Monday, May 20, 2013

Websense to go private for $907 million

(Reuters) - Websense Inc said it had agreed to be taken private by Vista Equity Partners in a deal that values the online security firm at about $907 million, a move that should come as a relief to investors after years of weak sales from its legacy business.

The offer of $24.75 per share represents a roughly 29 percent premium to Websense's Friday close. Websense shares rose to just above the offer price to a near two-year high in morning trading on the Nasdaq.

"After years of speculation, investors will be rubbing their eyes this morning that Websense finally got acquired and will go the route of other security software vendors that got the private equity bid," FBR Capital analyst Daniel Ives said.

The company joins a list of security software vendors, including Blue Coat that was bought by Thoma Bravo in 2011, to get private equity bids.

The company's growth rate has slowed in the past few years as its core web filtering business weakened and it reported a slight revenue decline last year.

Websense stock, which peaked at $34.87 in 2005, has since fallen 22 percent until Friday's close.

"This morning's acquisition speaks to the value of security software ... a surge of M&A activity is poised to hit the sector over the next six to 12 months as larger technology players and private equity look to get a larger piece of the security pie," he said.

Ives added that the acquisition would allow Websense to focus on its promising Triton business that makes web security gateway and e-mail security products.

Websense, which said it expected the deal to close before the end of the third quarter, said its senior management was expected to continue with the company and its headquarters would remain in San Diego.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the financial adviser to Websense and Cooley LLP its legal adviser.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is Vista's legal adviser and J.P. Morgan Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Partners have agreed to provide debt financing for the deal.

Vista Equity is a private equity firm that invests primarily in software companies and has about $6 billion in assets.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon and Don Sebastian)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/websense-private-907-million-124705624.html

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Minister: France in talks with U.S., Israel to buy drones

PARIS (Reuters) - France is in talks with the United States and Israel to buy intelligence-gathering drones to build up a modern fleet, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday.

France's existing hardware is outdated and its military intervention in Mali this year has exposed its shortage of surveillance drones suitable for modern warfare. The United States provided French commanders with intelligence from its drones based in Niger.

"We need this capacity in the short term. There are currently two countries in the world that build drones, the United States and Israel," Le Drian said on TV channel iTele.

"We are in discussions with each to buy some straight away," he said.

Le Monde newspaper reported on Saturday that France had received approval from the U.S. Pentagon to buy two Reaper drones, and that the deal only needed backing from Congress.

The newspaper said France was looking at eventually buying a total of five or seven Reapers, built by privately held General Atomics, for 300 million euros ($384.72 million).

The aim was to deploy the two U.S.-made drones in Mali before the end of the year, Le Monde said.

Buying hardware abroad is a sensitive subject in France, a country that strives to rely on allies as little as possible to meet its defense needs.

Le Drian said France had fallen behind other countries and that in the long-term it, and the rest of Europe, had to build up their capacities to make such unmanned aircraft. ($1 = 0.7798 euros)

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-talks-u-israel-buy-drones-minister-104809993.html

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Cannes helps actors Bejo and Rahim cross borders

CANNES, France (AP) ? The magic and glamour of Cannes can be hard to spot on a day when rain is lashing the palm trees, roiling the gray Mediterranean and pooling in puddles along the Croisette.

But the world's leading film festival can transform careers ? something no one knows that better than actors Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, stars of director Asghar Farhadi's festival entry "The Past."

Bejo shimmered on-screen in Cannes two years ago in "The Artist," her director husband Michel Hazanavicius' vivacious silent homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture.

Rahim was the breakout star of the 2009 festival in Jacques Audiard's poetic and brutal prison drama "A Prophet," as a youth growing to manhood behind bars.

Cannes exposure helped boost both performers onto the international stage. While once most European actors could choose between stay at home and playing Hollywood villains, their paths suggest a more globalized movie world.

"It was quite a miracle for me," Bejo said Saturday, as rain drummed remorselessly on a Cannes rooftop lounge. "Two years ago my life changed a little bit in Cannes.

"I don't think Asghar Farhadi would have cast me in this movie if I hadn't done 'The Artist.'"

It's hard to think of two movie styles further apart than the flamboyant artifice of "The Artist" and the anatomically detailed domestic drama of "The Past"

Bejo plays Marie, a harried Frenchwoman with two children, a new boyfriend with a young son, and an Iranian ex who has returned after four years to finalize their divorce. Rahim is her boyfriend Samir, a man with complex family ties of his own.

All the characters are trying to move on ? but the past keeps dragging them back.

Bejo said she did a screen test for Farhadi, then didn't hear from him for a month, so initially thought she hadn't got the part.

"He said to me, I was looking into your face if I could see the doubt," she said. "I guess because he saw me in movies where I was quite positive, quite sunny, quite glamorous. He needed to see if I could show another part of myself ? and I guess he found it."

For Bejo, as for Rahim, working with the Iran director was a dream come true. "The Past" is the first film Farhadi has shot outside his homeland, and the actors say they loved his working methods ? two months of rehearsal to delve into character, break down barriers and forge bonds, followed by a four-month shoot.

With its Iranian director and largely French cast, it's one of several border-hopping movies at Cannes this year. French director Arnaud Desplechin's made-in-America "Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" stars France's Mathieu Amalric and Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. Another French filmmaker, Guillaume Canet, has a multinational cast including Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard in his New York crime drama "Blood Ties."

It's a trend Bejo is happy to embrace.

"In America you have Christoph Waltz, you have Marion Cotillard," she said. "In France we have Italian and Spanish actors. ... I think it's great. We are used to strangers and foreign accents, and it's great that we can see that in our movies now."

Both she and Rahim have been busy since their Cannes breakthroughs. Bejo recently made French heist movie "The Last Diamond" and soon starts filming Hazanavicius' next project, a war movie set in Chechnya.

Rahim's projects include the English-language Roman-era adventure "The Eagle" and another movie appearing at Cannes this year, the nuclear power plant romance "Grand Central."

Coming up, he plays a cop in the French movie "The Informant," and is currently shooting a globe-spanning 1920s-set drama with Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, another pillar of culture-crossing cinema.

Despite the busy international career ? and post-"Prophet" expressions of interest from the United States ? Rahim says Hollywood remains a hard nut to crack for non-Anglophone actors.

"It's not what you expect at first," Rahim said. "You'd like to be with Michael Mann or (directors) like this, but you don't have those parts that easily. Because first you have to speak English, you have to erase your accent."

For now, he's just happy to be back in Cannes, an experience that is easier the second time around.

"The difference is that now I'm not afraid when I come here," he said. "I'm (saying) 'OK I'm going to take every good vibe and keep it.'"

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-helps-actors-bejo-rahim-cross-borders-165726670.html

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Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/a-special-report-on-drug-rehabs-in-nevada-2/

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The good news ? and the bad news ? for Obama in scandal-tinged polls

Given the battering President Obama took this past week on a trio of political scandals, any public opinion survey results that aren?t dreadful probably are viewed with some relief at the White House.

That may be the clearest message from a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday morning.

According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45 percent saying they disapprove, CNN reports. That?s actually a tick better than the 51 percent approval rating Obama had in early April ? but not enough to break out the sparkling cider.

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"That two-point difference is well within the poll's sampling error, so it is a mistake to characterize it as a gain for the president," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Nonetheless, an approval rating that has not dropped and remains over 50 percent will probably be taken as good news by Democrats after the events of the last week."

For those of you blissfully unaware, those events are the administration?s handling of the terrorist attack on the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, last November (where US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed); the IRS badgering of tea party and other conservative organizations; and the Justice Department snooping into the telephone records of Associated Press journalists as part of a crackdown on national security leaks.

(We would add to that trio a fourth item reported in recent days: losing track of a couple of terrorists in the federal witness protection program.)

Gallup?s latest numbers track closely with CNN?s ? a slight improvement for Obama to 51-42 approve/disapprove.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

For now, as the headline on an AP story puts it, ?Obama agenda seems to be weathering controversies.?

?Despite Democratic fears, predictions of the demise of President Barack Obama's agenda appear exaggerated after a week of cascading controversies, political triage by the administration and party leaders in Congress and lack of evidence to date of wrongdoing close to the Oval Office,? writes AP special correspondent David Espo.

That could change, of course, given the possibility of new revelations, Republican intransigence, or both. GOP leaders certainly spun it in that direction on the TV news shows Sunday.

On NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the IRS scandal ? singling out tea party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax status ? was part of a broader "culture of intimidation" within the Obama administration.

To what extent are Americans paying attention to all of this?

?Slim majorities of Americans are very or somewhat closely following the situations involving the Internal Revenue Service (54 percent) and the congressional hearings on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath (53 percent) ? well below the average for news stories Gallup has tracked over the years,? writes Frank Newport, Gallup?s editor-in-chief.

CNN?s numbers here seem more troubling for the White House.

More than 70 percent of those surveyed say IRS targeting of conservative groups was unacceptable; a majority (52 percent) say the Justice Department's actions regarding the AP phone records were unacceptable; 59 percent say the US government could have prevented the attack in Benghazi; and a large minority (44 percent) say statements made by the Obama administration soon after the attack ?were an attempt to intentionally mislead the public.?

At this point, according to CNN, most Americans do not think Republicans have overplayed their hand on either the Benghazi or IRS controversies. Gallup finds that 74 percent on the IRS and 69 percent on Benghazi find these situations ?serious enough to warrant continuing investigation.?

"More Republicans than Democrats or Independents say these three issues are very important to the nation, but even among Democrats, nearly half say the matters are very serious," says CNN polling director Keating Holland.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/good-news-bad-news-obama-scandal-tinged-polls-150432515.html

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How to Make Your Own Anti-Venom without Poisoning a Horse

The Iocane Powder trick really does work! As this slick educational short from the SciShow explains, you've got two choices when it comes to treating deadly, deadly snake bites: you can either hopefully make it to a hospital in time to counter the toxins with dozens of expensive vials of delicate anti-venom, or you can slowly inoculate yourself against their effects?effectively turning yourself into a poison-immune mobile anti-venom factory. Where do I sign up? [SciShow]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-make-your-own-anti-venom-without-poisoning-a-hor-508287684

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