COMPANIES

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has announced a drop in pre-tax profits from £776.5 million in 2006 down to £535.6 million last year.

Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it will team up with several Japanese studios to produce animated features targeting Asian markets as it moves to adapt to regional tastes, the company said.

Hollywood saw record sales in the U.S. and abroad in 2007, while noting that the Internet is just short of becoming as influential as television and radio as a marketing medium.

Shares of struggling bond insurer Ambac Financial Group, Inc fell after it announced a plan to raise $1.5 billion in capital to protect its valuable top-level credit rating following heavy losses linked to the subprime mortgage loans.

Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank, may need more capital from outside investors despite raising billions of dollars after reporting large write-downs related to bad investments in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, the CEO of Gulf state firm Dubai International Capital LLC said Tuesday, according to a report.

NBC Universal said on Monday it expanded the job of three executives and divided the responsibilities held by its previous integrated media president who will return to General Electric.

The three-month moving average of global chip sales came in at $21.49 billion, up 0.03 percent from January 2007 and ahead of expectations according to one research firm.

Shares of jumbo mortgage lender Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE: TMA) rebounded slightly after plummeting more than 50 percent on Monday.

American teenagers who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight than those who eat a morning meal, according to a study which researchers say may be linked to rising obesity among adolescents.

HSBC's profits rose 10 percent last year as buoyant growth in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia helped Europe's biggest bank absorb $17.2 billion in bad debts as the U.S. housing crisis deepened. Hong Kong profits rose 42 percent while Asia earnings grew by 70 percent. North America was managed a small gain.

Australian miner Oxiana Ltd launched an agreed A$6.1 billion ($5.7 billion) takeover offer for Zinifex Ltd on Monday, looking to diversify to benefit from booming global minerals demand.

German carmaker Volkswagen said on Monday it would raise its stake in Swedish truck maker Scania to 68.6 percent, a move that may lead to a merger of Scania and German truck maker MAN.

Union workers at auto supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., on their fifth day of a crippling strike, are ready to bargain with the company, a union leader said on Saturday.

Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent company European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. have won a contract which could be worth up to $40 billion to build air refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, told shareholders in an annual letter to expect a downturn in 2008 for Berkshire Hathaway profit despite a strong 2007.

American International Group, on the heels of reporting its largest-ever loss, said on Friday the subprime crisis had thrown it into uncharted waters that were likely to remain choppy through 2008.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on Friday laid out plans to become Japan's biggest credit card issuer, saying it would establish a new holding firm for four companies and merge three of them.

American International Group lost $5.29 billion in its fourth-quarter late Thursday as the insurance company took a charge related to credit derivatives.

Italians are used to buying bogus Gucci bags or Rolex watches to look stylish but police found a new height of craftsmanship and cunning when they broke up a ring selling fake Ferrari cars for a fraction of the real price.

American International Group Inc on Thursday posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss, missing Wall Street expectations after being hurt by a write-down of derivatives exposed to bad mortgage investments. The world's largest insurer said its fourth-quarter loss was $5.29 billion, or $2.08 a share, compared with a profit of $3.44 billion, or $1.31 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Freddie Mac, the second-biggest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, said on Thursday its loss widened to a record $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter as the housing crisis worsened.

The chief executive of US Airways Group Inc warned on Thursday that the U.S. airline industry is heading into a downturn as it grapples with record high oil prices and a weakening economy.

U.S. commercial paper issuance, including the troubled asset-backed sector, rose for the first time in a month in a sign of progress in an otherwise bleak outlook for credit and the economy, new data released on Thursday showed.

Allianz, Europe's top insurer, believes market turbulence has created acquisition opportunities in Asia, and predicts Asian sales will climb to 10 percent of total group income, or 10 billion euros ($15 billion).

A dispute over marketing rights held by mining group Xstrata's biggest shareholder is threatening a possible takeover by Brazil's Vale worth around $90 billion, a source close to the situation said.

Sprint Nextel Corp posted a $29.45 billion quarterly loss on Thursday due to a huge impairment charge and forecast that subscriber losses will deepen in the first quarter, pushing its shares down 10 percent.

Big pharma and technology companies have long been big spenders in start-ups. Others are taking their cue, opting to invest and buy tech companies and not just their products to stay ahead of the curve.

The government on Wednesday lifted limits on the amount the two largest mortgage finance companies can invest in home loans, a move that could unleash billions more dollars to stabilize the housing market and fend off a possible recession

The European Commission opened in-depth investigations on Wednesday to determine if billions of euros in German government assistance to two banks, hit by the U.S. sub-prime market crisis, amounted to illegal state aid.