COMPANIES

Officials from major New York property owners said 2011 office leasing activity was strong, despite broader economic concerns, in a panel at the Goldman Sachs Commercial Real Estate Symposium in Lower Manhattan on Thursday.

Over 650,000 Groupon’s were sold between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the holiday store “Grouponicus,” according to a blog post by Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason.

Current Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam will take on a new role as Chairman of the Board in January as recently retired CEO Ivan Seidenberg will step down as a director, the company announced Thursday.

Shares of Barnes & Noble fell more than 16 percent as the New York-based company posted a $6.6 million loss in the fiscal second quarter due to sagging book sales, resulting in a loss of 17 cents a share.

Discover Financial Services (DFS), one of the largest card issuers in the U.S., found a new way to promote its credit card. The company announced Thursday it has partnered with social game developer, Zynga Inc., to help launch an expanded version of FarmVille -- Winter Wonderland.

After record sales and traffic on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2011, retailers reported November sales that matched November estimates, as some retailers impressed while others fell behind.

Sasol Ltd. is planning to add a multibillion ethane cracker and ethylene-derivative project to its Lake Charles facility in Louisiana, in part to leverage on the rapid development of shale gas in North America.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) announced Thursday the reduction of fixed interest rates for many of its private student loans, as the company tries to coincide with peak season and appeal to graduates interested in consolidating their student loan debt, as well as those who are in the midst of obtaining financing for second semester coursework.

U.S. manufacturing expanded at a faster rate in November and the overall economy grew for the 30th consecutive month, according to a closely watched index released Thursday.

United Continental wins the FAA's green light to operate as a single airline.

Kroger Co , the biggest U.S. supermarket chain, raised its forecast for 2011 earnings, helped by strong sales increases at established stores.

Ranbaxy Laboratories said on Thursday it has launched the first generic version of the cholesterol-lowering Lipitor in the U.S., the largest selling drug of all time, sending its shares surging over 11 percent.

Latest data on the number of Americans who filed new applications for federal unemployment benefits rose for a second straight week and once again moved above the key 400,000 mark -- the level at which some economists take to mean the economy has to add more jobs than it is shedding. The labor market is still weak, even during the holiday season.

The business, which includes pipelines and processing stations that remove valuable crude-like liquids from gas, owns or has rights to about 4,000 kilometers of pipeline systems and 21 million barrels of storage capacity.

The developments in AT&T's (NYSE:T) attempt to buy T-Mobile over the past week have overshadowed Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) and Clearwire's (NASDAQ:CLWR) behind the scenes effort to salvage their relationship in the form of a new agreement by Sprint to wholesale future LTE capacity from Clearwire.

Bombardier, the world's third biggest commercial planemaker, reported a third-quarter net profit of $192 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $147 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago.

Boeing, Co. (NYSE:BA) and the IAM 751 (Machinists) reached an agreement on a 4-year contract extension that will be in effect until September 2016.

The 42nd Tokyo Motor Show will open to the general public on Dec. 3. However, there are two press days, the second of which will be on Dec. 1.

Netflix, the online DVD rental firm, is in trouble as it is losing subscribers since it raised its prices in September, a move that will force it to spend more on marketing and report a loss in 2012, triggering investor concerns over its business model.

A year after four hedge funds were raided as part of a sweeping probe into insider trading, agents are ready to arrest as many as three people who worked at the raided funds, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters.

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T) and BMW AG (BMWG.DE) said on Thursday that they would work together on a broad range of advanced environment-friendly car technologies, including the joint development of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki, India's top car maker, said sales in November fell 18.5 percent, as the troubled carmaker recovered, partially, from a 53 percent fall in October.

India's manufacturing sector expansion slowed in November as factory output grew at its slowest pace in nearly three years although export demand should provide some cheer for factories.

Getco LLC, an electronic market maker and high-frequency trading specialist, on Wednesday said it agreed to buy Bank of America Corp's floor-trading operations at the New York Stock Exchange, significantly expanding its market-making operations.

The former chief executive of disgraced Olympus Corp, Michael Woodford, launched a campaign on Thursday to oust the board of directors, reclaim his old job and bring in his own team to save the Japanese firm from a big accounting scandal.

The former chief executive of Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp, Michael Woodford, launched a campaign on Thursday to oust the board of directors, reclaim his old job and install his own team to save the firm from a big accounting scandal.

The U.S. population 65 and older is now the largest in terms of size and percent of the population, compared with any previous census, according to the new 2010 Census data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The group grew at a faster rate than the total population between 2000 and 2010.

In an interview with the Dow Jones Newswires, the chief executive at the Irish low-cost airline said he had just returned from touring the Shanghai factory where the Commercial Airline Corporation of China, a government entity, is building a 199-seat competitor to the single-aisle Boeing A320. He was impressed.

AT&T and the parent company of T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom, are considering a joint venture that would pool network assets from the two wireless carriers in case the $39 billion merger doesn't go through, sources close to the situation tell the Wall Street Journal.