captiong sponsored by wpbt >> suzan: good evening evyone. a major deal dominatedhe tech world toy, as dellaid it was buying perot systems forearly $4 billionn cash. in what woulbe its largest acquisition, dell looking to gain foothold in the lucrative information technolo or it services biness. the price tag lues perot at a ry rich $30 a share, or a nearly 70% premium to iday's

closing pre. new york bureau ief and tech guru sco gurvey joins us now with a closer look at e deal. hi scott >> reporter: hi suzanne. you know, dell mak stuff and the mol to this story is that you can't make a lot omoney just makinstuff these days. dell makes desktopomputers and lapt computers and server computers. it makes printers aneven tvs. but there's not a lot of marn in most of the products. addition, dell got clobber by t recession because business custome put off upgradintheir hardware. and while delltuck with hardwa, its biggest competitors added software a services. hp bought electronic data system ironically another company started by perot. and ftware and services company oracle is buying hardware maker sun mrosystems. now de is playing catch-up. i talked tod with analyst tom smith at standard and po's who says t dell deal is better late than never. >> dell's move intoervices is substantially smaller than h and also a year ter.

so in that sensehey're behind th rival. ibm has been movinmore heavily into services part of a three legged strategy of hardwar software and services for mo than five ars so again, dell has stucfor a long time with its concentration pcs. at's its heritage and its stuck with it, maybe it needto pick up the pa of change. >> reporter: and suzan, the compies had a conference call for analysts today a most of the quesons were about the price. which as o put it, was certnly no bargain. >> suzanne: let's ta about that, ott, did dell overpay? is are there others out there that could positionly be interested. >> there might have been but perot in effect become dell's service position brings $8 billin annual revenues to the lk and th diversifications the trend in the industry and

perohas a lot of clients in the health-care sector. >> so whe is dell tting althis money from? i meane have certainly been hearing about companies that poteially have more cash. they have been squirreling away f things like acquisitions. what is the story dell's case. it just part of this greater trd or is tre someing more specific goinon? >> well, younow in spite of dell's struggles in rent years it has managed its financ well it ha littleebt. it las cash on hand. tand h the ability to raise mon. and if as it aears pc sales arjust beginning to pick up a littleith the recovering economy it should have enough cash flow. so what else do you think dell needs to do though to become more expect snf do you think there is a potential forore acquisitions. >> absoluty. in fact, whethey brief the analysts today, dl said that this wasoing toe, perot was going to be the anor to their services dision. they're going to e this division probably to make other acquitions going forward and really as their competitors have done, become a company that makes

hardware but does a lot of its business in providg servic. >> scott, thanks f joining us this evenin >> see you tomorrow in t office. >> absolutely. nbr's new rk bureau chf scott gurvey. >> paul: o for all and all for one. that's howhe new head of the federal communications commission wants interne traffic treated. he's calling for new rulations to do just that byequiring oadband providers treat all legal web content the same. as stephanie dhue reports, t proposals already drawing cheers and jeers. >> repter: if the f.c.c. chairman has his w, internet access providers wilhave to treat wetraffic equally. whether it's to pc, a cell phone, or some otherevice f.c.c. chairman lius genachowsksays new rules of the road a needed to protect consumer choice. >> we willo as much as we need to do, and no more, ensure that the internet remas an unttered platform for competition, creativity,nd entrepreneurial acvity. >> repter: companies like

at&t, verizon, and ccast worry ing forced to trt web traffic equally wi keep them from effectively managintheir networks. for exame, they might not be able to give priority tele- medicine or smargrid applications verizon's david young saysew les could stunt growth. >> government does not movas quickly as intnet time and that any attempt to ck in regulationto capture a certain period of time would pvent the internet from ntinuing to evol. >> reporter: companies le amazon, hoo and google, worry without e new rules their applicions could be blocked or slowed down, espially if ty compete withn internet providers voice or vid business. for example, skype c.e.o. sh silvern says some wireless carriers block hisompany's free calng application. >> that s more to do with competing with carriers current buness model than it does with providing consum choice and we think that wrong. consumers should be able tuse any applicatn they want.

consumers fi themselves ying for for the application. internet providers have to support l applications equallt could get exnsive. that meansour cell phone and web acss bill coul get expensiveoo it stephanie dhue, ightly business rort", washington. paul: wall street took its opening cues from lloffs in overse markets. the coodity sector led the early downturn. as the dollar rallied and oi fell over $3 perarrel. after dropping nearly 10points at the oset the dow cut its noontime loss only 27 points wi the tech-heavy nasdaq up 7 points thanks partly to de's buyout of perosystems. while the blue chips remaid in red k, the tech stocks maintained mest gains, leading to a mixed close.

>> suzne: the world's most powerful nation's ar"pre- spinning" ahd of the thursday start of the g-20 meeting in pittsburgh. but economt simon johnson is already giving the mting low marks, sayinmany world leaders aren't focusing on the right fixes for the glob economy. washington beau chief darren gersh spoke with johnson and ked him if he expects any bi decisions from the g-2this week. night. >> ordinarily for is kind of meetinghere is a lot of preparation, deputy lels, deputy ministersand misters of finance, central bank goverrs.

they already me if the was any kindf substance comingo us we uld have seen that clearly signed. and right now gin what we arseeing i say there is nothing. >> but we hear that the is going to be bi changes, that the u.s. is going to agree save more. chinis going to agree to export less and europe wil agree to gw faster. i'veeen hearing this my entire career. is there anything new here? >> no, no,here is nhing new here atll that is t point. you haveeen hearing that fore. there has en no delivy on thaand there won't be again. remember on the keyiece which is can you g chi to savless and get t chain easexchange rate to appreciate which is part o the rebancing the global economy, this administrion already t china off the ho both directly with what secretary quitener and secrety of state clion have sd in chin and with what they heat emfo via-vis the chinese exchange rate is all empty rhetic at this stage. >> how are they doinin dealing with therisis? have they got their hand around it, these leaders, and is there any val in them mting to discuss the crisis? >> well there was certainly

value in apr, the april g-20 summitn london was good. it wasimely and it delired onsomething, you know, quite important d difficult whicwas more resourcefor the imf. is summit isargely pointless. it would be good if they were pushing forfinancial relation, now would be the right time becausehe economy is starting turn around. the financial seor is stabilizing. now uld be the timeo lay out aggressive and ambitiousgenda for really tighteni the regulation around derivatives, for example. and around theinancial sector much mo broadly. but ere is no taste for that in e united states and the ropeans havelso i ink got distracted by the issues of execuve compsation and some other things. and the result no progress. >> l me ask you about executive -- you say the euroans are stracted. sounds like a important topic. it sounds ke something the g-20 should address why is it a distraction. >> i think it is a sympt ratherhan the unrlying cae. the undlying cause is the structure of the fancial system and its incenve. thfact you can operate with little capital. they don't cry big eqty cushons against loes and as a result, when they take big risks, for example in

derivatives and those risk goes bad, hen that's a maive hit for the taayer. inhat conxt you would attack and address ecutive compensation. but just saying oh is all about exetive compensaonnd if we fix that, we fix the oblem th is dealing with the symptowithout dealing with the derlying cause. >>ll right. exit strategy. they've been talkingbout an exit strategy. itounds like ey are talking about iq. what did theyean by an exit strateg and is it important? >> yes, it's important. they're talkg about rtailing fiscal smulus and about raising terest rates and doing that at an appropriate time so it doesn't choke offthe recory. and so that it pres coistent with keeping inflation under control. it's very tricky, o cose. and there will ba lot of political pressure, fo example, on the federal reserve not to raise interest rates toooon or even in a timely manner and ving some international hand holding, a mual agreement on that uld be helpful. again, unfortunaty, its most likely to be vacuous at th level and not have a

great deal of political legitimacy or vidity. >> you're a professor. what grade was you give the g-. >> well, the g-20 back in april think got an a it was a very nice summit the g-20 going into ttsburgh looks like a scrapinghrough with a b. and if they don'treally handle -- if they come t with nothing at all, 0, i ink it will be a failing grade which at.i.t. i woultell you a b minus is a failing grade. >> thanks for your time, apprecte it. >> thank y. >> suzanne: late today, th securities andxchange commission began a new chaer

in the bank of ameri merrill lynch sa. the s.c. has decided to go to trial against bank of erica. saying it ll "vigorously puue" the case. day's move comes a week afte a federal judge ssed out the bank's $33 million setement with the ancy. the s.c. accused b-of-a of lying to shareholders abou nearly $billion in bonuses paid tmerrill lynch exutives. the s.e. left open the possibility that me charges could be filed agast the bank in t future. paul? >> paul: suzanne, nk of >> the loss sharg fact with the fs over the rrill merger. we'll see the shares as we look at some of the stocks night in the active lists. just a moment. the most active usual

and those are some of the ocks in theews tonight, suzanne.

>> suzanne: thursday night, ightly business report" join other pbs news a public affairs ows for a special, 90- minute prime-time look ahealth care refor it's called "pbs special rept: health care rerm." tonight, as we lead to that special,ur signature series "bill of health" lks at the challenges of providing health insurce in the workple. as jeff stine reports, firms of all sizes are racing too right by theirmployees and theibottom line. >> reporter:owerboat racing is not for the faint of heart. at speeds of ove200 miles an hourdrivers, boats and engines all take a pounding. lathamarine, a 12-person firm in fort lauddale florida, designs and builds steerin systems for these fshore racers, pleasure boatsand military vesls. finding the machinists and engines with the skills to work here is not easy. that's a key reason whkathy

latham and her husba robert, providedully-paid healthcare benefits, for workers antheir families. >> always felt that if we could provide good benefits, then the worker could do beer job. ey're not worried about thei family as much if they can pride healthcare and what not. >> reporter: b last year, latham was h with a 30% rise inealthcare costs and had to break some bad news the staff. workers like marcus de sza would still get coverage, t familyembers, like his wife, would not. >> obvious you have to swallow the pill and deal with the consequences. and so i covereder under the planor a period of time. she started shoppi around. she'off the plan right now. she currently esn't have insurae. >> reporter: to get an ideof just how mucmore insurance costcompanies and workers, consider this: according tthe kaiser famy foundation, ten years o, it cost about $5,800

to cover a worker and his family. toy, that price has more than doubled to nearly 3,000. yet, the average salary overhe last decade has only risen 3. that affordabili gap, is wide d growing, says david guilmette of research fi towers perrin. >> and that's st the cost to paicipate in the program. there's an additional co burden fm having the benefit not be arich as it was before; so higher levels of co-ps. higher lels of insurance and deductibles. so not onlare you paying more to buy the coverage, b you're paying more each time you e the service. >>eporter: the kaiser study found just about allarge companies pride health insurae. and that's stayed steady thrgh the years. but small businesses, compies with nine woers or less, have steadily dropped coverage. ly half of those firms now offer health benefit that tre has hit home with marcus de souza and his fami.

>>o, it's tough news for us, you know? but i understand why they hato do it. they had to do somethi. and ratherhan compromise the benefits to the actual employees, the spouses and families got affected. >> reporter: and latm struggles, balcing the health of her workfor, against the health of r company's bottom line. >> that was like, litelly, cutting out a piece my heart, that d, when i made that announcement. tears in my eyes hard for me speak about it w. but i feel like i'm lirally being ipped away at, the american dream, that we've built. >> rorter: a dream that's shrinking for many americans, employees and business owner alike. jeff yastine"nightly business report", fort lauderdale. >> pau tomorrow, from signing homes to designing employee health careoverage e architecture firm's struggleas we continue "bill of healt" >> suzanne: president obam sharply criticiz big u.s.

banks day. he accused them of tryg to stop newegislation to overhaul e $92-billion student loan industry. the bill would lit loan subsids to major banks and student lender sale mae. it was passeby the house last week. the president says hsupports the measure because it wld save money by maki the gornment a direct lender of student loans. >> paul:razil's jbs is putting the much anticipated.p.o. of its s. subsidiary on hold until january. the global meat packing fi says ineeds the time to incorporate two recent deals its takeover of bankpt u.s. poultry producer pilgrim's pride... and a jointenture with brazian rival bertin. the jbs i.p.o. was expecd to raise asuch as $2-billion makingt the biggest offering in over a year.

>> suzan: tonight's commtator says financial regulatory reform is the bt investment we can make. he's mark zandi, chiefconomist at moody economy.com. >> taxpaye will spend trilons of dollars to quell the financial cris and great receion. tarp, auto bailouts, morage modifications, fiscal stimus, etc have worked totabilize the financiasystem and end the debilitating downturn. but taxpayers serve much more r their money. for l of the trillions in llars they should get a

financial syem that is much less likely to sufr another crisis, ateast not a cataclmic one. this reqres comprehensive financial regulatory reform. the obama administration h propos a wide range of changes,nd while not everything is toy liking, in broaterms the proposals are good. king the fed as a systemic sk regulator makes sense, as doesutting derivatives trading on exchanges. establishing a more ratiale and early defined mechanism for resolving trbled financial initutions is also vital. also important is forming e consumer financi protection agen. the neagency would be responsible for enring that there is a minimum s of standards that all finanal institutions mt follow when priding credit to consumers. judging from theecent crisis, e current regulatory setup i simply notp to the task of setting d enforcing these standards across allinancial institutns. ofll the various aspects of regutory reform this one has got financial institutns most upset.

this is undetandable since it means lenders won't be able make as many loa. but this exactly what s to happen sincet was too many bad loans that took eir industry, the econom and taxpayers to their knees. thiss mark zandi. >> suzan: that's "nightly business rort" for monday, ptember 21. i'm zanne pratt goodght everyone. angood night to you paul. >> paul: goodnight suzne. i'm paul kans wishing all ofou the best of good buys. "night business report" is made possible by:

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