COMPANIES

British water company Pennon Group reported a 0.7 percent rise in its first-half pretax profit due to higher demand for water from summer usage and asset sale of its water utilities business South West Water but said looking forward, South West Water is well placed to outperform the assumptions for the K5 (2010-2015) period.

Ford Motors co has trimmed its debt by more than $1.9 billion, by converting some debt to common stock that will be issued Nov. 30.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rolled out their mileage ratings for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and has given 93 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving while running on electricity alone.

German luxury carmaker Audi AG has set plans to venture into electric car business. The company plans to become the leading premium seller of electric vehicles by 2020.

J. Crew's takeover has boosted the stock prices of several other retailers, possibly because this acquisition is stoking M&A interest in the broad sector.

comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), an internet marketing research company, said it expects online shopping to increase by 11 percent this holiday season.

German giant T-Systems announced the launch of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), a service which is billed to take on Amazon's EC2, for free during the pilot phase.

Threats of violence and bodily harm to judges, who hear Social Security disability cases, have increased from claimants angry over being denied benefits or frustrated at lengthy delays in processing claims.

After Google plugged the life support out of its real-time collaboration tool Wave in August, the open-sourcers' Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has stepped in to give Wave a new lease of life.

The brokerage lowered its price target on shares of the apparel retailer to $45 from $46.

Apple iPad has topped the electronic gadget wish list of kids aged 6-12, beating probables like Nintendo and Sony PlayStation game consoles.

Commonly known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. is considered one of the biggest retail days of the year. Most shops in the country start as early as 5 AM and stay open till late, offering massive discounts. Gadgets still top the list among the most sought after category of goods.

More Americans will be traveling to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, all thanks to improving economic scenario in the country.

The employee who was sacked by Google for divulging information regarding employee salary hike and bonus, happens to be Randy Wigginton, a former number six at Apple.

Car lovers can now buy a new Kia car over the internet. As Kia Motors America and eBay Motors have joined hands together to sell new cars online.

CODA Automotive, a California-based electric car and battery company, and The Hertz Corporation, the world's largest general use airport car rental brand, entered into a partnership making 100% all-electric CODA sedans available at select Southern California Hertz locations.

Nissan Motors Co would be the world's first hybrid to come equipped with standard pedestrian warning sounds for its new 2012 Infiniti M35h, when it goes on sale at Infiniti retailers nationwide in early 2011, the carmaker said in a statement.

Saudi tycoon prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, has invested $500 million in General Motors' initial public offering.

Amazon leaks Black Friday deal, previous generation Kindle available for $89.

UK-based water supplier United Utilities Group reported interim results slightly ahead of its expectations, following the recent regulatory price review.

British chemicals company Johnson Matthey Plc reported a rise in profits for the first half as revenue grew 28 percent on increased levels of activity in all of its major markets and higher platinum group metal prices. The group lifted its interim dividend by 13 percent to 12.5 pence.

Google's ubiquitous email service Gmail will be under judicial scanner as a Texas citizen filed a lawsuit against it stating the service acted in contravention of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

In what looks like a setback for the Obama administration in matter of trial of terrorism suspects in civil court, the first suspect transferred from Guantanamo military prison to face a U.S. civilian trial was found not guilty by a Manhattan federal court jury on all but one charge in the 1998 African embassy bombings.

Microsoft has announced price changes to Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) which will be effective from January 2011.

A D.C. Superior Court jury on Monday found Salvadoran immigrant Ingmar Guandique guilty of murdering federal intern Chandra Levy, bringing to a close a sensational case that had rocked the nation for nine years.

As cloud wars between Google and Microsoft intensify, Google has thrown a bait at Microsoft users by announcing the launch of a plug-in that enables users to sync their Microsoft Office docs with Google docs.

Sanyo Electric, a leading manufacturer of rechargeable battery technologies, has announced the completion of its new factory for the lithium-ion batteries in Japan.

Britain's water services group Severn Trent reported a 51 percent fall in pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 and it slashed its interim dividend by 2.5 percent to 26.04 pence.

Televison show host Oprah Winfrey has given her studio audience 275 Volkswagen New Beetles on Monday as part of Oprah's Favorite Things promotion.