COMPANIES

Richard Parsons will step down as chairman of Citigroup Inc. at its annual meeting in April and be succeeded by Michael O'Neill, the former CEO of the Bank of Hawaii Corp., Citigroup said on Friday.

BP PLC and plaintiffs in the largest lawsuit filed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 have agreed on the terms of a proposed class settlement, according to an order signed late Friday by the judge handling the case.

General Motors has halted production of its Chevrolet Volt electric car in the face of missed sales goals in 2011 and the early months of 2012, sources report. Production will be halted from March 19 to April 23, and 1,300 employees at its Detroit-Hamtramck factory will be temporarily laid off.

Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) reported on Friday a 4.2 percent increase in its fiscal fourth quarter profits, beating analysts' expectations through high demand for its discounted products.

Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons will resign from his post and the banking giant's board, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Parson, who joined the board in 1996, has reportedly told fellow directors he won't stand for re-election at Cit's annual meeting in April.

Yelp stock was traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the first time on Friday, March 2. The stock, which is listed under the ticker symbol YELP, opened at $22.01 a share and quickly rose in value to $24.40 a share in just a few hours. The question now is whether YELP stock will continue to rise in the foreseeable future, or if the online company's stock value will soon begin to drop.

Michael McKibben convinced a jury that Facebook infringed on his patented technology for social media sharing, but was unable to show the patent was valid. A federal appeals court will hear McKibben's appeal Monday.

Wal-Mart and Target are among some two dozen retailers that have teamed up to claim a share of the fast-developing business of turning smartphones into virtual wallets.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), the world's biggest heavy machinery maker, will pay about $447 million to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to gain sole control of their joint venture, Caterpillar Japan Ltd.

Toyota's February sales in China, where the auto maker aims to double business by 2015, went up 51.3 percent. Toyota is seeking to push its Chinese sales past 1 million units this year.

Shares of Yelp (NYSE: YELP) the San Francisco-based review Web site, soared as much as 73 percent to $26 in their first hour of trading Friday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (NYSE: BUD) and two Chinese brewers are in the hunt for the operations on sale by China's Kingway Brewery Holdings.

AT&T has advised its mobile-device customers that those among the top 5 percent of data users will have to start paying more for monthly service . Smartphone customers who download 3 gigabytes of data monthly qualify and will be subjected to slower service.

Shares of Yelp (NYSE: YELP), the San Francisco-based review website, soared 61 percent in their first hour of trading Friday.

Toyota recorded a 12 percent rise in U.S. auto sales in February, driven by double-digit increases for Camry and Prius models as well as a 60 percent jump in sales of all hybrids. Sales of the Japanese auto maker's trucks declined, however, last month.

Microsoft Wednesday unveiled the Windows 8 Customer Preview during a side event to the Mobile World Congress at the Hotel Miramar in Barcelona and will reportedly be pushing out tablets running on the latest operating system soon.

Yelp, the San Francisco-based review website, raised $107 million in its initial public offering and priced its shares $1 above prior expectations.

Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX), the world's biggest coffeehouse chain, plans to grab market share from Switzerland-based food giant Nestle SA in the area of instant coffee and increase the number of Starbucks stores in Germany to more than 1,000 from 150, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Friday.

The newly launched Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview sparked up with one million times download in 24 hours after being released.

Nokia 808 PureView with its 41 MP camera is great competition for Lumia 900, another great Nokia smartphone. Check out the features of both Nokia phones and see how they stack up against each other.

Apple is all set to launch the next generation iPad 3 with some breathtaking features March 7. Experts and Apple tablet lovers have started predicting the future of existing and the upcoming tablets.

As Apple gearing up for the release of its next generation iPhone, presumably named the iPhone 5, amazing hype surrounds the smartphone with rumors confounding customers about when the device will finally be launched and what the features will be on board.

Yelp Inc, the online reviews service, has priced its initial public offering at $15 per share, which is above its expected range of $12 to $14.

Eastman Kodak Co has announced that it has agreed to sell its online photo services to Shutterfly for US$23.8 million.

Janus Capital Group cut the pay of its chief executive sharply last year and put new compensation guidelines in place after it lost a shareholder "Say on Pay" vote, the Denver asset manager said in a proxy filing on Thursday.

Shares of Apple (NYSE: AAPL) spent all of Friday above the $500 billion market capitalization mark as they also set a new record of $545.18.

The U.S. Navajo Nation has sued Urban Outfitters Inc. for trademark violations and licensing discrepancies in regard to products offered in its retail stores and online.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the world’s biggest chipmaker, put $100 million into a venture capital fund intended to make cars smarter.

The soon-to-be available electric Tesla Model S sedan will not experience permanent battery failure that has been reported in earlier Tesla models, like the Roadster, whose batteries completed discharged and could not be recharged, the manufacturer said.