Online media giant AOL (AOL) has bought The Huffington Post for $315 million. It will pay $300 million in cash, the rest in stock for the news website.

When The Huffington Post raised money just over a year ago, the value of the site was rumored to be $125 million. It has 25 million unique users a month, according to Comscore figures. AOL has just over 90 million. The combined user bases could push the total ahead of MSN, the Microsoft (MSFT) portal, and perhaps Yahoo! (YHOO).

AOL, the parent company of BloggingStocks, said in a release that Arianna Huffington would lead the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, which will integrate all the content from The Huffington Post and AOL sites, from politics and finance to Moviefone and Mapquest.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) to buy from neutral.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Pulte Group (PHM) to neutral from underperform. Note that Citigroup downgraded the stock.
• Ameristar Casinos (ASCA) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Merriman.
• Citigroup upgraded Kimco Realty (KIM) to hold from sell.
• Mistras (MG) was upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• Devon Energy (DVN) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Garmin (GRMN) was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at PacCrest.

It will be a busy week. Republicans are poised to gain control of the House of Representatives and gain governorships in Tuesday's mid-term elections. Also, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce another round of quantitative easing Wednesday, following the FOMC meeting. Major retailers are scheduled to report October same-store sales Thursday, while the October unemployment rate, announced on Friday, is expected to remain at 9.6%.

Toyota's (TM) fiscal second-quarter results will be one of the highlights on the earnings front this week. After three periods of way underestimating Toyota's earnings, have the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters got it right this time? The stock sure could use a boost. Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) is in a similar situation; i.e., high expectations for this week's quarterly results but a stock in need of a boost. Marathon (MRO) and Starbucks (SBUX) are also expected to post strong earnings growth this week, but both stocks are riding high.

Analyst Upgrades

• SunTrust upgraded American Express (AXP) to buy from neutral with a $47 price target based on valuation.
• Argus upgraded Verizon (VZ) to buy from hold, with a $39 price target, citing valuation and the company's aggressive 4G LTE network upgrade. However, Bernstein downgraded the stock.
• BMO Capital upgraded Canadian Pacific (CP) to outperform from market perform, citing the company's cost reduction efforts, and raised its target for shares to $74 from $67.
• Agrium (AGU) was upgraded to sector outperformer from sector performer at CIBC.
• Novatel Wireless (NVTL) was upgraded to hold from sell at Canaccord.
• Essex Property Trust (ESS) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman.

On CNBC this week, hedge fund manager Steve Eisman gave his first TV interview in ten years. Yes, he was the star in Michael Lewis' "Big Short," in which he made a bundle by shorting subprime securities.

Now Eisman has found another trade: for-profit education companies. In fact, his latest report is called "Subprime Goes to College."

This past week, Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), gave an update on what its stock holdings look like, what stocks were added, which ones added to, and which ones it was selling. Though there aren't many major changes in the list, there are some telling points that most investors can study and learn how to invest like Mr. Buffett.

These are stocks he's added to or added in the last quarter:

• Becton Dickinson (BDX): Up 155,000 shares (total owned: 1.889 million shares).
• Fiserve Inc. (FISV): This is a new position of 4.4 million shares.
• Iron Mountain (IRM): Increased position by 206,000 shares. Has been buying this over the past several quarters with a starting position of 3.3722 million shares.

In response to the market's flash crash of May 6, the Securities and Exchange Commission put in place circuit breakers that are designed to halt trading if the price of a stock rises or falls 10% within a five-minute period.

On Wednesday, the circuit breakers were triggered when shares of Washington Post (WPO) doubled in one second. Prices were all over the lot. At 3:07 p.m. (EST) Washington Post was trading at $460. Suddenly, an order for 400 shares and another for 200 were executed at $919.18, followed by 166 shares at $929.18.

Again this week, consensus forecasts for companies reporting quarterly results call for double-digit earnings growth from many of them, compared to the results from a year ago when shares of many companies were at recessionary lows.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for strong earnings results from Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), Time Warner Inc. (TWX), MasterCard Inc. (MA) and Washington Post Co. (WPO), which we'll take a closer look at here, as well as from Devon Energy (DVN), DirecTV (DTV), Loews (L), Marsh & McLennan (MMC), NYSE Euronext (NYX), Williams Companies (WMB) and others.

The New York Times (NYT) reports today that newspapers dominate the news creation business.

This is an interesting twist -- instead of touting readers or paid circulation or ads or total revenue, it's talking about production. It's almost as if Ford (F) were to announce: "We make more cars than anyone else." Who the hell cares if they sell any, right? What's important is production, not sales! For the Times, and print media in general, it feels like yet another attempt to justify its existence and "prove" that it is more valuable than the more cost-effective and nimble online outlets.

With close to 60 million users, Twitter is a force corporate marketing departments just can't ignore. The reach offered by this microblogging platform is profound, and skipping it means yielding digital turf to the competition.

Yet, as the country's major brands have flocked to Twitter, not all have mastered it. Some merely push headlines and deals, while others have used it as a way to open a dialogue with their customers, build relationships and ultimately grow their businesses. A study by The Big Money sought to determine the dozen companies that are mastering Twitter and why they are the masters.

As print media continues its prolonged death throes, The Washington Post Company (WPO) announced late Tuesday that it will shut down its U.S. bureaus in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Six journalists will be affected by the closures, and all will be offered jobs in Washington. Three news aides in the bureaus will be offered severance.

As a result of the move, the Post will no longer have any journalists on staff outside its home base of Washington, D.C. In a memo to staffers, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli explained that the newspaper must focus its journalistic efforts on its own turf.

We've put three quarters behind us in 2009, and the most recent one was merely another miserable step downward for the beleaguered newspaper industry. Total ad revenue plummeted in the third quarter to $6.4 billion for the print jockeys, a decline of 28%. This info from the Newspaper Association of America drives home the notion that conditions will only worsen for the newspaper industry. So, if you're hoping those shares of New York Times Company (NYT), Gannett (GCI) and Washington Post Company (WPO), holding your breath will leave you little more than dizzy.

Of the total advertising revenue generated in the third quarter of 2009, $5.8 million came from print, the lowest quarterly amount this year. The $623 million in online advertising sold by America's newspapers was also 2009's worst. Both are down substantially from the same quarter in 2008, when the newspapers posted print ad revenue of $8.2 million and online ad revenue of $750 million, according to NAA data. At this time last year, we lamented year-over-year declines approaching 20%. Now, we have the same feelings as ad revenue drops approach 30%.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) reported strong Q3 results, declared a dividend, and offered guidance for Q4.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) Q3 earnings slumped and revenue was hurt by currency translations.
• BP (NYSE: BP) shares leaped higher after it reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
• Daimler AG (NYSE: DAI) reported that it returned to profitability in Q3 but warned of decreasing revenue.
• General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) Q3 earnings beat expectations and it lifted its earnings outlook.
• Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) posted strong Q3 earnings and expects full-year earnings ahead of forecasts.

The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) published data for the third quarter earlier today. Can't say I was mightily impressed by the numbers. Sure, there was a profit increase, but the top line wasn't exciting, and the newspaper division, as you might have expected, experienced a sharp decline in sales.

Net revenues rose 2%. Earnings per share came in at $1.81. That was sharply higher than the $1.08 per share recorded in the comparable period. Yet, I think you have to be careful in terms of reading too much positive spin into the growth rate.

Here's an update on two shorts: The Washington Post and JetBlue:

Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). Short price on May 6, 2009: $344.72. Stopped out for loss at $460. Dead wrong with this one: can't win them all. The Post's education segment has grown revenue enough to offset the declines at the signature print newspaper. A modest U.S. recovery will continue to weigh on the print newspaper side's revenue and earnings, but cost cuts and the development of its online unit mean WPO will be a metro daily survivor after the news/media sector's Internet-compelled transformation.