 15, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports Macy’s (NYSE:M) is building a network of online-sales distribution centers around the country in the backrooms of its stores, responding to a distribution war going on in the retail business increasingly being won by Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN). The Wall Street Journal also reports Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) will launch a low-cost smartphone running its newest mobile operating software, as the company that dominates Internet searches in China looks to shore up its presence in the mobile-device field. Reuters reports President Obama said the trading loss at JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) illustrated the need for Wall Street reform and warned that the same kind of error at a less stable bank may have required government intervention. Reuters also reports Macquarie Group, Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG) and Singapore’s United Overseas Bank are among suitors that submitted bids for ING’s (NYSE:ING) Asian asset management business that may be worth $500M-$600M, sources say. Bloomberg reports Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) and TPG Capital are among global firms being pushed aside as preferred investors in China as investments by Chinese firms jumped to $7.8B last year. Finally, Bloomberg reports Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMLN) has attracted suitors that include Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) and Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), which signed confidentiality agreements on the drugmaker’s sale process.
