IBT Staff Reporter

Japanese medical equipment firm Terumo Corp <4543.T> plans to buy U.S. medical device company CaridianBCT from Sweden's Gambro AB for $2.6 billion, joining a list of firms eyeing to expand abroad via acquisitions.

French luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA will take over Italy's Bulgari SpA in an 3.7 billion-euro all-share deal, paying a premium of almost 60 percent for the high-end watches and jewelry maker.

Zurich-based travel group Kuoni Reisen Holding AG announced an agreement to acquire Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) for $720 million from New York-based Travelport to boost its online offerings.

Japanese medical equipment firm Terumo Corp said on Monday it plans to buy U.S. medical device company CaridianBCT from Sweden's Gambro AB for $2.6 billion, in a move that will make it the world's biggest equipment-maker for blood banks.

China's largest metals trader has called for government to consolidate the rare earth industry and nurture competitive domestic firms in the sector, the Xinhua reported today.

Crude oil prices jumped to a 2-1/2-year peak on Monday as worries about supply disruption increased due to widening clashes in Libya, while world stocks fell on concern sustained high oil prices could hurt growth.

Nervous analysts have worried for years that the stellar stock prices of technology giants Apple Inc and Google Inc could tumble back to earth.

Dependence on televisions, cellphones and laptops may be costing Americans dearly -- in lack of sleep.

The surveillance tape showing troubled actress Lindsay Lohan shopping at a boutique, where she allegedly stole a $2,500 necklace, could soon hit Internet. Kamofie & Co. a boutique jewelry store in Venice, California, has sold the surveillance tape to a company that licensed it to a popular entertainment news show to an undisclosed sum.

Most economists believe the Federal Reserve's bond-purchase program is helping to support U.S. growth, though many remain skeptical, a survey released on Monday found.

Comcast Corp, the cable and entertainment company, is making a major push into Spanish-language TV with plans to roll out a website featuring hundreds of shows and movies for Hispanic audiences.

Food, not oil, may prove to be the bigger threat to global growth, with the pain falling disproportionately upon the developing economies that powered the latest economic recovery.

U.S. crude prices rose nearly 2 percent to 2- year highs on Monday as worries about supply disruption increased due to deepening unrest in Libya, while Asian stocks declined as concerns about the Middle East also weighed.

Starbucks Corp may go for acquisitions over the next 12-18 months to expand its consumer products business, Chief Executive Howard Schultz told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

People.com.cn, the online news portal run by the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, will list in Shanghai as early as June, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Crude oil prices rose to 2-1/2 year highs on Monday on heightened worries about supply disruption due to deepening unrest in Libya, while Asian stocks slipped as concerns about the Middle East and higher energy prices weighed on equities.

International private equity firms may be tempted to Russia by two potential initiatives -- a fund and a committee to look at investment in the country, a source briefed on the situation said on Sunday.

French luxury group LVMH is to take a controlling stake in Italy's luxury jeweler Bulgari in an all-share deal, the Financial Times reported.

A California couple whose wedding plans appeared thwarted when a lung infection landed the groom in the isolation ward of a hospital got married anyway over the weekend, in a ceremony conducted over Skype.

Japan is expected to make progress in beating deflation but risks to its economy remain, a senior Bank of Japan official said, stressing that the central bank is sticking to its ultra-easy policy bias.

The London Stock Exchange is eyeing a takeover of its rival Nasdaq just weeks after announcing a merger with the Toronto stock exchange, the Sunday Times reported.

Deutsche Boerse will have the upper hand in the planned mega-merger deal with NYSE Euronext , the exchange operators' chief executive told a paper, as fears of fading significance linger.

The government reiterated on Sunday that it could tap its strategic oil reserves in order to safeguard economic growth as surging gasoline prices threaten to amp up pressure for action.

A prototype miniature space shuttle blasted off aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday for a demonstration run that could last as long as nine months.

Gold should push higher from its near-record levels due to its appeal as a safe haven, while iron ore should regain its upward momentum on the back of red-hot industrial demand from Asia, forecasters told the world's larger mining conference on Sunday.

Europe's biggest bank HSBC may move its headquarters from London to Hong Kong because of what it sees as high levels of tax and red tape in the UK, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph.

The government reiterated on Sunday that it could tap its strategic oil reserves in order to safeguard economic growth as surging gasoline prices threaten to amp up pressure for action.

Euan Rocha and Julie GordonMetals consultant GFMS sees considerable upside in global precious metals prices as an investor safe haven, its Chairman Philip Klapwijk told the world's largest mining conference on Sunday.

A whole new class of conservative investor is piling into the mining sector -- once the exclusive domain of daring risk-takers -- bringing a bonanza of funding options to junior miners racing toward production.