Business

Satellite TV distributor Dish Network has offered to buy telecom giant Sprint Nextel Corp. in a $25.5 billion deal, a move that could derail a similar offer by the Japanese phone company SoftBank.

Dish says that it has offered $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock for Sprint. After the news was announced on Monday, Sprint's stock jumped 15 percent in pre-market trading, according to The Associated Press.

Federal aviation officials have ordered that more than 1,000 Boeing 737s be examined to see if a key part on the plane's tail section needs to be replaced, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued the airworthiness directive for a pin that holds the 737's horizontal stabilizer to the rest of the tail, to see if it is in danger of failing prematurely. The horizontal stabilizer — also known as the tail plane — enables the pilot to control the aircraft's pitch.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And let's stay on the topic of billionaires.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Sure.

GREENE: Bloomberg News is reporting that billionaire investor John Paulson has lost more than $300 million as a result of the slide in gold prices. After climbing for years, gold has recently lost considerable ground. And it's widely expected to fall even further this week.

Here's NPR's Jim Zarroli.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with billion-dollar paychecks.

(SOUNDBITE OF THEME MUSIC)

INSKEEP: Institutional Investor's Alpha, a publication focusing on hedge funds, releases its annual Rich List today.

And that list estimates the world's top 25 fund managers who earned a combined $14.4 billion last year - which is down slightly from the year before.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is: The Cicada Index.

Every 17 years, these nasty, loud, little insects known as Brood 2 cicadas emerge in staggering numbers - as many as on billion per square mile from the Carolinas to Connecticut.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

They have a grinding song. They have an endless appetite for vegetation, and most people along the East Coast dread their arrival. But savvy investors know better.

Same-sex marriage got huge headlines at the Supreme Court last month, but in the world of science and medicine, the case being argued on Monday is far more important. The lawsuit deals with a truly 21st century issue — whether human genes may be patented.

The baseball season is still young, but the New York Yankees have already faced harsh public criticism. No, we're not referring to their lackluster record. Instead, the Yanks were accused of trying to hoodwink beer drinkers with a new "Craft Beer Destination" concession stand at their Bronx stadium.

Still haven't filed your taxes, eh?

Well, you have until 11:59 p.m. Monday to get it all done — or at least file for an extension that gets you off the hook until Oct. 15. To help all of you procrastinators, here are answers to a few of your questions.

If I'm filing by mail, can I come skidding into the post office at 11:58 p.m. and still make the deadline?

Many authors struggle to make a living in America, thanks to smaller advances, shrinking royalties and the merging of publishing houses and the impact of e-books. The challenges are embraced by some and make others wary. Writer Scott Turow, who's also president of the Authors Guild, is in the latter camp. Host Jacki Lyden talks to Turow about his recent New York Times op-ed on the topic.

A new immigration bill is expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate next week, calling for better border security and a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the United States without legal status.

One big hurdle toward that was cleared this week when the United Farm Workers reached a deal with growers that would address wages and caps the number of visas allowed for new workers.

A severance package of $20 million might have seemed reasonable to American Airlines CEO Tom Horton, but a U.S. bankruptcy judge says it's too much.

The proposed payout, part of a deal that would merge American parent AMR and US Airways Group, first caught the attention of U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, a Department of Justice official monitoring AMR's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A steep drop in gasoline costs fueled a 0.6 percent decline in wholesale prices from February to March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, the so-called core rate of inflation was also in check: those prices rose a modest 0.2 percent.

The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company announced on Thursday that about 1,000 sales representatives will lose their jobs. The Wall Street Journal reports the company made the move to cut costs so it can better compete with generic drug makers.