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readying IPO pitches to inves-tors, including most recentlyMoelis & Co., the investmentbank that this week unveiledplans for an offering. Meanwhile,Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., theChinese e-commerce giant, plansto go public this year or next,according to people familiarwith the company’s thinking, in

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in the U.S., raising $8.3 billionand tying 2007 for the busieststart to a year for initial publicofferings since 2000, when therewere 77 in the period, accordingto Dealogic.

In 2013, by comparison—itselfa strong year for IPOs—therewere 20 such offerings in thefirst two months.

Scores more companies are

In a scramble reminiscent ofthe 1990s Internet heyday, com-panies are going public at thefastest pace in years, hoping totake advantage of booming shareprices and investor demandwhile they last.

In the first two months of thisyear, 42 companies went public

of a wide swath of the nation.But the rebound, while powerful,has been tilted in a way that lim-its the upside for the broaderU.S. economy and is increasinglyleaving behind many middle-and lower-income Americans.

“Wealth inequality…has in-creased over time,” said WilliamEmmons, an economist at theFederal Reserve Bank of St.Louis. “So, there seems to be adisconnect: There are big wealthgains, but not much follow-through on consumer spending.”

Driving most of the pastyear’s gains was a record-settingrally in the U.S. stock market,which saw the broad Standard &Poor’s 500-stock index soar 30%last year. The increase in stockprices has disproportionatelybenefited affluent Americans,who are more likely to ownshares. The value of stocks andmutual funds owned by U.S.households rose $5.6 trillion lastyear, while the value of residen-

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Americans’ wealth hit thehighest level ever last year, ac-cording to data released Thurs-day, reflecting a surge in thevalue of stocks and homes thathas boosted the most affluentU.S. households.

The net worth of U.S. house-holds and nonprofit organiza-tions rose 14% last year, or al-most $10 trillion, to $80.7trillion, the highest on record,according to a Federal Reservereport released Thursday. Evenadjusted for inflation using theFed’s preferred gauge of prices,U.S. household net worth—thevalue of homes, stocks and otherassets minus debts and other lia-bilities—hit a fresh record.

The Fed report shows Ameri-cans have made considerableprogress repairing the damageinflicted by the housing crashand recession, which ran fromDecember 2007 through June2009 and decimated the wealth

“absolutely illegitimate decisionson the eastern, southeastern andCrimea regions,” according toReuters.

“Russia cannot ignore calls forPleaseturntopageA10

forces return to their bases and tosupport new elections in May.

“Any discussion about the fu-ture of Ukraine must include thelegitimate government ofUkraine,” Mr. Obama said at theWhite House. “In 2014, we arewell beyond the days when bor-ders can be redrawn over theheads of democratic leaders.”

In a statement on Friday, Mr.Putin said Kiev’s new authorities,which came to power in an anti-constitutional coup, had imposed

attempted in Europe.U.S. and European leaders said

Thursday that such a referendumwould violate the Ukrainian con-stitution and international law.

President Barack Obama spokefor an hour Thursday afternoonwith Russian President VladimirPutin, the White House said,stressing Russian violations ofUkrainian sovereignty and urgingMoscow to talk to the new gov-ernment in Kiev. He also urgedMr. Putin to ensure all Russian

sian occupation—with no oppor-tunity for a free and fair cam-paign.

A Russian move to absorb Cri-mea against the will of Ukraine’snational government would markthe first time since World War IIthat such a maneuver had been

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What’sNews

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World-WidenCrimea’s government votedto secede fromUkraine and joinRussia, setting a referendum in10 days to ratify themove. U.S.and European leaders decriedthe action as illegal.A1, A10nRussia’smove is stokingfears in Europe thatMoscowmay seek to takemore territoryand destabilize the region. A11nAU.S.-led coalition airstrikeaccidentally killed five Afghansoldiers, an incident likely toinflame relations betweenKabul and Washington. A8n The number of uninsuredconsumers buying coverageunder the health law hasrisen sharply in recent weeks,according to a new survey. A2n The Senate blocked a billto remove handling of sexual-assault cases from the mili-tary chain of command. A4n The hacking of a Navy com-puter network blamed on Iranwas facilitated by a poorlywritten contract with H-P. A6nA Turkish court upheld theappeal of a retired generalconvicted of plotting to over-throw the government. A7n Potential GOP presidentialcandidates Cruz and Christieclashed on strategy beforeconservative activists. A6n Five states joined a suitchallenging a California law re-quiring egg producers to househens in roomier cages. A3n Niger extradited one ofGadhafi’s sons to Libya. Hehas been under house arrestsince fleeing in 2011. A8nA Russian court reducedthe sentences of three peoplefor the Bolshoi acid attack. A8

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U.S. net worth rose 14%last year to a record $80.7

trillion as stocks surged, withthe gains mostly benefitingaffluent Americans. A1nDewey & LeBoeuf’s leaderswere charged with fraud bytaking steps to hide losses atthe New York law firm thatcollapsed in 2012. B1n Carlyle’s top executivesbecame the latest private-equity barons to sell stock intheir firm as shares soar. C1n Finra faces heightenedpressure to improve oversightof stockbrokers in the wake ofa Wall Street Journal probe. C1nCerberus agreed to buySafeway for over $9 billion,the private-equity firm’s latestdeal for a grocery chain. B3nThe ECB took no new stimu-lus measures, a sign of centralbank confidence the euro-zoneeconomy is recovering. A9nThe Fedmay rethink guid-ance on rates as unemploy-ment nears a 6.5% threshold,the New York Fed chief said. A2nThe S&P 500 set anotherrecord, gaining 3.22 to 1877.03.The Dow rose 61.71 points to16421.89. The Nasdaq eased. C4nStaples plans to close up to225 North American stores andcut the size of the rest follow-ing a weak holiday quarter. B1nThe crude oil on a train thatderailed in Quebec, killing 47,was as volatile as gasoline, Ca-nadian regulators said. B2nBoeing is freezing tradi-tional pension plans for over68,000 nonunion employeesand shifting to 401(k) plans. B3

Business&Finance

Crimea’s Moscow-backed gov-ernment voted to secede fromUkraine and join Russia and accel-erated a snap referendum to ratifythe move, a dramatic escalation oftension that pushed the Westcloser to imposing sanctions ifRussian troops don’t withdraw.

The scheduling of the vote forMarch 16 means that Crimeacould be absorbed into Russia in amatter of weeks. It also means thereferendum could be held whilethe region is under de facto Rus-

By Lukas I. Alpertin Moscow and

Margaret Coker inSimferopol, Ukraine

CrimeaMoves to Secede, Join RussiaRegion’s Moscow-Backed Government Votes to Leave Ukraine; Obama, Putin Talk as Sanctions Loom

Battle Rages On in Syrian Cities

DUST AND DESTRUCTION: In Aleppo, a Syrian man holds a crying girl following an airstrike by forces ofSyrian President Bashar Assad on the Sahour neighborhood, while in Homs and Hama, car bombs in government-held districts killed at least 17 and wounded many others, as fighting in the three-year-old crisis continued.

BY NEIL SHAH

U.S.WealthRises,ButNotAll Benefit

In This Beauty Pageant,The OneWith theMostWrinklesWins

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In Contest for Bulldogs, Judges Rate Face,Figure and First Impression; Swagger a Plus

LONG BEACH, Calif.—As hesauntered along the red carpet,Filbert squirmed in his tuxedoand high hat. Bentley, who has hisown social-media account,drooled nonstop. Harley, a skate-board and surfingbuff, sniffed the air.

Their deportmentmay be wanting, butthese contestants inan annual beauty con-test here stillcharmed the crowd.They were among thetop dogs in thissouthern Californiacity’s 10th annualBulldog Beauty Con-test. The event lastmonth attracted 200 of the squat,squishy-faced and much-loved ca-nines from as far away as NewYork and Montana.

The all-in-fun pageant—entryis just $10—gives every poochwho turns out, purebred or not, ashot at waddling down a 100-foot-long red carpet laid out on

the grass. Outfits are optional be-cause bulldogs tend to overheat,but some still strut their stuff intutus, grass skirts and sombreros.

Judging is simple: Each con-testant is evaluated on face, fig-ure and first impression. “We’renot looking at the pedigree or

anything extreme likethat,” said JustinRudd, the pageant’sfounder and orga-nizer. And there areno questions to beanswered about howto achieve worldpeace, either.

Mr. Rudd is an Ala-bama transplant whoalso runs contests forhuman beings, includ-ing Teen Long Beach,

Miss Long Beach and Mrs. South-ern California Cities. But with thisone, he said, “I have married twothings that I love—bulldogs andpageants.”

The annual contest broughtout 1,600 of the breed’s fanaticfans, fondly known as bulldog-

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BY MIRIAM JORDAN

FilbertBY TELIS DEMOS

Companies Rush to Join IPO Surge

Fadi

al-Halabi/AgenceFrance-Presse/Getty

Images

tion between AT&T Inc. and Veri-zon Communications Inc., whichtogether have more than two-thirds of U.S. mobile-phone cus-tomers and nearly all the indus-try’s profits, for what he says areslow networks that cost consumerstoo much.

Mr. Son has established ashadow headquarters in San Car-los, Calif., a Silicon Valley city nearApple Inc. and Google Inc. Sprintexecutives fly in each month forseveral days of meetings, whereMr. Son prods them on everythingfrom the progress of network up-grades to sales figures. Engineersand sales employees are ques-tioned several times a week in vid-eoconferences, according to one

Sprint executive.And he is bringing in about 1,000 SoftBank employ-

ees from Japan, who will try to help turn around thestruggling mobile carrier and develop new servicesthat SoftBank can use back at home.

So far, though, shaking things up at Sprint is turn-PleaseturntopageA12

At a meeting with Sprint Corp.executives in October, the chief ex-ecutive of parent company Soft-Bank Corp. lost his temper aboutthe mobile carrier’s advertising,complaining that it wasn’t luringenough new customers.

“Are you stupid?” yelledMasayoshi Son, who engineeredthe Japanese company’s takeoverof the No. 3 wireless provider inthe U.S. last year for about $22 bil-lion, according to three people inthe room. He slammed his fist on atable and suggested that Sprint fireall its ad agencies and start over.

One person who was there sayssome Sprint executives told Mr. Son later that thecompany couldn’t just cancel its advertising contracts.

The 56-year-oldMr. Son, amaverick billionaire andone of Japan’s best-known CEOs, wants to use Sprintto upend the U.S. wireless industry much the sameway he did in Japan with a takeover of beleagueredVodafone Japan in 2006. He blames a lack of competi-

BY MAYUMI NEGISHIAND RYAN KNUTSON

TOUGH LOVE

With Shouts andHugs,SprintBossDrivesTurnaround

DisconnectedNet losses at Sprint,in billions of dollars

The Wall Street Journal

Source: the company

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Record RichesThe net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose 14%in 2013 to $80.7 trillion, the highest on record. However, the gains havegone disproportionately to America’s affluent.

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’02 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’10 ’12 ’132000Source: U.S. Federal Reserve The Wall Street JournalNote: Data adjusted for inflation

$80.66TPre-recession high:$76.59T

Crisis in Ukraine At a square in Crimea,

shock and satisfaction... A10 Palladium prices jump....... C4 Latest updates: WSJ.com

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