Media Digest (8/17/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT

SABMiller makes a hostile bid for Foster’s Group. (Reuters)

The Swiss National Bank says the franc is overvalued. (Reuters)

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) management under more pressure as a reporter says News of the World editors knew about hacking and bribes in 2007. (Reuters)

The results of a French-German meeting about the euro depress markets. (Reuters)

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) cuts its forecast and the stock is hammered. (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) drops the price of the PlayStation 3 to increase orders. (Reuters)

China’s need for corn imports stretches U.S. capacity to produce it. (WSJ)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) may sell its real estate assets to Blackstone (NYSE: BX). (WSJ)

Research firm Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) claims that homes in a third of 130 markets have fallen below fair market value. (WSJ)

President Obama may ask the new congressional supercommittee for stimulus money. (WSJ)

Capital inflows in China add to fear about inflation. (WSJ)

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) increases pressure on unions striking against the company with threats to end benefits. (WSJ)

Honda (NYSE: HMC) dealers are still short of cars. (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell’s (NYSE: RDS) deal with Iraq for natural gas production could be worth $17 billion. (WSJ)

J. M. Smucker cuts prices on Folgers and Dunkin Donuts bagged coffee. (WSJ)

A German court lifts a ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy tablet in the EU, a blow to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). (WSJ)

Pensions reduce investments in high-end commercial real estate because of their belief in an emerging bubble. (WSJ)

Japan’s effort to reduce the value of the yen largely fails. (WSJ)

Fitch reaffirms its rating of U.S. debt as AAA. (WSJ)

The eurozone growth problem spreads to Germany. (WSJ)

Many of the most important economic data used by the market are based on unreliable estimates. (NYT)

Tech patents drive a new round of expensive M&A. (NYT)

Low inventories help retail profits. (NYT)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) says it expects U.S. growth to be slow. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre