After a tumultuous year of experimentation, a new, and so far internal, definition of what Wal-Mart stands for will soon become a very public strategy.

Warren E. Buffett said he was seeking a new candidate to become chief investment officer when he steps down.

Hedge Funds Care is one in a growing number of charities that have arisen within the $1.3 trillion world of hedge funds.

Dell?s inability to capture sales in the booming notebook computer market was reflected in its fourth-quarter financial results.

General Motors surprised the auto industry by posting strong sales in February, bolstered by its new Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra.

Vivendi says Deutsche Telekom colluded with a Polish investor to steal its shares in a Polish cellular company, wiping out a $2.5 billion investment.

The deal is the latest in a stream of takeovers for Oracle as it seeks to surpass SAP of Germany in the market for business analysis software.

The European Commission said Microsoft was demanding unreasonable royalties from rivals seeking to link their software to the Windows operating system.

An implanted wireless device did not keep enough patients with weak hearts out of the hospital to prove its effectiveness.

Some advertising executives think point-of-purchase advertising may yield the highest increase in sales.

The rule change comes after complaints about the lack of taste in billboard advertisements by several upstate law firms.

The European Commission will review the merger to determine whether the deal raised the price of recorded music.

Deutsche Telekom posted a loss of nearly 900 million euros ($1.18 billion), prompting the company to look abroad for growth.

Nortel Networks will restate its results for the fourth time in four years, a move that will delay the filing of its 2006 annual report.

The Treasury Secretary said the economy was slowing toward sustained growth, but warned that it could be derailed if trade barriers were raised.

Personal incomes rose in January at the fastest rate in a year, bolstered by bonuses to highly paid executives, but construction activity fell sharply.

The decision marks the breaking down of one of the last barriers to allowing VoIP to fully compete with traditional phone carriers.

Sears reported a 27 percent increase in earnings and Kohl?s said earnings rose 29.3 percent on strong sales of its exclusive brands.

Fourth-quarter profit rose 271 percent, buoyed by the purchase of DreamWorks SKG and DVD sales of ?Over the Hedge.?

A.I.G. posted earnings nearly eight times higher than a year ago, with property and casualty insurance its star performer.

The EchoStar Communications Corporation said fourth-quarter profit rose 15 percent as a result of an increase in subscribers.

Sony agreed to pay the Immersion Corporation $150.3 million to end a patent dispute over technology used in the PlayStation video-game console.

Deloitte nominated James. H. Quigley to succeed its chief executive, William G. Parrett, who will step down in May.

The federal housing secretary rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of the working-class enclave in Brooklyn.

The airplane manufacturer Airbus has stopped work on the freight version of its new A380 superjumbo jet to focus more on the troubled passenger version of the aircraft, a spokesman for its parent company said. The decision came a week after United Parcel Service, the only remaining customer for the freight aircraft, postponed taking delivery of the planes and said it might cancel the order altogether.

The minister of economic and fiscal policy, Hiroko Ota, said there had been little change in price trends in January, after a report showed inflation slowed to zero percent for the first time since May. ?Prices continue to be flat,? Ms. Ota said. Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food, were unchanged from a year earlier, matching the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Household spending climbed 0.6 percent in January, the statistics bureau said, the first increase since December 2005. Economists expected a 0.3 percent drop. The jobless rate was 4 percent, unchanged after the previous month?s figure was revised from 4.1 percent, the agency said.

Ford Motor Company signed a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing its Russian employees, averting a strike in a country that has been a bright spot for the automaker. Sales in Russia are booming; Ford made 60,000 Focus cars in Russia last year and plans to produce 75,000 this year. The company agreed to raise wages 14 percent to 20 percent and to guarantee that jobs will not be lost in outsourcing to subcontractors, according to Aleksei V. Etmanov, the union president.

The Swiss Reinsurance Company, the world?s largest reinsurer, said profit nearly doubled last year because of fewer claims from natural disasters and gains from investments and acquisitions. The company earned 4.56 billion Swiss francs ($3.74 billion) for the year, up from a restated figure of 2.3 billion francs for 2005. Swiss Re also announced a 36 percent increase in its dividend, to 3.40 francs ($2.79) a share, and said it would buy back shares worth up to 6 billion francs ($4.9 billion) over the next three years. Swiss Re said it would buy half of a stake held by General Electric as part of the buyback. G.E. is selling a Swiss Re stake valued at 3.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion), half to Swiss Re and the other half on the open market. G.E. acquired the stake last year when it sold its reinsurance units to Swiss Re.

Reuters - POSCO Co. Ltd. (005490.KS) surged as much as 3.8 percent on Friday after U.S. investor Warren Buffett's firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it owned a 4 percent stake in the South Korean steel maker as of the end of 2006.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc.'s new chief financial officer Gary Crittenden may be paid close to $10 million this year, including as much as $9.5 million in incentive awards, the company said on Thursday.

Stock markets in Asia continue to tumble, following losses in New York - despite gains for China's main index.

China's Communist Party expels nine officials and businessmen over a big Shanghai corruption scandal.

Drugs wholesalers are seeking an injunction to stop Pfizer changing the way it supplies medicine.

JD Wetherspoon says Polish lagers are delivering the fastest sales growth experienced by bottled beers in its UK pubs.

European shares rise in early trade on Friday, after the recent three-day fall in markets across the globe.

German retail sales slumped in January as a VAT rise introduced at the beginning of the year started to bite.

Leisure group Rank is braced for the smoking ban in England and Wales, as sales continue to slide north of the border.

JD Wetherspoon says Polish lagers are delivering the fastest sales growth of any bottled beers in its UK pubs.

Reuters - Troubled Japanese electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. said on Friday it would shoulder with China's Lenovo Group the cost of recalling 205,000 Sanyo-made laptop battery packs that can overheat.

Reuters - Shares in South Korean steel maker POSCO (005490.KS) surged as much as 4.1 percent on Friday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it held a small stake in the firm as of the end of 2006.

Reuters - Google Inc. disclosed in its 2006 annual report on Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly a year ago had called into question how it accounted for income taxes.

YouTube is set to announce a partnership with the BBC to create two entertainment channels and one news channel on YouTube.

The BBC will soon offer trailers, classic clips and news on Google's YouTube video sharing website.

The US has charged 13 people for their alleged role in a $15m insider trading racket involving top lawyers and firms.

German drugs firm Bayer announces 6,100 job cuts worldwide as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

The European Commission will probe its approval of a merger between the music businesses of Sony and Bertelsmann.

The private equity industry agrees to form a voluntary code to try and improve its disclosure.

AP - A better than expected performance from the U.S. manufacturing sector in February helped calm investors on Thursday, even as economists cautioned that one month's worth of data is not a cause for too much optimism.

Reuters - Shares slipped again on Friday on markets still raw from a global sell-off, but the yen's surge paused as the dollar took heart from healthy U.S. factory data.

European shares fall, marking the fourth day of losses, amid a wider trend of global volatility and investor jitters.

The BBC will soon offer trailers, classic clips and news on Google's YouTube video sharing website.

Shares in Airbus parent firm EADS fall by almost 4% after the firm shelves a freight version of its A380 plane.

Japanese computer firm Sanyo says it will share the cost of a laptop battery recall with Chinese firm Lenovo.

Shares in Tesco climb 2% as it emerges that a firm owned by Warren Buffett has a stake in the supermarket chain.

Reuters - UnitedHealth Group Inc. said on Friday it expects to become current with its U.S. financial filings by March 15, which would be a major step as it seeks to recover from a stock options scandal.

Reuters - St Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said on Friday that oil supply shocks need not cause recessions and were no excuse for a central bank to allow inflation to escape its control.

AFP - Retail sales in Germany fell sharply in January as a result of the steep rise in value-added or sales tax (VAT) which came into effect at the start of the month, data showed Friday.

Global shares fall for a fourth day, though the slump that hit markets at the start of the week seem to be slowing.

Billionaire tycoon Warren Buffett outlines a timetable by which he wants most of his $48.4bn fortune donated to charity.

Lloyds TSB, the UK's fifth biggest bank, is closing its call centre in Mumbai - but more back office work is being outsourced to India

The National Consumer Council considers making a 'super-complaint' about the BSkyB-Virgin Media TV row.

Nigeria agrees a deal for US investment bank Merrill Lynch to take on most of its $500m debt.

After four years of strong growth, investors appear to have become too complacent about risks.

Most employees have precious little ammunition going into a meeting to talk about their pay, but a few Web sites are trying to level the playing field.

The last remaining customer for the cargo version of the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet said today that it was cancelling its order for 10 planes.

Federal authorities exposed one of the most far-reaching insider trading schemes on Wall Street in decades.

Reuters - The global flight from risk knocked precious metals again on Friday, with gold falling below $650 an ounce for the first time in three weeks as shaky global stock markets prompted investors to reduce positions in commodities.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Friday, setting Wall Street on course for its worst week in more than four years, as the diminishing appetite for riskier assets fueled a further rout in global equity markets.

Reuters - Shares of Gap Inc. fell as much as 4.9 percent on Friday, a day after the apparel company reported a lower quarterly profit and said 2007 would be a transition year with earnings well short of Wall Street expectations.

Reuters - Policy-makers assured nervous investors on Friday that the United States was not heading into recession and stock market losses did not warrant central bank intervention.

Reuters - American International Group Inc. shares rose in midday trading on Friday after the world's largest insurer reported late Thursday that earnings in the latest fourth quarter were nearly eight times higher than the year earlier net.

Audi has been narrowing the gap with BMW and Mercedes in the high-end market, becoming Germany?s, and the world?s, fastest-growing luxury carmaker.

After four years of strong growth, investors appear to have become too complacent about risks.

Global shares fall for a fourth day as Wall Street heads for its worst week in more than four years.

The EU and US take a large step towards a deal that will open the airline industry to greater competition.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that recent financial market volatility does not necessarily reflect strong fundamentals in the U.S. economy, nor those of the developing Chinese economy.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Friday, capping their worst week in more than four years, as a rapidly diminishing appetite for risk fueled the latest leg of a global equities sell-off.

Reuters - The global flight from risk knocked gold and silver hard for a third straight day on Friday, with bullion falling below $640 an ounce for the first time in 1-1/2 months as funds and currency investors cashed out on precious metals to pay for losses in other markets.

Reuters - Policy-makers assured nervous investors on Friday that the United States was not heading into recession and recent stock market losses did not warrant central bank intervention.

There are two Howard Schultzes. One loves the smaller, more personal chain that Starbucks once was. The other understands Wall Streets? needs.

UK music group EMI rejects a £2.1bn takeover from Warner Music as too low.

Share prices ended the week where they have spent seven of the last nine days: in the red.

Most employees have precious little ammunition going into a meeting to talk about their pay, but a few Web sites are trying to level the playing field.

Home prices are not very far below peak levels in most markets, but continued weakness could change that.

EMI said Warner Music?s cash offer was not in the best interests of shareholders and placed too low a value on the company.

The sharpest reversals of fortune in the stock market could be experienced in what have been some of the hottest sectors.

I?ve decided to just go ahead and put these unrelated, but (in my mind) burning issues into a potpourri.

Everyone knows that income earned from online auctions is taxable. But should sites like eBay be responsible for policing their users?

All those people who have been arguing for years that the price of gold is going to increase drastically may finally be correct.

Worries about the global economy rattled stock markets around the world this week, paring billions from the value of investors? holdings.

Consumer sentiment fell further than previously estimated in February, as concerns over incomes and jobs in a slowing economy weighed on confidence.

Reuters - Motorola Inc.'s board will not endorse a nomination of billionaire financier Carl Icahn to join the board, the company said in a document filed with regulators late on Friday.

Reuters - Aeroflex Inc. , which provides technology solutions to the aerospace and other markets, said it agreed to be acquired by private equity firms General Atlantic and Francisco Partners for about $1.0 billion.

Authorities are investigating stock sales and accounting errors at the New Century Financial Corporation, which specializes in subprime lending.

The lawsuit that could allow energy companies to avoid as much as $60 billion in royalties to the government over the next two decades.

An ?open skies? agreement would deregulate the trans-Atlantic airline market, and could lower fares.

Audi has been narrowing the gap with BMW and Mercedes in the high-end market, becoming Germany?s, and the world?s, fastest-growing luxury carmaker.

A government decision that said the Air Force should reopen competition on a recent contract is a stunning reversal of fortune for Boeing.

Regulators froze more than $5.3 million that they suspect may be profits from insider trading of TXU stock options.

The proposal by federal regulators comes as subprime mortgages have come under stress and scrutiny.

A New Jersey jury ruled that Merck failed to provide adequate warning about the risks of its Vioxx painkiller in one of two cases decided.

David J. O?Reilly, Chevron?s chairman and chief executive, spoke about the challenges oil companies face, the company?s recent ads and the lack of an energy policy in the U.S.

Reuters - Aeroflex Inc. , which makes microelectronics for the telecommunications, aerospace and defense markets, said on Friday it struck a deal to be bought by private equity firms General Atlantic and Francisco Partners for about $1 billion.