One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the 60-story office tower that has been home to one of New York City’s most important banks for half a century, has a new owner: Fosun International of China.

Fosun, which is owned by Guo Guangchang, a billionaire, outmaneuvered half a dozen bidders for the 2.2 million-square-foot building, with an offer of $725 million.

The company signed a purchase contract on Thursday and put down a 10 percent, nonrefundable deposit on the deal.

Although other bidders for the property envisioned converting the tower to condominiums and a hotel, real estate executives say that Fosun wants 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza to remain an office building. The company may be bringing in several Chinese companies as tenants and plans to expand and enhance the retail space at the base of the building, the executives said.

Darcy A. Stacom, a broker for CBRE, which marketed the building for the owner,JPMorgan Chase, said the deal was “great for downtown,” and illustrated that many of the improvements made downtown since the 2001 terrorist attack were paying off.

Chase issued a statement on Friday saying it was pleased with the deal. “We’ll continue to maintain a strong presence downtown and throughout New York City, where we’ll remain for years to come.”

The bank plans to move about 4,000 employees to other locations but to keep its large branch office at the base of the tower, as well as some office space above, according to bank officials. Within a year, about 70 percent of the building will be vacant.

Developers like Tishman Speyer, Related Companies and Hines have been active builders in China for years. Now, Chinese companies are actively buying real estate in the United States.

SOHO China, a developer, and a Brazilian billionaire recently partnered to buy a 40 percent stake in the General Motors Building in Midtown Manhattan, while the Greenland Holding Group, a state-owned developer based in Shanghai, agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

Today’s low-interest-rate environment has made the hunt for investment income tougher than ever. Many overseers of public pension funds, desperate to bolster returns and meet ballooning retiree obligations, have turned from traditional investments like stocks and bonds to hedge funds and private equity.

These so-called alternative investments now account for almost one-quarter of the roughly $2.6 trillion in public pension assets under management nationwide, up from 10 percent in 2006, according toCliffwater, an adviser to institutional investors. Investments in public companies’ shares, by contrast, fell to 49 percent from 61 percent in the period.

Fans of alternative investments argue that they can generate higher returns. But the increased risks, higher fees and lack of transparency associated with such investments make them problematic. A 2007 paper by Fiona Stewart at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris said that “lack of transparency makes the level of risk and type of exposure hard to gauge” in hedge funds.

Last week, an investigation of the Rhode Island pension system’s recent foray into alternative investments raised fresh questions about the high costs and considerable risks of investing in hedge funds and whether their returns are indeed worth it.

The investigation, by Benchmark Financial Services, a forensic firm hired by a Rhode Island council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,concluded that the $7.7 billion Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island was at risk because of its increased concentration in high-cost and opaque alternative investments. The union represents workers whose pensions are invested by the state.

In less than two years, the Rhode Island pension system has ramped up its investments in hedge funds, private equity and venture capital from zero to almost $2 billion, or more than one-quarter of its assets under management. But this mix of investments hasn’t outperformed the fund’s peers, the Benchmark report said. For the year ended June 30, 2013, the fund returned 11.07 percent, versus 12.43 percent earned by the median public pension fund.

Generating returns on the Rhode Island pension is a task of Gina M. Raimondo, the state’s general treasurer, who is also chairwoman of its retirement board. A Democrat, she was elected in 2010; previously, she was a partner at Point Judith Capital, a smallish venture capital firm.

As treasurer, Ms. Raimondo has won national praise for her efforts to reform the state’s public pension system.

She published a report on the state’s pension problems in 2011. At the time, the employees’ pension fund was only 57.4 percent funded and had increasing obligations. The legislature passed a law increasing the retirement age for many workers and tying cost-of-living adjustments to actual investment returns. Unions are challenging that law in the courts.

But even as many retirees in the Ocean State have experienced benefit cuts, the Benchmark Financial report contends that hedge fund managers are earning rich fees that could otherwise be used to shore up the state’s pension. A recent report in The Providence Journal said investment expenses at the pension were $70 million for the year that ended June 30. Earlier estimates had investment expenses amounting to around $11.5 million for the period, the Benchmark report said.

It is well known that hedge funds charge much higher fees than other money managers. The alternative investments in the Rhode Island pension charge management fees of as much as 2.5 percent and performance fees of up to 20 percent of profits. Transaction costs are additional.

Unfortunately, the hedge funds held by the state have underperformed the overall stock market so far this year. As of Aug. 31, the most recent data available, the Rhode Island State Investment Commission said its 10 hedge funds investing in stocks returned an average of 8.73 percent, while nine so-called real-return hedge funds generated 3.61 percent. Neither matched the 16.15 percent gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index during the period.

Asked about the problems highlighted in the Benchmark report, Ms. Raimondo, through a spokeswoman, declined to be interviewed. But in a news release, Ms. Raimondo’s officesaid the report was motivated by her political enemies.

Edward A. H. Siedle, the president of Benchmark Financial Services in Ocean Ridge, Fla., conducted the investigation into the Rhode Island pension’s investments. A former lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Siedle said he found it troubling that state officials won’t require the hedge fund managers they have hired to disclose how they are investing the pension’s money. He also noted conflicts of interest common at hedge funds that may put the Rhode Island pension at a disadvantage to insiders or favored investors.

A review of documents from three of the hedge funds managing money for the Rhode Island pension fund show that some investors are more equal than others. Special treatment includes fee discounts, more frequent redemption rights than those given to other investors and the ability to receive reports including information about the fund’s portfolio that is not provided to other shareholders.

“The hedge fund documents all say that ‘We’re not going to disclose what we are doing with your money,’ ” Mr. Siedle said. “However, they say that certain strategic investors will be told what’s being done with your money and that those strategic investors may use that information to profit at your expense.”

The documents don’t specify who might receive these benefits. Instead, they note that the benefits may be based on the size of an investor’s holdings in the fund or that they may be granted to an investor who agrees to hold an investment for a significant time.

Mr. Siedle questions why any state pension plan would agree to invest under such unequal terms. “The hedge fund industry has maintained that they should be allowed to manage public pension money in secret,” he said. “But now we have evidence that insidious business practices are involved. The performance is bad enough, but when you add in these other features, these investments are inherently unsuitable for public pensions.”

Joy Fox, the Rhode Island treasurer’s spokeswoman, said in a statement: “Strong returns from our investments, including alternative investments, help move the pension fund closer to the 80 percent funded level, where the cost-of-living adjustments come back. We constantly monitor our investment strategy, and make changes when necessary.”

It is clear that public pensions, like many investors, are being hurt by the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest-rate policy. But investors who reach for yield do so at their peril. And when the investments that retirees in any state are relying on involve high costs, opacity and conflicts, that can only increase the hazards.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/how-to-pay-millions-and-lag-behind-the-market.html?ref=business&_r=1&)

EBay gave a disappointing forecast for its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, attributing it to a weaker economic environment in the United States, even though the company reported higher earnings and revenue in the third quarter as consumers made greater use of its PayPal online payment service.

“U.S. e-commerce softened considerably and we have a cautious outlook for the holiday season,” the company’s chief financial officer, Bob Swan, told investors in a conference call.

ShopperTrak, a retail research firm, has forecast the slowest holiday sales growth since 2009, and last week’s data on September retail sales showed American shoppers were cautious. Many retailers had a disappointing second quarter.

EBay expects revenue of $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion for the current quarter, ending Dec. 31, compared with the $4.64 billion forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

“You could certainly point to consumer confidence that took a beating,” said Colin Gillis, a technology analyst at BGC Partners.

Consumer confidence slid last month to its lowest point since May, the Conference Board reported.

EBay said its net income for the third quarter rose 15.4 percent, to $689 million, or 53 cents a share, from $597 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding the benefit of its sales of stakes in two e-commerce companies, RueLaLa and ShopRunner, eBay earned 64 cents, a penny better than analysts had expected.

For the holiday quarter, eBay expects a profit of 79 cents to 81 cents a share, while Wall Street analysts had been forecasting 83 cents.

In the third quarter, eBay said its revenue rose 14.3 percent, to $3.89 billion.

PayPal reported that total payments volume rose 24.7 percent, to $43.8 billion.

EBay said that gross merchandise volume, or the dollar value of merchandise sold on its marketplaces, rose 12.7 percent, to $18.4 billion, in the United States, excluding auto sales.

SAN FRANCISCO — Google has done something few companies ever do in the stock market: it has joined the $1,000 club.

On Friday, Google’s share price jumped above that price for the first time, another milestone in its remarkable ascent from $85 in its public offering in 2004.

On one level, $1,000 is just a number. But on another, it is a reminder of the new order that has taken hold in the technology world in just a few short years — and how far apart the winners are from the losers.

Google closed up 14 percent on Friday, at $1,011.41, after a better-than-expected earnings release late Thursday. The jump brought its gain since its initial offering to roughly 1,100 percent. During the same period, the shares of Amazon.com rose 830 percent. Samsung, which makes smartphones as well as the chips that go into many other manufacturers’ devices, rose 760 percent. And Apple leapt a staggering 3,300 percent.

By comparison, the overall Nasdaq composite rose 120 percent, while Microsoft — 10 years ago the most feared giant in technology — gained just 28 percent.

“Companies away from Google and Apple and a few others increasingly have trouble communicating a value proposition” to shareholders, said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with Gartner. “Only a few big companies are starting to matter.”

These new leaders have focused on Web-based businesses. While the big money in technology used to be in selling to businesses, today’s leaders are oriented toward consumers.

Friday’s gain made Google, already one of the world’s most valuable companies, one of the few in which buying a single share costs more than $1,000. Others include Priceline.com, the online-travel company, and Seaboard, which processes turkeys and hogs.

In some ways, Google’s investors are betting that quantity can beat quality. Google’s challenge has been lower prices for the ads it puts on its own and others’ Web pages. Much of the traditional market for these ads has been saturated, and Google has been trying to put more ads on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Mobile ads tend to make less money because people click on them less often.

But Google executives have emphasized the enormous number of mobile devices on which it now places ads, and indicated that the sheer number of mobile outlets was set to keep growing.

Much of the growth in mobile was initially in the developed world, where ad prices are generally higher. As the use of smartphones and tablets spreads into developing economies, the revenue per user is likely to drop, affecting overall profits unless Google can grow even faster in these markets. For the third consecutive quarter, 55 percent of Google’s revenue came from overseas sources.

Google also appeared to be moving more money through overseas accounts and holding more money overseas, a strategy Apple and others have used to avoid corporate taxes in the United States.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Washington have criticized Apple for its offshore tax strategies. So far, however, the trend among companies seems to be increasing.

“The U.S. corporate tax rate is supposed to be 35 percent, and Google was paying an effective rate of about 15 percent,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial. “It wasn’t like there was a massive reacceleration of Google’s business here.”

Google finished the quarter with $56 billion in cash, held in the United States and overseas. Even the companies trying to compete with Google are starting to draw off their overseas cash, buying foreign companies. These deals include Microsoft’s purchase of the phone assets of Finland’s Nokia for $7.2 billion, and Cisco’s purchase of NDS, a video services company based in Britain, for $5 billion in 2012.

Even eBay’s recent Bill Me Later feature is backstopped with its overseas cash, Mr. Gillis said. “If I was starting a tech company, I’d put it in Luxembourg so I could get bought with a U.S. company’s offshore cash,” he said.

Google’s United States business grew just under 13 percent over the quarter, a low number that analysts ascribe to a maturing business. Google is trying to increase the profitability of its ads by making them more personal, doing things like looking at where people are or what their previous habits have been.

On Friday, Google announced a new partnership with a rival, Facebook, in which it will begin selling ads that can appear on the desktop version of Facebook’s service. It also announced changes to location-based searches in international markets. While this yields more profitable ads for Google, since people are generally more likely to click on things targeted at them, it also can run afoul of privacy advocates and regulators.

Over all, Google’s quarterly numbers showed that its audience was spending more time on mobile devices. The traditional business of people clicking ads on desktop and laptop computers was flat last quarter, according to Search Agency, a digital marketing firm. Clicks on phones more than doubled, the research company said, while tablet clicks were up 63 percent.

Another bright spot in Google’s earnings, though a relatively small one, was Google’s “other” category, believed to consist mostly of sales to businesses of Google Apps, Google’s alternative to Microsoft’s office communications and productivity software. This revenue was $1.23 billion, an increase of 85 percent from the third quarter of 2012.