Before the bell: BX, BRCM, NOK, AAPL, MAT

Main market news here: Before the bell: Cisco (CSCO) earnings boost futures.

The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) announced Wednesday morning that it has closed its latest fund, Blackstone Capital Partners V. The $21.7 billion fund is the largest buyout fund ever.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) has added insult to injury in its rivalry with Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), following up a legal victory with news of a deal to supply chips to cell phone maker Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), which is currently squabbling with Qualcomm.

In addition to the Broadcom deal and its continuing contract with Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), Nokia has also announced two new chip suppliers: Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM).

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled its new iMac on Tuesday, which features a slimmer, aluminum casing and a suite of software targeted at winning over users of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Windows.

Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) has named the Chinese manufacturer of almost 1 million Fisher-Price toys that it had to recall last week for possible lead paint.

Tags: AAPL, Apple, BRCM, Broadcom Corp, BroadcomCorp, BX, Fisher Price recall, FisherPriceRecall, IFX, Infineon Technologies, InfineonTechnologies, MAT, Mattel Inc., Mattel recall, MattelInc., MattelRecall, Microsoft, MSFT, NOK, Nokia Corp, NokiaCorp, QCOM, Qualcomm Inc, QualcommInc, STM, STMicroelectronics, The Blackstone Group, TheBlackstoneGroup, toy recall, ToyRecall

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