COMPANIES

Research In Motion Ltd said on Monday Nortel Networks had effectively blocked the BlackBerry maker from bidding potentially $1.1 billion for the bankrupt Canadian company's wireless business.

Continental Airlines Inc posted a steeper second-quarter loss on Tuesday as the slump in business travel and fears about the H1N1 virus hurt revenue, and said it will cut its work force by 4 percent.

UAL Corp , parent of United Airlines, reported a quarterly profit on Tuesday after big gains from fuel hedges, but said it would cut its international flying capacity by 7 percent to offset sagging demand.

Relevant sources from Morgan Stanley &Co confirmed that C.N. Liu, managing director and head of corporate finance department in Hong Kong, have dismissed Morgan Stanley early in July.

DuPont posted a 61 percent drop in quarterly profit hurt by weak global demand, but cost cuts helped the chemical maker beat Wall Street forecasts.

U.S. drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp said on Tuesday its second-quarter earnings rose after lower special charges, but global revenue declined as the weak dollar hurt sales in overseas markets.

Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc posted better-than-expected second-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by growth in its plans for elderly and low-income Americans.

Merck & Co said second-quarter earnings fell, hurt by lower sales of its cholesterol drugs, but income from partnerships and a rebound in sales of asthma drug Singulair helped the drugmaker beat profit forecasts.

Coca-Cola Co reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, as growth in markets such as India and China helped offset the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar.

U.S. consumers will spend 8.5 percent to 12 percent less this year on back-to-school items than they did last year, as cash-strapped parents try to get children to wear last year's fashions, a retail industry monitor said on Tuesday.

Coca-Cola Co reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, as growth in markets such as India and China helped offset the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar.

U.S. machinery maker Caterpillar Inc posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, and raised its full-year outlook, citing signs of stabilization in the world's credit markets and economies.

World number two truck maker Volvo posted a deeper than expected second-quarter loss on Tuesday and stood by its forecast that the economic downturn would see its main markets shrivel this year.

U.S. small businesses say they feel slighted by the Obama administration and efforts to shore up the economy, with large companies taking much of the government's attention and stimulus cash.

Golden Gate Capital has presented the “highest and best offer” of $268 million in cash for Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc, the bankrupt retailer said on Monday.

Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc said on Monday it would acquire the northeast U.S. operations of Health Net Inc for about roughly $510 million to expand its presence in that region.

Brown & Brown Inc, a top U.S. insurance broker, posted a marginal rise in second-quarter profit, beating analysts' estimates by a cent, on a 2 percent increase in commissions and fee revenue.

Almost three-quarters of some of the world's largest retailers expect the current economic downturn to impact their business for up to two more years, according to a survey on Monday from business advisory firm AlixPartners.

Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co., Ltd (Zhenhua), the largest manufacturer of heavy-duty equipment in the world, has signed a $2.2-billion contract with Span's ADHK for ocean engineering products, Caijing reported on Monday. Along with the reported $2-billion deal with Iran, Zhenhua would get totally $4.2 billion deal from the ocean engineering industry.

CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corp, said it expects second-quarter revenue to rise 50 percent sequentially, helped by a rebound in the operating metrics of one of its games.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has guaranteed Morgan Stanley a global coordinator's role in any initial public offering (IPO) of American International Group units, documents made public on the New York Fed website show.

The EU Commission said on Monday it would continue discussions with Deutsche Lufthansa regarding the German airline's takeover of Austrian Airlines.

China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC) said on Monday it had fixed a price range for its Shanghai initial public offering (IPO), looking to raise as much as 50.16 billion yuan ($7.34 billion).

India's leading oil producer ONGC has hired Citigroup to advise it on a bid for Kosmos Energy's stake in an oil field in Ghana in a deal that could be worth between $3 billion and $5 billion, sources familiar with the deal said.

Las Vegas Sands Corp shares rose more than 15 percent on Monday on optimism an initial public offering of the casino company's Macau assets would take place in Hong Kong.

Liaoning Xiyang Group, a privately-owned miner in China, will develop a one-billion-ton iron ore deposit in Russia, including an onsite steel mill, beginning in April 2010, the China Securities Journal reported late last week.

Any deal to sell Porsche SE's (PSHG_p.DE) sportscar business to Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) could be scuppered by potential tax liabilities, a German newspaper reported on Monday, knocking shares in the two German companies.

Political and economic logic are set to collide in the byzantine decision-making over the future of German carmaker Opel, the main European arm of fallen U.S. auto giant General Motors.

A Magna-led (MGa.TO) consortium of bidders for Opel will make a new offer for the German carmaker on Monday that includes a demand for rights to its intellectual property, a Russian newspaper reported.