Dole Food, one of the biggest producers and marketers of produce have filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the SEC.

According to the prospectus, the company wants to raise up to $500 million by selling common stock (undisclosed expected share price) via the IPO.

Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo will be underwriting the IPO according to the SEC filing.

The company plans to trade on the NYSE with the ticker DOLE.

It is unclear as to exactly when this would happen.

Investment Bank Goldman Sachs has reported a strong quarterly profit of $1.8 billion ($3.39 per share), beating analyst’s expectations of $1.64 per share, sending the stock surging.

The majority of the income was from Goldman’s fixed income business where revenue was up 34% to $6.56 billion YoY. Goldman still experienced a significant $1.41 billion loss in the quarter stemming from its principal investments division that includes real-estate investments. Read the full story

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has just purchased $125 million of eight-year bond notes and an additional $125 million in ten-year bond notes from luxury jewelry maker Tiffany & CO., meaning Berkshire Hathaway has effectively taken on $250 million of debt from the company. Both bonds are structured to yield Berkshire 10% According to Merrill Lynch, the average U.S. bond yielded 7.37% in 2008/ Tiffany & Co. says the new proceeds will be used to fund continuing operations and to refinance current debt.

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In 2007, the New York investment bank, Morgan Stanley (now recognized as a Bank Holding Company), firstly slashed almost 5,000 jobs and has now announced it is slashing yet more jobs; 10% of employees in its main business, the institutional securities unit. The company employees just less than 47,000 employees, and a majority of that population works in the institutional securities unit. The Morgan Stanley co-president James Gorman offered a cautious outlook and said the company would continue (and increase) operating in equity derivatives, commodities, credit, mergers and acquisitions, cash trading, principal investments, proprietary trading, and more. These job cuts, again, are a direct consequence of the financial crisis.

Today in other news, the Dow plunged and happening now in after-hours trading, Japan’s Niki is trading already 5% down. Google’s stock is also taking a hit as its now trading below $300 per share, which is very significant because Read the full story