COMPANIES

Dress Barn Inc will buy teen-apparel seller Tween Brands Inc about $157 million in stock, as the women's clothing retailer looks to capture a larger share of the tween girls apparel market.

British skincare specialist York Pharma is in fresh merger talks with a British company following end of its discussions with Uluru, a source familiar with the company's thinking said on Thursday.

Oil and gas producer PetroQuest Energy Inc's public offering of 10 million shares was priced at $3.50 a share, a discount of 5 percent to the stock's Wednesday closing price.

Brazilian mining group Vale is in no rush to finish iron ore price talks with Chinese steelmakers and sees little possibility they could buy ore on spot markets, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

Porsche is free to submit a fresh application for state aid, a German economy ministry official said on Thursday, while Porsche said it was already working with state bank KfW to shape a new bid.

Neither the German government nor bankrupt U.S. carmaker General Motors will admit it, but rival suitors for GM's Opel unit are likely just pawns in a high-stakes game of poker with favored bidder Magna.

U.S. homebuilder Lennar Corp posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, weighed by falling home deliveries and average home prices, even as the housing market experienced an uptick in new home sales.

China's top economic planning agency is likely to reject Sichuan Tengzhong's bid to buy the Hummer brand from bankrupt General Motors Corp , state radio reported on Thursday.

Toyota Motor Corp's new president, the grandson of the group's founder, warned on Thursday the auto industry faces another two tough years as he outlined his strategy to return the world's No.1 car company to profit.

Woolworths, the 100-year-old sweets-to-DVD retailer that collapsed earlier this year, will on Thursday be revived as an online business by Britain's biggest home shopping retailer, Shop Direct, which bought the brand name in February.

Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp have banded together to test ways to allow people to watch more TV shows over the Web, while making sure they keep paying for their traditional cable or satellite TV services.

Nike Inc reported a worse-than-expected global decline in forward orders, especially in its European region, sending shares of the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing company down nearly 5 percent in extended trading on Wednesday.

Three of China's “big four” banks ranked in the top five in terms of profits among all banks around the world last year, the UK magazine The Banker released on Wednesday.

A combination of two drugs from Novartis AG cut the size of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours in more than 80 percent of patients in a mid-stage study, the Swiss group said on Wednesday. Patients who received a once-daily pill Afinitor in combination with Sandostatin LAR had no progression in their disease for a median of 16.7 months, according to results from the so-called RADIANT-1 study of 160 patients.

Chrysler's dash through bankruptcy has cost $12.7 million in legal costs in its first month, according to a court filing.

China's Wuhan Iron & Steel Inc (WISCO) made a nonbinding offer of $400 million for a minority stake in Brazilian miner MMX and its subsidiary MMX Sudeste Mineracao, MMX said on Tuesday in its website.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc on Wednesday reported an unexpected rise in quarterly profit as the retailer cut costs to offset slumping consumer demand for home furnishings, and its shares rose 6 percent.

MetroPCS Communications Inc on Wednesday unveiled a discounted international calling service, its latest effort to appeal to cost conscious U.S. consumers.

Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp have banded together to test ways to allow people to watch more TV shows over the Web, while making sure they keep paying for their traditional cable or satellite TV services.

Nike Inc reported a worse-than-expected global decline in forward orders sending shares of the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing company down 4.1 percent.

Nike Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings but its forward orders fell 12 percent, sending shares of the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing company down 5 percent.

Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp have banded together to test ways to make it tougher for audiences to watch premium TV shows over the Web without paying for a cable or satellite service.

Ford Motor Co aims to cut the number of its parts suppliers by almost half by the end of 2009 as the only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy attempts to shore up its supply base at a time of deep financial stress for the industry.

Natural gas industry veteran Tom Skains praised BB&T Corp. on Wednesday for its success amid the current economic crisis as the financial firm elected him to its board of directors of directors.

As deep-pocketed private investors line up to take advantage of a depressed U.S. commercial real estate market, the eventual winners are likely going to be players with the capital -- and the stomach -- to jump in while prices are hitting bottom.

Chemspec International Ltd shares rose nearly 11 percent in their debut trading session on Wednesday following the Chinese specialty chemical maker's initial public offering.

The family of Chemoil Energy founder Robert Chandran is in talks to sell its 51 percent interest in the marine fuel supplier, with trading giant Glencore the frontrunner for a stake worth $240 million, sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

South Korea's KB Financial Group expects to complete a $2 billion rights offer by early September, CEO Hwang Young-key told Reuters on Wednesday, giving it the muscle to possibly buy Korea Exchange Bank or non-banking financial services companies.

PepsiCo Inc plan an alliance with Japan's Calbee Foods Co to make and sell food items such as potato chips and prawn crackers in Japan, Pepsi said on Wednesday.