BUSINESS

Social media is now a $16.9 billion business, according to 2012 estimates by Gartner.

Based on analyst estimates, Merck & Co. will report earnings of $1.01 a share on sales of about $12.16 billion -- an increase of 0.1 percent from the year-earlier quarter. The company posts its second-quarter earnings on Friday, before the opening bell.

The Bush tax cuts are only one part of the problem.

The alleged gunman behind the Aurora massacre sent a package to a Colorado psychiatrist that depicted stick figures shooting other stick figures and other illustrations of the massacre, according to Fox News.

The short answer: Many companies lie about their earnings results.

Most Apple fans couldn't wait to download OS X Mountain Lion, the eighth iteration of the OS X software line for Mac, and as a result, the Mac App Store was flooded early Wednesday morning with download requests for the $19.99 upgrade. Most early adopters of Mountain Lion love the beast, but most major software upgrades are not without their fair share of bugs, issues, errors and omissions. Would OS X Mountain Lion suffer the same fate?

Investors in Facebook stock are bracing themselves for something wild. The market is bracing for big swings in Facebook Inc (FB.O) shares after the social media company reports earnings for the first time as a public company.

80 new prisoners enter the country’s prison system every day. Under Iran’s penal code, more than 1600 separate offenses are punishable by imprisonment.

The EU is looking into the possibility of making Libor and Euribor rate-rigging -- the deliberate manipulation of interest rates that set the benchmark for over $500 trillion in financial contracts - a criminal offense.

A video involving a brutal 2008 near death attack on a sea world trainer by a wild whale was released in court and is now being used as evidence in an investigation for the Sea World vs US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Trial. During a show at San Diego Park's Sea World, a veteran trainer, 39-year-old Kenneth Peters was bitten and continuously held underwater by a 7,000 pound killer whale, 28-year-old female named Kasatka.

Even if the Democratic-backed plan to allow the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans advances in the Senate on Wednesday, it has little chance of becoming law if Republicans continue to hold the House.

Rumors have begun to surface that Android Jelly Bean will be released for Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in the near future. On Friday SamMobile reported that the company had begun testing the new operating system on its S2 and S3 devices, and now a photo has surfaced.

There's always a big buzz whenever Apple releases new hardware or software - or really, any time Apple does anything publicly - and today is no different. Apple released OS X Mountain Lion this morning, which is the eighth edition of its OS X software for Mac. Many will have upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion by now, but others are waiting to know if Mountain Lion is worth upgrading to immediately. Here's why you should wait.

Shares of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) soared Wednesday after it said Mexico's Aeroméxico will buy as many as 100 single- and twin-aisle airplanes in a deal with a nominal value of $10.8 billion.

Apple promised a July release date for OS X Mountain Lion, the eighth edition of Apple's OS X software for Mac, and the company came through. As confirmed by Apple's fourth quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday evening, OS X Mountain Lion promptly released on Wednesday for $19.99. The upgrade is exclusively downloadable via the Mac App Store.

Former Citigroup chief executive Sanford I. Weill, one of the most important players in the deregulatory push of the 1990s that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and allowed the formation of too big to fail banks, said on CNBC Wednesday morning that the nation's financial supermarkets should be split up by government mandate.

The UK government (which represents England and Wales) is expected to pass same-sex marriage by 2015.

This time, China's bid is unlikely to be blocked by the government, as its attempted takeover of Unocal was seven years ago

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), the largest maker of construction and mining equipment, reported a 67 percent jump in its second-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates and boosted its full-year outlook as demand increased from North American builders and overseas miners.

Apple shares tumbled 5 percent in after hours trading on Tuesday after the tech giant announced lower-than-expected sales of its flagship iPhone.

Sunshine Heart, Arm Holdings, Seadrill Ltd, Qiagen NV, Johnson & Johnson, Netflix, Apple Inc, LivePerson and Deutsche Bank AG are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Wednesday.

The whistleblower case between Infosys, India's second largest IT services exporter, and one of its employees in the U.S. would go to trial next month as a mediation conference Tuesday fell through.

The hits kept coming for Penn State on Tuesday when State Farm, an official sponsor of the football program, announced it would no longer sponsor the team.

Thirty years ago (ironically, about the same time Mubarak seized power in Egypt), the Taiwanese initiated the path towards forming a democratic state.

Asian stock markets declined Wednesday as mounting concerns over the euro zone debt crisis continued to weigh on the sentiment while disappointing earnings from Apple hit tech shares.

The U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower opening Wednesday as investor confidence continued to be dragged down with no resolution to the euro zone crisis visible on the horizon.

Most European markets fell Wednesday as investors continued to have concerns of the worsening economic conditions in the euro zone.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Tuesday were Riverbed Technology Inc, Ancestry.com inc, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc, Altera Corporation and iRobot Corporation Inc.The top after-market Nasdaq losers were Netflix, Inc, Buffalo Wild Wings Inc, TripAdvisor Inc, Amyris Inc and Horizon Technology Finance Corporation.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Tuesday were Unisys Corp, Tempur-pedic International, McEwen Mining, InvenSense and Sanchez Energy Corp. The top after-market NYSE losers were DigitalGlobe, Genco Shipping & Trading, International Game Technology, Crestwood Midstream Partners and Owens & Minor.