President Obama weighed in Friday on the controversy surrounding when Mitt Romney surrendered leadership of his former financial firm, Bain Capital, saying he thinks the Republican candidate should address questions that have been raised.  Accusations of lies and counter-lies dominated the intensifying November election campaign Thursday, with surrogates and spokespeople for President Barack Obama and certain Republican nominee Mitt Romney trying to cast the other as dishonest and secretive.  Mitt Romney's tenure and record at Bain Capital is a contentious issue in the election with dueling ads and accusations.  So just why is 1999 suddenly such a flashpoint in Campaign 2012?  There has been much speculation about whether the ads that President Barack Obama's campaign and its supporters have been running that are critical of Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital will be effective. There is also lots of critiquing of the reasons and effectiveness of first lady Michelle Obama's appearances on talk shows and reality shows ("The Biggest Loser," "Late Show With David Letterman," "The Daily Show," etc.).  As the presidential campaign veers off onto the Bain Capital ramp, the predictable arguments ensue: Is the turn simply a political attack meant to distract from bad economic news? (So says Mitt Romney). Or is it an important, valid argument at the heart of the contest? (So says President Barack Obama.)  Just in case you had any lingering illusions that politics deals with substantial issues, here's the issue that last week filled our media chatter:  Tuesday night's tight contest for the top spot in the Iowa Republican caucuses reflects the ongoing tension that exists within the Republican Party.  As South Carolina Republicans begin voting in the first primary of the south today, GOP insiders say that all the candidates have had their problems in Palmetto State, one reason why today's outcome has been so hard to predict.  John Avlon discusses Romney's campaign and the differences between the South Carolina and the New Hampshire electorate.  In the run-up to the New Hampshire primary, I wrote a column on the five things to look at while the votes came in. Now we've got the results, and here's how it played out:  "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  Leading GOP members want their candidates to stop attacking Mitt Romney over his work at Bain Capital.  From 1984 to 1999, Mitt Romney was in charge at Bain Capital, an investment firm that sought out small and sometimes troubled companies that, with careful management and Bain-provided cash, offered the chance for big profits. Bain, like many venture capital firms, invested in startups with the hope that the profits they made on the successes would outweigh the losses they incurred on the failures.  If our politics weren't so fluid and volatile, one would think, now that the votes are tallied in New Hampshire, that the race for the Republican nomination is virtually over. But for better and worse, we are living in a new era.  GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney on Thursday aggressively defended his tenure as head of Bain Capital, asserting again that his private-equity career resulted in the net creation of over 100,000 jobs while also calling any job losses an unfortunate fact of life in the private sector.  Republican voters in South Carolina are being barraged with campaign ads and more. CNN's Tom Foreman reports.  Republicans attacking Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital got a stern rebuke Thursday from the Chamber of Commerce.  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had a win to savor and a wound to salve this week, after a crucial victory and a cringe-inducing gaffe.  Is private equity an acceptable form of capitalism?  Forget taxes, gun rights and gay marriage. The new hot-button campaign issue is private equity.  LinkedIn had a banner debut back in May, with shares nearly tripling in early trade and closing at more than double their initial price. But now the game has changed.  Private equity firm Bain Capital, one of the early investors in the social network LinkedIn, announced that it is dumping its entire stake in the company, which is worth more than $275 million.  Long after Webvan.com's legendary flameout in 2001, the online grocer's biggest problem never left Mick Mountz's mind.  Toys "R" Us said Thursday that it plans to open about 600 temporary stores across the nation, more than six times last year's count, and hire some 10,000 workers for the holiday season.  Hasbro Inc., the nation's No. 2 toymaker, said Thursday it is not having discussions regarding the sale of the company, contradicting a published report that briefly drove the company's stock higher.  Toys "R" Us is seeking to raise $800 million in stock through an initial public offering, hoping to clear some debt from its balance sheet, the company said in a securities filing Friday.  Want to know if all this talk of an economic recovery is for real? Don't think big. Think small.  If the credit markets have been an iceberg over the past year, the private equity business has been frozen as solid as a prehistoric glacier. Buyout giants like KKR, Blackstone, and Bain Capital -- who just a couple of years ago were vying to one-up each other on a monthly basis with new mega-deals -- have been in a virtual hibernation for months.  Not since fourth grade have so many sophisticated investors been so troubled by a basic math equation. An asset-allocation problem called the "denominator effect" is forcing the selloff of billions in private equity and alternative investments.  Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and co-founder of private equity firm Bain Capital, is often mentioned as a GOP contender for 2012. He spoke with Fortune's Jia Lynn Yang.  First a CD-trading site, then a free Web-based music browser, lala.com is being born again. The site is relaunching Tuesday as a hybrid, offering the digital download functionality of iTunes and the free music streaming of MySpace Music without the ads  NBC Universal is acquiring the popular TV and Web franchise for a hefty $3.5 billion, but the forecast for the deal is anything but clear  Clear Channel and its prospective private equity buyers finally reached an agreement with their banks to finance the deal Wednesday. Now, all that stands in the way is the approval of the radio conglomerate's shareholders.  Clear Channel Communications Inc. and the private equity firms seeking to close a $19.5 billion purchase of the company on Wednesday sued the banks backing the deal.  Clear Channel's long-awaited $19 billion sale to private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners is in danger of falling through, according to a Wall Street Journal report.  Dear FSB: Our guitar store is struggling at its size. If we subdivided our space, what types of businesses should we consider to fill the empty space? What other concerns should we look out for?  Geoffrey the Giraffe, the Toys "R" Us mascot, has every reason to feel he's suffering from whiplash. In 1998 the chain ceded its status as the nation's top toy seller to Wal-Mart. Then U.S. same-store sales slipped for four consecutive years. And in 2005, KKR, Bain Capital, and real estate investment firm Vornado Realty Trust took the company private in a $6.6 billion LBO.  Two months after the credit crisis ground merger activity to a halt, dealmaking is being rekindled.  When does a Chinese company's strategic technology investment become a national security risk?  Stocks slipped Friday, at the end of a strong week and month on Wall Street, after some upbeat economic news and cautious comments from a Fed official cooled bets that the central bank will cut interest rates next month.  Stocks slipped Friday, at the end of a strong week, after some upbeat economic news and cautious comments from a Fed official dampened bets that the central bank will keep cutting interest rates next month.  Wall Street found little comfort in a number of upbeat economic readings in Friday afternoon trade, as investors mulled what the Federal Reserve's next move might be.  3Com Corp., a maker of networking hardware and software, will be sold to affiliates of private equity firm Bain Capital Partners LLC for $2.2 billion in cash, 3Com said Friday.  A teen's family is suing Virgin Mobile for using her picture, posted on Flickr.com, in an ad campaign.  Clear Channel Communications Inc. shareholders approved on Tuesday a $19.5 billion buyout of the nation's biggest radio station operator, more than 10 months after the deal was proposed.  After several delays, a shareholder vote is imminent on a proposed $19.5-billion buyout of radio giant Clear Channel Communications.  Home Depot said on Tuesday that it would sell its wholesale supply business to buyout firms for $8.5 billion - nearly 18 percent less than previously agreed upon - as the U.S. housing slump and recent credit crunch forced renegotiation of the deal.  The trio of private-equity firms buying Home Depot's wholesale supply unit decided to stay with the deal, but they could have walked away from the negotiations - for a modest fee.  Home Depot was close to taking $1.2 billion less for the sale of its wholesale distribution unit Thursday night, but the deal with three private-equity firms is still uncertain according to a published report citing people familiar with the matter.  A private equity-led buyout of home-improvement retailer Home Depot's wholesale supply division, due to close Thursday, could be in trouble because investment banks involved are reluctant to fund the transaction even at a lower price, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.  Home Depot said Thursday it was in talks with private equity buyers of its HD Supply unit about lowering the original purchase price of $10.3 billion.  Britain's Cadbury Schweppes said Friday it was extending the timetable for the sale of its North American drink business due to the turbulence in debt markets, although it said buying interest was keen.  Tom Stemberg is an enviable man among venture capital investors because he knows a thing or two about sniffing out a billion-dollar retailing opportunity.  Guitar Center said Wednesday it has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital Partners for about $1.9 billion plus assumed debt.  Willard Mitt Romney looks great in a suit. Which is good for him, because all day "Matinee Mitt" has been wearing a crisp, gray number. Speeches, grip-and-grin events, a veterans hall - no venue-appropriate costume changes, just pure Brooks Brothers. Even now, when it's 85 degrees and he's surrounded by people in shorts, the man won't so much as loosen his tie.  Clear Channel pushed back a shareholder vote on a proposed $19.4 billion buyout of the company on Monday, saying it was in talks with private equity bidders regarding a revised bid.  The buyout deals keep on coming, a sign of just how white-hot the market is for mergers and acquisitions.  If you haven't been paying attention to private equity - now's the time to study up.  As private equity comes under closer public scrutiny, corporate boards agreeing to buyouts are increasingly looking for ways to ward off shareholder criticism.  Like the summer of 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled for Roger Maris's home-run crown, the past year has been one when private-equity firms have been gunning for Kohlberg Kravis Robert...  If you want to get to the bottom of today's historic boom in private equity, just follow Tom von Krannichfeldt around.  Here are some shares that were particularly active in late trading Thursday:  Not since the late 1980s has the world of private equity so entranced Wall Street. The deals are huge ($33 billion for hospital chain HCA), and the investment dollars continue to pour in (new recor...  Hospital owner HCA agreed Monday to a $21 billion leveraged buyout, plus the assumption of debt, by a group that includes private equity firms as well as the company's founding family and members of management.  Three groups of private-equity firms are in the final stage of bidding about &#8364;8 billion, or $10.2 billion, for the semiconductor business of Philips Electronics, according to a published report Monday.  Deals - both completed and in the works - could help push U.S. stocks higher when the trading week begins later Monday.  Any day now, barring unforeseen calamity, Burger King will join the ranks of publicly traded corporations. It marks a first for the home of the Whopper, which since its founding in 1954 has been a ...  Stocks opened slightly higher Monday, at the start of the December quarter earnings reporting period, despite a downgrade of Dow industrials component IBM.  Private-equity firms are paying themselves lavish dividends and fees from the companies they acquire, loading up the acquired companies' balance sheets with debt, according to a published report.  Affiliated Computer Services could be close to agreeing to be purchased for more than $8 billion by a group of private equity firms, according to a published report.  Investors are watching Friday to see if key economic reports on the last trading day before Christmas will be enough to support the long-awaited "Santa Claus" rally.  A $4 billion bid to buy all the teams of the National Hockey League would group franchises into three different tiers to determine the payout for their current owners, according to a published report.  Stocks barely budged Thursday as investors hesitated amid see-sawing oil prices and again sought out the relative safe-haven of bonds.  Stocks were mixed early Thursday as the impact of surging oil prices was countered by an encouraging read on weekly jobless claims and the announcement of Toys "R" Us' proposed sale.  Toys "R" Us announced Thursday that it has agreed to sell the entire company to a group of investors led by KKR Group, Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust for $6.6 billion, plus the assumption of debt.  A surge in oil prices was likely to hurt stocks at the start of trading Thursday, pushing past bullish talk of an acquisition of Toys "R" Us and a split-up of Viacom, as well as Qwest's raised bid for MCI.  A new bid for all of Toys "R" Us could shake up the auction process for the company's traditional toy unit, according to a published report Wednesday.  The owners of the Warner Music Group are planning an initial public offering to tap into the improved value at the recording company since they bought it a year ago, according to a published report.  A Wall Street buyout firm and a sports advisory company have offered to buy not just a single team, but all 30 teams in the National Hockey League, according to a published report.  Remember when fashionistas deemed Manolo Blahniks the must-have, cool item for stylish women? Those sleek five-inch spiked heels sure made your legs look goooood, didn't they? But just try teeterin...  APPAREL E-RETAILER hq: London, New York founded: 1998 sales: N.A. employees: 215 privately held address: www.boo.com  VENTURE CAPITALISTS are running twice as hard and barely managing to stay in place. In the early 1980s these bettors on new businesses gained renown for the fortunes that they reaped, seemingly wit...
Mitt Romney described assertions by President Barack Obama's campaign as "deceptive," demanding an apology and rejecting calls to release more than two years of tax returns.