Paranormal Activity 3 had the biggest debut for a horror movie and the biggest October opening ever.

The movie lured moviegoers with a record-setting $52.6 million opening.

From news.yahoo.com:

Monday’s final figure was slightly lower than the $54 million Sunday estimate from Paramount Pictures, but it’s still the biggest debut for a horror movie and the biggest October opening ever. The third film in the low-budget fright franchise is a prequel featuring found home-movie footage from 1988.

Real Steel and Footloose from Disney and Paramount, respectively, occupied the second and third places at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release.

Tags: horror movie, Paramount Pictures, Paranormal Activity 3

Bank of America Corp would be paying $11 million to ousted executives Joe Price and Sallie Krawcheck, a large payout at a time when banks face protests over pay but smaller than the eight-figure packages that were received by some executives before the financial crisis.

According to separation agreements filed by the bank, Krawcheck will receive a one-time payment of $5.15 million and Price will get $4.15 million.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Bank of America expects to cut 30,000 jobs as part of its efficiency program, which is designed to reduce costs as the mortgage crisis, new regulations, and low loan demand crimp revenue.

While a large amount, the payouts to Price and Krawcheck were in line with severance packages for executives of their stature and pay grade, said a compensation consultant.

Some executives ousted in the financial crisis drew ire for taking home huge severance pay. Protesters on Wall Street are currently demonstrating against outsized compensation for bankers.

In return for the payments, Krawcheck and Price agreed not to compete against the company in their respective areas or lure away clients or employees for a year. They also agreed not to make negative public comments about the bank.

Both Krawcheck and Price will also receive $850,000 over a one-year period.

Tags: Bank of America, financial crisis, Wall Street

The foreign exchange (forex) reserves of India dropped by $1.22 billion at $311.48 billion for the week ended September 30 to register a sharp decline for the second straight week largely due to revaluation of non-dollar assets, official data showed.

During the week ended September 23, the forex reserves had slumped by $4.05 billion.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

The country’s foreign exchange reserves kitty has shrunk by $9.30 billion in the last four weeks after swelling to an all-time high of $320.78 billion for the week ended Sep 2.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, fell by $1.23 billion to $275.69 billion during the week under review, according to the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank.

The foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the pound sterling, euro and yen held in reserve.

The value of gold reserves, however, rose by $348 million to a record high of $28.66 billion.

Tags: Foreign currency, foreign exchange, foreign exchange reserves, forex

A recently released report has shown that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in India have slumped by 41.5 percent to $26.8 billion during the first nine months of 2011.

This was attributed to rising interest rates and uncertainties in the global economy that have dampened sentiments.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

During the January-September 2011 period, 177 mergers and acquisitions deals, valued at $26.8 billion, took place which is 16.9 percent lower in volume and 41.5 percent lower in terms of value when compared to the same period in 2010, according to data compiled by mergermarket, an independent mergers and acquisitions intelligence firm.

‘With India’s benchmark Sensex slumping almost 23 percent year to date, rising inflation and interest rates and ongoing global woes, it is not surprising that domestic mergers and acquisition dwindled in the January-September 2011 period as compared to the same period last year,’ Anjali Naik, Deputy Editor of mergermarket, Asia Pacific, said in the report.

‘While valuations and deal values might be muted, activity is expected to continue on a smaller scale in the industrials and chemicals, financial services and consumer sectors,’ Naik said.

Tags: financial services, intelligence firm, mergers and acquisitions

The rich should be taxed more, according to Indian Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

The minister, who was earlier the Finance Minister of the country between May 2004 and November 2008, however, said that many people would not like this.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Addressing a function of the All India Management Association here, Chidambaram said: “We must raise the tax revenue to defend (the expected aggregate decline of resources). I know many people won’t like this. But I think, I can summon the courage to make the statement.”

“I am (was) the Finance Minister who slashed your tax rates. Therefore … you must be prepared to pay higher tax rates, especially the rich must be prepared to pay higher tax,” he added.

Chidambaram, who as Finance Minister of the country was credited with presenting a ‘dream budget’ in the initial years of his tenure, further in Europe rich people were getting together to say: “Please tax us more.”

Chidambaram also said that poverty must decline rapidly and at a higher rate than the current one percent, if the country has to achieve inclusive growth in the future.

“Poverty must decline. The rate at which poverty declined in the first years of liberalisation was about 0.8 percent a year. We believe it’s now declining at about one percent a year. Poverty must decline at a higher rate,” said Chidambaram.

Tags: finance, tax rates, tax revenue

Apple Inc is all set to introduce its iPhone 5 at a special event next week.

Xinhua reported on Tuesday that the invitation-only event will be held Oct 4 at Apple campus in Cupertino, California.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

This could be the first big product launch by the newly installed chief executive officer Tim Cook after he took over the reins of Apple from Steve Jobs in August.

According to US media reports, the iPhone 5 is expected to have a larger screen, a higher resolution camera and a faster dual-core A5 chip on which the iPad 2 runs.

Apple is also reported to release a contract-free and low-cost iPhone model bundled with its cloud computing service iCloud.

Tags: Apple, cloud computing, iPad 2, iPhone 5, Steve Jobs