Gina Chon

Activist investor Dan Loeb is used to criticizing companies, but now the tables have been turned by none other than George Clooney. The American actor told entertainment news site Deadline.com that Loeb was a “carpetbagger” who “does not create jobs” and is “dangerous to our industry.” Clooney was criticizing Loeb for his push to separate Sony’s entertainment division after buying a nearly 7% stake in the Japanese company.

The best debut for an IPO in the US this year is not a tech company, but an organic foods grocer. Shares in Sprouts Farmers Market went up by more than 120% in their first day of trading yesterday, closing at $40.11. That’s a better performance than the first day of trading of LinkedIn (109%) in 2011 and big data firm Splunk (109%) in 2012.

Michael Dell’s odds of getting approval for his deal to buy his company just got better. The special committee of Dell’s board approved new voting rules that would allow Michael Dell and his deal partners to seal the deal with yes votes from a majority of shareholder ballots cast. In exchange, the buyout group is throwing in a special dividend, in addition to a $0.10 bump of its offer to $13.75 a share.

The numbers: They were good. LinkedIn reported earnings per share of $0.38 on revenue of $364 million, which beat analyst estimates. Shares were up by more than 6.5%.

The numbers: They were good. Procter & Gamble reported earnings per share of $0.79 in the fiscal fourth quarter on revenue of $20.7 billion, beating analyst estimates. Shares were up slightly in pre-market trading by more than 1%.

Credit Suisse is nearing a sale (paywall) of its private equity unit, the Wall Street Journal reported today. JP Morgan announced in June that it is spinning off its remaining private equity arm, One Equity Partners. That leaves Goldman Sachs as the only large bank that still has a big private equity unit—GS Capital Partners.

Activist investor Bill Ackman of Pershing Square is having a busy year. His latest target is chemical company Air Products, and it’s Ackman’s biggest investment ever, at $2.2 billion.

Facebook finally did it. More than a year after going public in May 2012, the company’s shares finally hit their IPO price of $38. The stock jumped above the symbolic mark for a few minutes this morning, but is now trading slightly below it. The recent surge in Facebook’s stock follows better-than-expected earnings last week.

Twitter has apparently realized that its every move is being closely followed in the lead up to its IPO. The company had posted a job opening last month for a financial reporting manager, whose duties include writing the S-1 document, which outlines a company’s public offering plans. After USA Today wrote a story about it late yesterday, the job posting has been taken down.

JP Morgan has agreed to pay $410 million to settle with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which had accused the bank of manipulating power markets in California and the Midwest. It’s a record sum for the commission, which, like other US regulators, has been increasing its scrutiny of Wall Street. For JP Morgan, the settlement resolves just one of the many headaches the bank has had to deal with recently.

The numbers: Pretty good. UBS’s net income rose by more than 30% to 690 million Swiss francs ($742 million). Revenues increased by about 15% to 7.4 billion Swiss francs.

The numbers: Bad. Deutsche Bank’s net profit fell by 50% in the second quarter to €335 million ($444 million), partly due to high legal costs. Net revenues came in at €8.2 billion.

Ailing book seller Barnes & Noble filed its proxy statement today detailing issues for its annual shareholder meeting in September. As part of that filing, the company listed various business relationships it has with other firms that have a connection to Barnes & Noble.

Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co, which also owns Lord & Taylor, announced its acquisition of Saks Fifth Avenue, bringing three retail brands under one roof. To finance the the $2.9 billion transaction, Hudson’s tapped the usual array of banks. But it is also getting $500 million in financing from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the largest public retirement fund in Canada with almost $130 billion in assets.

Paris-based Publicis and New York-based Omnicom are combining to create the world’s largest advertising company in what they are calling a “merger of equals.” But sooner or later, one company in such arrangements usually gets the upper hand. How that plays out will affect the deal’s chances of passing muster with antitrust regulators and other government officials.

Amazon surprised investors yesterday with an earnings per share loss of $0.02. Its shares fell on the news in after hours trading. But since then, its stock has gone up and actually hit a record high today. In the eyes of its shareholders, it seems Amazon can do no wrong.

Activision Blizzard, the video game maker most famous for its Call of Duty franchise, has finally broken free. After months of negotiations, its owner, Vivendi, agreed to sell most of its stake in Activision back to the company for $8.2 billion.

The numbers: Not great, but they beat estimates. Online gaming company Zynga reported an earnings-per-share loss of $0.01 on revenue of $231 million.

The numbers: Not good. Amazon reported an earnings-per-share loss of $0.02 on revenue of $15.7 billion, which missed analyst expectations. Its shares were down by about 3% in after-hours trading.

Facebook’s stock got a big boost from its strong second quarter earnings, adding nearly $20 billion in market value over one day. Facebook’s shares opened today at $33.54 a share, its best performance since its fateful first day as a public company in May 2012. If the stock can stay consistently above $30 a share, there’s a sense from some Facebook staffers that the company will have turned the tide against the naysayers that have surrounded the company since its IPO.

UPDATED 3:05 PM EST: The Michael Dell buyer group changed the deadline for the board to respond to its new offer to Aug. 2.

The numbers: Great. Automaker Ford reported earnings per share of $0.45 on revenue of $38.1 billion, handily beating analyst expectations. The company also raised its outlook for the rest of the year. Its shares were up by more than 3% in pre-market trading.

The numbers: They were ok. Pepsi reported earnings per share of $1.31, which beat analysts estimates. Revenues came in at about $16.8 billion, in line with expectations.

Television has become a critical part of Twitter’s ad strategy. Today, the company released figures showing how that effort is going.  In May, Twitter announced an experimental TV ad targeting initiative, which allows companies to engage directly on Twitter with consumers who have likely seen their TV commercials. Twitter said consumers exposed to those promoted tweets had a 58% higher purchase intent compared with people who just saw the TV ad. User engagement rates were 27% higher than historical averages for those companies.