Regional bank Umpqua Holdings buying Sterling Financial in $2 billion cash and stock deal + MORE Sep 12th

How time flies! It is exactly six years, since the Sleepy Mini Portfolio was launched to demonstrate how a super simple, regular investment program can slowly but surely build wealth over a period of time. All you need to implement such an investment program are (1) some initial effort in mapping out an asset allocation strategy (2) a calculator to divvy up your regular contributions and (3) discipline to stick to the strategy through all kinds of market conditions.
The portfolio kicked off with an initial infusion of $1,000 with a target allocation of 20% bonds, 20% Canadian stocks, 30% US stocks and 30% International stocks. Another $1,000 was added to the portfolio every quarter since then for a total investment of $24,000 so far. Here’s how the portfolio looks as of September 11, 2013:
TDB909 – Canadian Bonds – $5,909 (19.4%)
TDB900 – Canadian Equities – $6,196 (20.3%)
TDB902 – US Equities – $9,021 (29.6%)
TDB911 – International Equities – $9,349 (30.7%)
Market value – $30,474
Total Invested – $24,000
I’m going to add another $1,000 to the portfolio and rebalance it to the original target allocation using this rebalancing spreadsheet…

The federal and Ontario governments have sold a block of 30 million shares in General Motors which they received in 2009 in return for bailing out the automaker. The stake, valued at $1.1 billion, was sold Tuesday to Merrill Lynch and RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says the Internet company now has about 800 million worldwide users, a 20 per cent increase since she was lured away from Google 15 months ago to steer a turnaround.
The gain disclosed Wednesday at a technology conference in San Francisco is the latest evidence of the progress that Yahoo Inc. is making under Mayer’s leadership. The Sunnyvale, California, company’s stock has nearly doubled since Mayer came aboard, though she and analysts say that gain primarily stems from the value of Yahoo’s holdings in China’s rapidly growing Alibaba Group.
Mayer says the figure for the 800 million Yahoo users doesn’t include the traffic that the company has picked up from its $1.1 billion acquisition of Internet blogging service Tumblr earlier this year.
Despite the increased traffic, Yahoo is still struggling to boost its online advertising revenue — the main way that the company makes money. In recent quarters, Yahoo’s ad revenue has been barely rising while Google and another rival, Facebook Inc…

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t really want to take his company public last year, but he has changed his mind now that the Internet social network’s stock is steadily rising.
Zuckerberg told a San Francisco audience attending a technology conference that he believes the rigours of an initial public offering of stock completed 16 months ago turned Facebook Inc. into a stronger company.
“We run our company a lot better now,” Zuckerberg said late Wednesday during an onstage interview at the conference put on by AOL Inc.’s TechCrunch blog. “In retrospect, I was too afraid of going public. I have been very outspoken about staying private as long as possible, but I don’t think it’s that necessary to do that.”
The remarks came just a few hours after Facebook’s stock hit its highest price since the IPO, which had been widely panned as a monumental flop until investors recently regained their faith in Zuckerberg and the Menlo Park, Calif…

PORTLAND, Ore. – Umpqua Holdings Corp. says it is buying fellow regional bank Sterling Financial Corp. in a $2 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The two said Wednesday they will combine under the Umpqua name to form a bank with about $22 billion in assets and branches in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada. Umpqua is based in Portland, Ore., while Sterling has its headquarters in Spokane, Wash.
Under the terms of the deal, Sterling shareholders will get 1.671 shares of Umpqua common stock and $2.18 cash for each share of Sterling common stock. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year.
Umpqua CEO Ray Davis will remain at the helm of the combined bank, while Sterling CEO Greg Seibly will become a co-president.
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