COMPANIES

FBR Capital Markets said that according to its store checks over the Christmas weekend, promotions at the mall continue to be aggressive.

Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) said Tuesday it will close as many as 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears Full-line stores after holiday sales of consumer electronics and apparel declined in the U.S.

As early as 2000, U.S. health authorities raised concerns about the French breast implant maker at the heart of a scandal affecting hundreds of thousands of women worldwide. That was almost ten years before the company came under scrutiny from European regulators.

Virgin Group owner, Richard Branson has slammed a $270 million acquisition deal by rival company, International Airlines Group (IAG) saying that the approval of the deal will mean higher prices for flyers.

Italy's antitrust body has fined units of U.S. technology group Apple Inc a total of 900,000 euros for failing to adequately inform customers about their rights to product guarantees and assistance.

A well-known expert on mobile phone security says vulnerability in a widely used wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control of phones, leading to new scam.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics aims to raise its global handset sales by 15 percent next year by boosting its smartphone sales, putting it in a closer race with bigger rival Nokia.

A panel reviewing the auditing of Olympus Corp after its $1.7 billion accounting scandal said it had so far not found any problems with the work of Ernst & Young's Japanese arm and questioned the accuracy of a separate investigation critical of auditors.

Shoppers found a mixed bag of bargains and so-so deals on Monday, as a day off for many Americans lured some out for what was likely to be the third-busiest shopping day of the holiday season.

Computer maker ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is expected to hit the U.S. market in 2012 but a rumor suggests the 32GB Amethyst Gray version could be made available to certain pre-ordered customers after Christmas.

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to Samsung for $940 million, the Korean firm said on Monday, as Sony struggles to staunch red ink at its TV business.

GoDaddy, a giant domain name registrar, has announced that it is no longer supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act otherwise known as SOPA, which is now making its way through U.S. Congress.

U.S. security think tank Strategic Forecasting Inc said its website had been hacked and that some of the names of corporate subscribers had been made public.

Sometimes, New York feels like its own country. Even as the rest of the U.S. struggles in the face of a down housing market, the New York of 2011 saw skyscrapers charge ever upwards, with pricing inevitably following. It is truly the global city, with developers, buyers and architects from around the world gathering to shape the future. Here are five of the biggest developments of 2011.

What’s ahead for 2012? Obviously, change, some for the better and others for worse. Fortunately, the Island’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent from 7.2 percent a year ago, the state labor department said. But its principal Long Island economist, Michael Crowell, said that may reflect a declining work force, with too many “discouraged workers” who’ve given up looking.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) announced a planned deposit of about $1.6 billion into its litigation escrow account, which also serves as a share buyback under Visa's retrospective responsibility plan.

This year saw Android smartphones grow by leaps and bounds and Google Inc. release the latest version of its Operating System - Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich - in the latter half of the year.

Nokia's best high-end smartphone - the Lumia 800 - which is the fruit of its partnership with Microsoft is rumored to hit the U.S. market in January 2012. It will, however, face heavy competition from Samsung's Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, which has more specifications when compared to Lumia 800.

Enfamil Pulled from Shelves: Alternative Infant Feeding Formulas

Yahoo Inc's board of directors has agreed to keep exploring a plan to split off the Internet company's Asian assets in a complex deal valued at $17 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Refineries in the Northeast are closing their doors, and as a result, more than half of the area's petroleum refining capacity will be reduced. The reduction is likely to be problematic for ultra-low sulfur diesel, gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel supplies.

Canadian regulators have approved Enbridge Inc's plans to build a new C$180 million ($176 million) pipeline to move oil out of the underserved but prolific Bakken and Three Forks oilfields.

Via Motors spokesman David West offers a bold comparison for his company's latest line of electric vehicles: the iPhone.

A grand jury on Passaic County, N.J. on Tuesday, indicted Joe Guidice, a former developer, on charges that include wrongfully using identifying information of another and impersonation. The first charge reportedly carries as sentence of up to 10 years in prison while the second charge carries an 18-month prison term.

Best Buy cancelled/delayed some of its Black Friday online orders, citing overwhelming demand in November and December. The company admitted its shortcomings to FOX 9 and said it was very sorry for the inconvenience to its customers.

A former unit of General Electric Co. (GE) agreed to pay $70.35 million to U.S. regulators to resolve complaints about the company's role in anticompetitive activity in the municipal bond investments market.

A lawyer working on behalf of physical commodity account-holders at bankrupt broker-dealer MF Global has worked out an agreement with a major gold futures merchant that will unfreeze their assets. However, that's not great solace to the account-holders, who have lost big in the bankruptcy.

Singer Michael Buble is taking his Christmas spirit into the virtual realm, collaborating with popular Facebook game CityVille and giving an interactive gift to his fans over the holidays.