IBT Staff Reporter

Prosecutors accused three Swiss bankers on Tuesday of conspiring with wealthy U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in assets from tax authorities, and sources briefed on the matter said the three worked for Wegelin & Co, one of Switzerland's oldest private banks.

National Instruments forecast fourth-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates hurt by a slowdown in the European industrial sector, sending its shares down 5 percent after market.

Acme Packet Inc forecast a fourth quarter that lagged analysts' estimates and cut its 2011 outlook on concerns of crippled capital spending budgets at its telecommunication customers in North America.

Shares of Elpida Memory rose more than 7 percent in early trade on Wednesday after the Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes said the troubled chipmaker may merge with Toshiba.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Rick Santorum is in first place and Mitt Romney in second -- but just 37 votes separate them. Ron Paul is in third place by just under 4,000 votes, and everyone else trails by large margins.

The Chinese government is planning new policies to boost domestic consumption, especially of vehicles and appliances, in a bid to offset the effects of sagging export demand, the China Daily reported on Wednesday, quoting a government official.

To kick sales of its ultra-low-cost Nano into higher gear, Tata Motors needs a lot more buyers like Vijay Govind Pisal, a sugar cane farmer in Ozarde in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

AT&T Inc has agreed to pay TiVo Inc a minimum of $215 million and additional monthly licensing fees to settle a patent infringement dispute related to recording live TV.

A New York state judge made it easier for the bond insurer MBIA Inc to pursue its $1.4 billion lawsuit accusing Bank of America Corp's Countrywide Financial unit of fraudulently inducing it to insure risky mortgage-backed securities.

U.S. prosecutors accused three Swiss bankers on Tuesday of conspiring with wealthy U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in assets from tax authorities, and sources briefed on the matter said the three worked for Wegelin & Co, one of Switzerland's oldest private banks.

The world's largest bond fund had $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to fund analytics firm Morningstar.

Groupon Inc shares fell more than 6 percent on Tuesday on concern the company may not have as many daily deals to offer due to some merchants pulling back.

South Korea said on Wednesday it had approved a plan by Samsung Electronics Co to build a flash memory chip plant in China seen costing some $4 billion, as a boom in smartphones and tablet computers fuels the chip industry's growth.

As the 2012 Republican primary season kicked off with the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, the International Business Times spoke with Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Fordham University in New York, about who will win and the consequences of various outcomes.

Jamie Chandler, a political scientist at Hunter College in New York, spoke with the International Business Times about who will win in Iowa, who will drop out afterward and what various outcomes would mean as the primary season continues.

Rambus Inc raised its fourth-quarter revenue outlook, despite losing a major lawsuit late last year, sending its shares up 10 percent in early trading Tuesday.

When top U.S. retailers post their December sales this week, Wall Street analysts expect them to report a healthy end to the holiday season, helped by discounts, improved consumer sentiment and tactics such as extended hours and layaways.

U.S. regulators have only met roughly a quarter of pre-2012 deadlines included in the controversial Dodd-Frank financial reform law, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The world's largest bond fund had $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to fund analytics firm Morningstar.

AT&T Inc has agreed to pay TiVo Inc a minimum of $215 million and additional monthly licensing fees to settle a patent infringement litigations case, sending shares in TiVo up 15 percent in afterhours trade.

The world's largest bond fund had $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to fund analytics firm Morningstar.

Starbucks Corp raised prices by an average of about 1 percent in the U.S. Northeast and Sunbelt on Tuesday, making coffee-drinkers spend more in New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, Albuquerque and other cities.

Shares of Micron Technology Inc jumped as much as 11 percent on a report that one its biggest competitors, Elpida Memory, may merge with Toshiba Corp, in a sign of consolidation in an industry hurt by cut-throat competition.

Oil prices rose more than 4 percent on Tuesday as geopolitical tension between Iran and the West reinforced fears about potential supply disruptions, while strong Chinese and U.S. economic data fueled optimism about global demand to start 2012 trading.

Oil prices surged on Tuesday, with U.S. crude hitting the highest settlement since May, fueled by strong economic data from the United States and China and mounting concern about supply disruption from Iran.

Research In Motion is close to a decision on stripping its co-chief executives of their other shared role as chairman of the board, a newspaper said on Tuesday, a change that could meet a key demand from angry and disillusioned investors.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' new chief executive is set to shift the company's focus to branded drugs from generics as he imports a successful strategy of making mid-sized deals from Bristol-Myers Squibb .

Hoping for something better than 2011's flat stock market, U.S. investors pushed shares higher on Tuesday to begin the new year, though questions remain about whether a rally can be sustained.

When it comes to the Iowa caucuses, who loses is almost as important as who wins. Iowa doesn't often vote for the eventual nominee, but it does tend to weed out non-viable candidates. Who will be weeded out tonight?