Market Minute: Dell Reaches Buyout Deal; Toyota's Profit Zooms Ahead

The battle for Dell may come to a head today, as investors focus on the new jobs report. Those and more are what's in business news Friday.

More records fell on Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow industrials (^DJI) rallied 128 points to an all-time high, while the S&P 500 (^GPSC) gained 21, closing above the 1,700 level for the first time. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) jumped 49 points. All three indexes have now risen about 20 percent so far this year.

Dell (DELL) shareholders are set to vote Friday on the controversial plan from company founder Michael Dell to take the company private.

UPDATE: Michael Dell and Silver Lake have reached a new deal with Dell's special board committee that would increase the price they would pay for the computer maker to $13.75 a share in exchange for a modification to the voting rules expected to ease passage of the deal.

Dell has made an 11th hour effort to win that vote by sweetening his bid, which is worth more than $24 dollars. In exchange for the higher payment, Dell's board agreed to change the voting rules. Investor Carl Icahn, who's made a rival bid for the computer maker, had filed suit against Dell on Thursday to prevent the company from postponing the vote.

Toyota's (TM) net profit nearly doubled from a year ago, helped by a weaker yen. On Thursday, the company reported sales in July jumped 17 percent, part of an industrywide surge.

And LinkedIn (LNKD) posted strong results as membership at the social-networking site for professionals grew by 37 percent, to 238 million.

Insurance giant American International Group (AIG) continues to show that its near collapse during the financial crisis is a thing of the past. The company will resume paying a dividend for the first time since 2008. AIG received a massive $182 billion bailout from the federal government, which ended up making a profit on the deal.

Lastly, there's good news for coffee drinkers. The price of coffee futures dropped to their lowest level in four years, due to economic and weather conditions in Brazil. It hasn't filtered down to the consumer level yet, but it should ensure that prices don't go up again any time soon.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.

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