Sony Buys Ericsson’s Stake in Phone Venture

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota October 27, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT By Jonathan Browning and Mariko Yasu (Adds Ericsson CEO comments starting in seventh paragraph.)Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. agreed to buy Ericsson AB’s 50 percent stake in their 10-year-old mobile-phone venture to integrate the smartphone business with its gaming and tablet offerings.Ericsson will get 1.05 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in cash for its shares in Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, the Stockholm-based company said today. The proceeds from the deal are higher than the book value of Ericsson’s...

Read More

Canadian businesses score poorly on succession planning

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota After a lot of blood, sweat, tears and long nights, your small business is thriving. Smart planning helped you get through the recession, and you managed to avoid some of the most common mistakes on the road to building a profitable enterprise. You’ve done well, but one day you start to think it might be nice to step back and do something else.The only problem is that so much time and energy went into getting the business up and running, you never stopped to think about when you might be ready to hand over the reins. So now what?According to TD Waterhouse's...

Read More

Greeks Fear They Are Losing Their Sovereignty

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Nikolas Giakoumidis/AP A teacher walks by during a parade in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Thursday. Parades were held across Greece on Thursday to mark the 61st anniversary of the country's resistance to Axis forces, which dragged Greece into World War II. Some bystanders also seized the opportunity to shout anti-austerity slogans.World markets rallied Thursday after European leaders agreed on a plan to deal with the eurozone debt crisis....

Read More

Tainted Aqua Dot beads leads to $1.3 M fine

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota The U.S. government slapped a hefty $1.3 million fine on a Toronto-based toy company that sold popular arts-and-crafts beads that were linked to a dangerous drug and sickened about a dozen children.The civil penalty, announced Thursday, marks the third largest toy-related fine issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.The Aqua Dots toy beads were imported by Spin Master in 2007 and recalled after tests showed they were coated with a chemical that, when ingested, can metabolize into the so-called "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB)....

Read More

Irish Spy Opportunity in Greece’s Debt Hole

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota October 27, 2011, 7:02 AM EDT By Dara Doyle (For more on Europe’s debt crisis, see EXT4.)Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Greece’s difficulty paying its debts may turn out to be Ireland’s opportunity.Greece’s failure to cut spending and boost revenue by enough to meet targets set by the European Union and International Monetary Fund prompted bondholders to accept a 50 percent loss on its debt. While Ireland won’t seek debt discounts, the government might pursue other relief given to Greece, including cheaper interest payments on aid and longer to repay it,...

Read More

City bonuses seen falling 38 percent

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota LONDON | Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:20am BST LONDON (Reuters) - Bonuses in London's finance sector for this year will likely fall 38 percent, reaching lows not seen for nearly a decade and sharply reducing the tax take collected on the payouts, according to an economic thinktank.The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) slashed its forecast for 2011 bonuses, having initially predicted they would be up 6 percent on the 6.7 billion pounds awarded for 2010.It now estimates the bonus pot in London's financial industry, known as the City, will come...

Read More

Ericsson to leave Sony Ericsson

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Sony Ericsson's Android-based Xperia smartphones, such as the Xperia Play, account for more than 80 per cent of its sales. Manu Fernandez/Associated Press LM Ericsson and Sony Corp. announced Thursday they will go separate ways as Ericsson sells its 50 per cent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson to Sony for 1.05 billion euros($1.46 billion).Sony Ericsson will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and integrated into Sony's broad platform of...

Read More

David Carr: The News Diet Of A Media Omnivore

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Enlarge Mario Tama/Getty Images "We are entering a golden age of journalism," says David Carr of The New York Times. "I look at my backpack ... and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30-40 years ago." Mario Tama/Getty Images "We are entering a golden age of journalism," says David Carr of The New York Times. "I look at my backpack ... and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom...

Read More

Air Canada expanding Montreal call centre

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Air Canada says the expansion of its Montreal customer service call centre will create more than 150 new jobs.Canada's largest air carrier says it has filled 50 positions in October and will add another 100 jobs in the next few months.The expansion will boost the Montreal call centre's workforce to more than 250 people.Air Canada operates other Canadian call centres in Saint John, N.B., Toronto and Winnipeg.Its U.S. call centre is in Tampa, Fla.Career AdvisorfNew Automob...

Read More

Deficit-Cutting Supercommittee: 'We're Not There Yet'

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota The 12-member supercommittee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts next month met publicly for the first time in six weeks Wednesday — and agreed on little more than the fact that time is indeed growing short for them to approve a deal. Co-chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said a lot of hard work has been done to find common ground and agree on a balanced, bipartisan plan for deficit reduction. But, she added, "We're not there yet." Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use....

Read More

U.S. economy grows 2.5% in third quarter

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota The U.S. economy grew modestly over the summer after nearly stalling in the first six months of the year, lifted by stronger consumer spending and greater business investment.The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent in the July—September quarter.That's the strongest growth in a year and nearly double the 1.3 per cent growth in the April—June quarter. It's also a vast improvement over the anemic 0.9 per cent growth for the entire first half of the year.While 2.5 per cent growth is enough to ease...

Read More

Cameron Says London Is Under ’Constant Attack’ From Brussels

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota October 28, 2011, 4:09 AM EDT By Gonzalo Vina Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said London’s financial center is under “constant attack” from bureaucrats in Brussels and he will seek to prevent closer integration by countries using the euro from hurting the City.This week’s agreement to bolster the euro area’s defenses against the sovereign debt crisis will lead to “more meetings alone” and the prospect of “caucusing” among the 17 nations that share the single currency, he said.That will increase chances that decisions taken...

Read More

Norway 'Oil Fund' hit by euro zone crisis

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota OSLO | Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:37am BST OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund experienced its second-weakest quarter in its history as Europe's debt crisis and a fear of a worldwide recession weighed on stocks in the third quarter, Europe's biggest equity investor said on Friday.The fund's return on investment was -8.8 percent in the quarter, against 0.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.The value of the central bank-run fund stood at 3.055 trillion Norwegian crowns at the end of the third quarter, down from 3.111 trillion at the end of...

Read More

European Stocks Gain as Renault Climbs; U.S. Index Futures Fall

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota October 28, 2011, 4:24 AM EDT By Adam Haigh Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index extending its best month since April 2009, as the region’s debt deal and results from Renault SA to Electrolux AB reassured investors that the global recovery is intact. Asian shares increased, while U.S. index futures slid.Renault, France’s second-biggest carmaker, gained 4.5 percent as third-quarter sales topped analysts’ estimates. Electrolux surged 7.5 percent as the Swedish maker of household appliances reported net income...

Read More

Arthritis costs Canada $33B a year

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in Canada, putting serious strain on public health care and the economy, according to a new report.Thursday's report by the Arthritis Alliance of Canada estimated that osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis costs the Canadian economy $33 billion last year in direct health-care costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity. Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory joint disease. iStockThe...

Read More