IBT Staff Reporter

A three-page contract, which resulted in the creation of Apple Computer Co. and was signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, was sold at an auction for $1,594,500 on Tuesday. At a Sotheby’s auction in New York City on Tuesday, about 20 people attended the bidding of the document. Six bidders were on telephone and online. Finally, it went to a telephone bidder Eduardo Cisneros, the CEO of Cisneros Corp.

General Motors Co's <GM.N> European unit Opel could see next year's operating profit reduced by about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), as the company may sell fewer cars than set out in its restructuring plan, a German magazine reported.

Congress passed new legislation on Tuesday that would give the Federal Communications Commission the authority to auction off television companies' broadband spectrum, so it can be reallocated for mobile and internet companies.

Hollywood movie producers are honoring Angelina Jolie's Bosnia war film In the Land of Blood and Honey with a special award for its portrayal of social issues.

Universal Pictures has acquired the worldwide rights to the young adult-fantasy novel Daughter of Smoke & Bone, the studio announced Wednesday.

The Screen Actors Guild on Wednesday picked nominees for best performances of 2011 in movies and television. While the group that represents actors honors TV performances, the SAG Awards are more closely watched for their impact in the race for Oscars.

Task outsourcing startup TaskRabbit has closed a new $17.8 million round of funding, the company announced today.

JumpTime, a Los-Angeles based technology company, has hired media veteran Elizabeth Osder as SVP of Strategy & Business Development.

Police in Baltimore evicted anti-Wall Street protesters on Tuesday and operations returned to normal at West Coast ports a day after a series of marches that disrupted operations at several terminals.

U.S. solar installations soared nearly 40 percent in the third quarter and are likely to be even higher in the current period, though 2011 overall will lag expectations slightly due to a decline in state incentives.

On an evening that was marked by depressed ratings, the season finale of NBC's The Biggest Loser shed a considerable amount of viewers Tuesday night to reach a low for fall finales.

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The NBA champion Dallas Mavericks continued their roster changes on Tuesday by trading away Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez and forward Corey Brewer to the Denver Nuggets.

Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) is buying a stake in Saudi Arabia-based beverage company Aujan Industries for $980 million in what is seen as a bid to catch up with rival PepsiCo Inc (PEP.N) in the Middle East.

AOL TV has been rebranded as HuffPost TV.

George Clooney isn't exactly synonymous with theater, but for one night, he'll be the biggest star on stage in Los Angeles.

Two weeks after MF Global's collapse, officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission briefed Senate staff on the brokerage firm's final days. When asked about reports that the brokerage firm had written checks that bounced when customers tried to cash them, the regulators had an admission that surprised the room: they didn't know about the bad checks.

The actors of civil rights drama The Help topped Screen Actors Guild Award nominations on Wednesday with four nods including best film cast, leading a list of nominees that saw many surprises in Hollywood's current awards season.

Actress Lindsay Lohan, who is on probation for drunk driving and theft convictions, pleased a judge for a change on Wednesday by completing her court-ordered community service and therapy sessions on time.

At this time of year Hollywood brings out big-budget movies like Mission: Impossible with Tom Cruise and the new Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey, Jr.

Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton will step down this month and be replaced by the managing editor for news, the newspaper said on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund's chief economist cautioned on Wednesday against imposing tough austerity measures too quickly and instead favors a longer process as countries around the world grapple with high debt levels.

U.S. chief executives' view of the economy was little changed in the fourth quarter, though they are growing concerned about the risk of inflation in raw material prices, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Spain's Telefonica SA trimmed its planned 2012 dividend on Wednesday in a move to keep its debt under control as the telecoms group battles sluggish economic growth in its home market and uncertainty in Europe.

On a quiet stretch of the waterfront here, about a mile from Boston's main tourist sites, a Gillette factory hums along 24 hours a day making an unlikely commodity: top-of-the-line razors.

T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. mobile service, plans to market the Lumia 710 phone from Nokia to first-time smartphone buyers as the two companies push to recoup market share losses of recent years.

An eight-year growth spurt for the U.S. aerospace industry appears set to end in 2012, the industry's chief trade group said Wednesday.

Research In Motion has already doled out a big helping of bad news ahead of its financial results on Thursday, but surprises could still await investors hungry for details about what many see as a new, make-or-break BlackBerry.

Stocks fell on Wednesday as weak commodity prices sparked a selloff in the energy and materials sectors and as a falling euro and high Italian bond yields kept Europe's debt crisis in focus.