IBT Staff Reporter

Shareholders of Olympus Corp <7733.T> voted in a new board on Friday but the firm's British ex-CEO, whose dismissal six months ago unveiled the biggest scandal in corporate Japan for decades, threatened to have the result annulled.

Dupont and Dow Chemical are among chemical firms working with global automakers who are bracing for a crunch in production, after a German chemical plant explosion cut a chunk of supply of a nylon resin used in brake and fuel systems.

Peering from a hotel window 50 floors above Japan's bustling capital, Michael Woodford eyes the Olympus Corp building where he was fired six months ago. To the right, he sees the flat he had to quit that day before he was told to take a bus to the airport.

The International Monetary Fund's bid to win a big boost in funding to handle the euro-zone debt crisis hit a speed bump on Thursday when Brazil demanded more power at the IMF for emerging economies as a condition for lending it extra cash.

Verizon Wireless plans to put its marketing weight behind Microsoft Corp's next mobile phone software to help develop a strong competitor to Apple Inc and Google Inc, according to the chief financial officer of Verizon Communications.

A federal judge has narrowed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's $8.6 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co , potentially reducing how much creditors of what was once the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank may ultimately recover.

SanDisk Corp said the glut in the memory chips market will continue to hurt prices for the rest of the year, sounding its second revenue warning in as many quarters.

Federal prosecutors in California are investigating a Goldman Sachs employee for insider trading, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers who attended a hearing in U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday.

Stocks fell for a second day on Thursday as labor market data showed more signs of weakness, while a warning from Qualcomm and poor results from Stanley Black & Decker also discouraged investors.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is nearing a deal to buy restructuring and consulting firm AlixPartners for more than $1 billion, according to several people familiar with the matter.

PIMCO's flagship Total Return Fund was hit hard by investor redemptions in 2011, but this year it is a less famous fund at the world's biggest bond shop that is bleeding the most.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is nearing a deal to buy restructuring and consulting firm AlixPartners for more than $1 billion, according to several people familiar with the matter.

EBay Inc's strong first quarter bodes well for Amazon.com Inc's results next week - especially Amazon's own online Marketplace business and e-commerce in general, analysts said on Thursday.

Richard Parsons, who chaired the Citigroup Inc board that lost a shareholder vote this week on executive compensation, said on Thursday that directors had failed to adequately explain to investors the methods they used to determine pay packages.

Federal prosecutors in California are investigating a Goldman Sachs employee for insider trading, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers who attended a hearing in U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday.

If Research In Motion Ltd were to hire an investment bank it would be to help it license its BlackBerry software or to negotiate a strategic investment, not to help it sell the company, a source close to RIM said on Thursday.

Stocks fell for a second day on Thursday as labor market data showed more signs of weakness, while a warning from Qualcomm and poor results from Stanley Black & Decker also discouraged investors.

Stocks fell for a second straight day on Thursday as investors were discouraged by economic data and focused on negative corporate news.

In an ideal world, Best Buy would be a value investor's dream come true. But in the real world of transparency and retailing twists and turns, it just isn't.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on Thursday she expects to win a big boost in funding to help the lender contain damage from the euro-zone debt crisis now that Europe has taken significant steps on its own.

The state of New York on Thursday sued Sprint Nextel Corp for more than $300 million, accusing the company of tax fraud by deliberately not collecting or paying millions of dollars of taxes for its cell phone service.

Stocks fell on Thursday, extending losses on weakness in technology and industrial names.

The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time fell only slightly last week, suggesting that job growth in April will not improve much after March's disappointing performance.

Home resales fell in March but the supply of properties on the market tightened and prices inched higher, giving mixed signals about the pace of recovery in the still-struggling housing sector.

The global economy is set to expand by a modest 3.3 percent this year as a still-smoldering euro zone debt crisis and a relatively slow U.S. recovery continue to leave Asia as the main driver of growth, Reuters polls showed on Thursday.

Human Genome Sciences has rejected an unsolicited bid worth around $2.6 billion from long-time partner GlaxoSmithKline, marking a new takeover battle in a drugs sector swept by M&A activity recently.

Verizon Communications Inc posted first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations as customers increased their spending on services such as wireless data, sending its shares 1.6 percent higher.

Stocks dipped in choppy trade on Thursday as investors grappled with uncertainty in the euro zone, a raft of corporate earnings and economic data that painted a mixed picture of the domestic recovery.

Bank of America Corp posted a better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday as the No. 2 U.S. bank set aside less money for loan losses and capital markets activity rebounded.