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• This year, consumer prices for July and August indicate next year's COLA would be 1.4 percent. The price index for September -- the final piece of the puzzle -- will be released Tuesday. Several economists said they don't expect it to change the projected COLA by more than a few tenths of a percentage point, if at all.
• Vlasenko estimates the COLA will be from 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent. AARP estimates it will be about 1.5 percent.
• Since 1975, the annual COLA has averaged 4.2 percent. Only five times has it been below 2 percent, including the two times it was zero. Before 1975, it took an act of Congress to increase Social Security payments.
• "Over the past year, consumer prices have only gone up a little bit," Blau said. "By historical standards, it's a very low rate of increase."
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Softbank to buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20 bln
YURI KAGEYAMA,AP Business Writer
• TOKYO (AP) -- Softbank Corp. has reached a deal to buy 70 percent of U.S. mobile carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company.
• The agreement, announced Monday at a joint news conference in Tokyo by Softbank President Masayoshi Son and Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse, will bring together the third biggest mobile carriers of both Japan and the U.S., underlining the growth ambitions of Softbank, which has made a series of acquisitions over the last couple of decades.
• It also shows how the strong yen, which is usually seen as a negative for export-reliant Japan Inc., has boosted the overseas purchasing power of Japanese corporations as a stagnant domestic market pushes them to look abroad for growth. The Sprint buy pushes Japan's overseas acquisitions so far this year, including debt of the acquired companies, to over $100 billion, nearly double the same period last year, according to deal tracking company Dealogic.
• The deal was given a green light by the boards of both companies. It still needs approval from Sprint shareholders and U.S. regulators. Softbank said the transaction is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
• The combination of Softbank and Sprint will tie with AT&T for world's No. 3 mobile company by revenue after China Mobile and Verizon, according to Softbank.
• Son said the investment made sense because the U.S. is the world's biggest market in smartphones, and it was still growing.
• The news of the deal, which leaked late last week, had spooked investors wor (Continued on page 17)
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