COMPANIES

U.S. voice traffic carrier iBasis said some shareholders intended to reject Dutch telecoms group KPN's increased bid of $2.25 per share for the company.

Japanese brokerage Nomura said on Friday it had hired two senior staff to co-head its fixed income business in the Americas as part of a push to expand its investment bank outside Asia.

French supermarket chains Carrefour and Casino are seen posting a small fall in third-quarter sales next week as falling food prices and consumer weakness in France outweigh growth in emerging markets.

Global financial firms, emerging from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, are looking to shed India back office operations as they focus on core operations and cost cuts.

Any change at the top of UBS's U.S. wealth management business could signal the Swiss bank is trying to rehabilitate its America franchise after a bruising tax row, ready for an eventual sale.

James Simons, a mathematics professor who became one of the best paid hedge fund managers in the world, is retiring as chief executive of his Renaissance Technologies firm on Jan 1, according to an investor letter.

Intellectual property support services provider RWS Holdings Plc expects full-year underlying profits to fall below consensus, but exceed year-ago levels, due to a drop in interest income on lower deposit rates.

South Korea's SK C&C, SK Group's technology service arm, plans to raise up to 480 billion won ($412.6 million) from its planned initial public offering, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters on Friday.

At the height of the luxury goods boom, launching a single successful it bag was enough to substantially alter a company's profit outlook.

Aid groups and development banks have come up with the perfect, albeit ironic, solution for investors that have seen billions of dollars go down the pan during the financial crisis. Invest in toilets.

Government programs to fight the U.S. home foreclosure crisis look increasingly inadequate and should be reworked, expanded and supplemented with new ideas, a congressional watchdog said in a report on Friday.

China's Tengzhong may finalize a deal to buy General Motors Co's Hummer business for about $150 million on Friday, a source familiar with the deal said, China's biggest brand grab since Lenovo bought IBM's PC unit in 2005.

China's Tengzhong may finalise a deal with General Motors Co [GM.UL] on Friday to acquire the U.S. automaker's Hummer business for about $150 million, a source familiar with the deal said.

A German-brokered deal to rescue Opel will not collapse due to a lack of support from other European countries hosting the carmaker's plants, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The Canadian Auto Workers expect to return to full scale formal contract negotiations with U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co on October 26, the union said on Thursday.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Europe's biggest equity investor, on Wednesday criticized German auto maker Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) for plans to take over some Porsche assets, which it called costly and unacceptable.

General Motors Co GM.UL will look to sell the steering business it took back from former parts subsidiary Delphi under a deal that closed this week, the automaker said in a letter to its suppliers.

Magna International Inc (MGa.TO) received a prestigious order from Daimler (DAIGn.DE), its fifth biggest customer, in a sign of faith that it would not pull business from the auto parts supplier despite the Canadian company's planned Opel deal.

Driving a convertible with the roof down might be exhilarating, but it could also damage your hearing, according to British scientists.

The hotel industry is facing challenges as the economy discourages personal and business travelers.

With U.S. mortgage rates back below 5 percent and still dropping, homeowners are once again looking to refinance loans and cut monthly payments.

Few U.S. small businesses have adopted social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter for business uses, according to research released on Thursday.

UBS AG, which suffered asset outflows in the second quarter, hired former Merrill Lynch's brokerage head Robert McCann to lead its wealth management business in the Americas, CNBC said on Thursday.

A German-brokered deal to rescue Opel will not collapse due to a lack of support from other European countries hosting the carmaker's plants, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Making the current FHA loan limits permanent would ensure liquidity in the housing market and make mortgages more affordable for qualified buyers at a time when the market is showing signs of a fragile recovery, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® testified to the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity today.

One by one the Kiddieland amusement park's 27 rides were shut down forever on Sunday, giving the highest bidders in an online auction a final spin, splash or crash on their favorites.

The chief executives of Amazon.com Inc, FPL Group, Eastman Kodak and Kraft Foods are among business leaders attending a lunch meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, the White House said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co has abandoned a plan to sell One Chase Manhattan Plaza, its Lower Manhattan office tower, because the bids it received were unacceptable, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Lee Lin had a full-time job, three rental properties and a problem: he had no time to find tenants to live in them. He tried advertising on free-listing websites like Craigslist, but found it too time consuming, so he created an alternative.