The average cost of a four-year college is $26,000 a year—up 4 percent in 2009 alone. What is the value of an education and are there any alternatives for students who wish to attend college at a lower price? James Altucher, managing director at Formula Capital shares his ways to play the rising cost.    Read More

In what appears to be a bet consumers will stick with discount retailers even after the economy rebounds, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increased its Wal-Mart holdings by almost 90 percent during the summer.  It added almost 18 million shares, currently worth almost $1 billion, in the third quarter.   Read More

Just minutes after this morning's announcement that Berkshire Hathaway is paying $26 billion to acquire the 77 percent of Burlington Northern Santa Fe it doesn't already own, Warren Buffett spoke live by phone with Becky Quick and Joe Kernen on CNBC's Squawk Box.  This is the complete transcript of their conversation.   Read More

These days in the newspaper industry, you can't expect positive news to come from an ad increase - the only upside is when cost-cutting works.   Read More

The much-anticipated deal has been done: McGraw Hill announced Tuesday afternoon that it will sell the 80-year-old weekly magazine to Bloomberg.    Read More

The big question looming over the newspaper and publishing business, is how to get consumers to pay for content online.   Read More

Now that The Washington Post Co. has ended its long-standing partnership with the Los Angeles Times it's launching a new service with Bloomberg News, honing in on its expertise with political and economic news.   Read More

This week all eyes are on Gannett; its stock has been flying higher, up more than 500 percent excluding dividends since hitting a low of $1.95 in March.   Read More

Dow Jones is reportedly shopping around its stock market indexes, working with Goldman Sachs to investigate finding a joint venture or a flat-out buyer.   Read More

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was doing more selling than buying of stocks during the second quarter, but there is one new holding: New Jersey-based medical technology company Becton Dickinson.  Berkshire also added to its stake in Johnson & Johnson, although the holdings are still well below where they were before Buffett sold over 33 million shares last fall.   Read More