COMPANIES

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday said it plans to sell $4.5 billion in American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) shares, further cutting its ownership stake in the bailed-out insurer.

The French government has seized the mansion and several other assets belonging to the son of Equatorial Guinea's ruler on charges of money laundering.

Shares of U.S. banks of all sizes and specialties rose Friday over 3 percent, handily beating the performance of the wider stock market, which itself was in a head-first rally following a week of disappointing news. But there was one big exception to the equity party: megabank JPMorgan Chase and Co. (NYSE:JPM), which looked poised to underperform its peers in late-afternoon trading.

Viacom's total revenue declined by 14 percent in the fiscal third quarter, leading to a net profit loss of 7 percent to $534 million. The dip is mainly due to declines in its film and TV properties, which include Paramount Pictures, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Smartphone supply, component and repair sites like Gotta Be Mobile and iFixyouri have previously posted images and videos of alleged iPhone 5 prototypes, but never did those sites fully compare the new model to the iPhone 4S. On Friday, ETrade Supply posted a highly-detailed photo and video comparison between the iPhone 5 prototype and iPhone 4S components from Apple, which just may be the most convincing photo evidence of the iPhone 5 we have to-date.

The Indian woman who hogged international fame after she gate-crashed India's parade at the London Olympic's opening ceremony embarrassing the organizers and her country apologized on Friday for her action.

The peak weeks are now behind us and the number of earnings reports we get each week will now drift lower.

The firm at the center of a software glitch that prompted highly irregular trading patterns Wednesday morning in shares of more than 100 New York Stock Exchange issues is hanging on by a thread.

Dr. Lynne Fenton and the rest of the University of Colorado's threat team failed to notify police about their concerns with James Holmes and fell out of contact with him after he dropped out of the school.

Mountain Lion includes updates to Safari and also incorporates a number of features from its iOS system, but the most important update of all is AirPlay Mirroring. Even though it's not being discussed as much, this is the unique feature to watch out for in the near future.

Twitter was abuzz early Thursday morning with two hashtags carrying the same message: The next iPhone -- the iPhone 5 -- may cost $800. The rumors came from online gaming site GameNGuide, but unfortunately, this is the sole illegitimate source causing the confusion in today's news. Nobody knows the true price of the iPhone 5, but its starting price will almost certainly not be $800.

The 2013 Porsche Boxster S offers the most fun and best performance of any roadster for under $100,000.

Sony reported far greater losses than the struggling company initially expected in its latest quarterly report. Still mired in the process of restructuring the company, how will Kazuo Hirai still carry through his vision for "One Sony?"

This week has been good for Apple users who were presented with several options for watching video on their iPad. After the news of Hulu Plus being available on Apple, Amazon announced that Amazon?s video app will also be available for free download on Apple iTunes. The only other tablet that this app was available on was Kindle Fire and there were expectations that it would be made available on android tablets like Nexus 7.

Knight Capital Group Inc is being forced to raise money after an erroneous trading position wiped out $440 million of its capital, the firm said on Thursday, causing its shares to shed more than half of their value.

Mac users have been able to play with Apple's newest big cat, OS X Mountain Lion, for exactly one week now. While most users report a seamless, fluid experience, the fact remains that this is the fourth time in one week that I've needed to publish a story about new bugs, problems and issues that new Mountain Lion adopters are experiencing with their Macs.

Facebook, the world's largest social media platform, might have more than 83 million fake users, according to company filings published this week.

Massive oil and gas companies don't usually give away free gas, but Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE: RDS.A) will be making some Southern California drivers very happy, at least if they drive hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV).

It may be hard to encapsulate in words, but consumers know when they're looking at something in a product that Apple did first.

Research in Motion (RIM.TO) refuted on Wednesday a new round of Indian media reports, which claim that the BlackBerry maker has granted the government the encryption keys to its secure corporate email and messaging services.

Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) reported on Wednesday July U.S. car sales up 26.1 percent to 164,898 as the company continued to recover from last year's natural disasters.

Japan's big three, Nissan, Toyota and Honda gained big in sales while Ford and GM had lackluster showings.

Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) reported on Wednesday July U.S. sales rose 45.3 percent to 116,944 as the Japanese automaker continues its robust recovery from last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan and flooding in Thailand.

Hyundai Motor Co. (Seul: 005380) reported on Wednesday July U.S. car sales up 4 percent to 62,021 vehicles, the company's best July ever despite constrained inventory for the Korean automaker.

If Apple plans to release the iPad Mini to the masses at the same time as the iPhone 5, Apple could run into the biggest crowds in the history of the company. And that's not necessarily a good thing. Assuming Apple unveils the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini at the same time, will the release dates for both devices be the same?

Nissan Motor Co. (Tokyo: 7201) reported on Wednesday U.S. July Car sales up 16.2 percent over the year before on strong demand for cars, particularly the Altima and Rogue models.

Volkswagen AG (Frankfurt: VOW) reported on Wednesday July U.S. car sales rose 2.3 percent, the company's best July U.S. sales since 1973 during the hey-day of the VW Bus.

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) on Wednesday reported July U.S. car sales fell 6 percent compared with the year before as retail sales fell modestly and fleet sales plummeted.

Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old American swimming star who has warmed the hearts of millions around the world with her charismatic personality and strong performance at the Olympics, including a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.