Aetna to Buy Coventry Health Care
In the latest in a string of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions in the U.S. health care sector, Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) has agreed to buy competitor Coventry Health Care Inc. (NYSE: CVH) for $5.7 billion in…
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Trey Thoelcke
Acer Misses Profit Estimates on One-Time Tax Charge
Taiwanese personal computer maker Acer Inc. said it swung to a net profit in the second quarter, despite weak demand and stiff competition from tablet makers such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Acer reported…
Pension Fund Sues Walmart for Access to Documents
It was revealed on Thursday that the Indiana Electrical Workers Pension Trust Fund IBEW has sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT). The Indiana union pension fund owns shares in Walmart and wants access to…
IBM to Acquire Texas Memory Systems
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has announced that it will acquire Texas Memory Systems, a privately held company that focuses on high-performance Flash storage. IBM said the Houston-based company’s products will boost its…
Cisco Up on Dividend Boost, Earnings Beat
Shares of Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) were up 5% in afterhours trading on Wednesday following the network equipment giant’s better-than-expected results and its announced plan to hike the quarterly dividend by 75%. Cisco…
Apple Takes Another Stab at TV
After years of trying to infiltrate the living room, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be about to take its most ambitious crack at it yet, reports the Wall Street Journal. Apple is talking with…
Google Is Search Leader in July
Not much of a surprise, but Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was again the leader in the U.S. search market in July by a wide margin, according to comScore’s latest monthly analysis of the U.S.…
More Ads Coming to Facebook
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is testing an advertising service that allows companies to place more promotional messages in the News Feeds of users, even if those members or their friends have not signaled they…
Olympics Boosts U.K. Employment
The Office for National Statistics, the United Kingdom’s largest independent producer of official statistics, reported Wednesday that the unemployment rate in the U.K. fell to 8% in the three months to June 2012, down…
Staples Tumbles on Disappointing Q2, Lower Outlook
Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) tumbled in premarket trading after posting disappointing second-quarter results and lowering its full-year guidance. The retailer reported quarterly earnings of $120.4 million, or $0.18 per share, and $5.5 billion in…
New Mobile Payments Network to Rival Google Wallet
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), 7-Eleven Inc., Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) and other well-known retailers are expected to announce that they have banded together to develop a mobile payments…
TJX Falls Despite Earnings Beat
TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) reported earlier this morning that its second-quarter profit came to $421 million, or $0.56 per share, and revenue totaled $6 billion. The results were up from $348.3 million, or $0.45…
Samsung Mobile Phone Sales Remain Strong Despite Overall Decline
Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, announced today that worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2.3% in second quarter to 419 million units, compared to the year-ago quarter. Smartphone sales, which accounted…
Michael Kors Profit Doubles on Strong Sales Growth
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) has surged in premarket trading following this morning’s fiscal first quarter report. Michael Kors said earnings more than doubled from a year ago to $68.6 million, or $0.34…
Standard Chartered CEO in New York, Shareholders Push for Quick Settlement
Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered, has flown to New York to personally take charge of the bank’s attempts to reach a settlement with U.S. regulators over allegations it hid transactions involving Iran. The…
Eurozone Q2 GDP and June Industrial Output Fall
nationsonline.orgFlash estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, showed that gross domestic product in the eurozone fell by 0.2% during the second quarter of 2012, compared with the previous quarter.…
Economic Sentiment for Germany Falls in August
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany slipped 5.9 points in August 2012 to a level of -25.5 points. While this is the lowest value of the indicator so…
Bank of America Sells Merrill Lynch International Unit
The Julius Baer Group has announced that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is selling Merrill Lynch’s international wealth management business to the Swiss private banking firm for approximately 860 million Swiss francs ($884.8 million),…
Nelson Peltz Joins Ingersoll-Rand Board
In order to avoid a proxy fight, Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) has named activist investor Nelson Peltz to its board of directors. Eleven of those board members, including Peltz, are independent directors. Peltz will…
Tesoro to Buy BP Refining and Marketing Business
Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) announced that it that is has agreed to purchase BP PLC’s (NYSE: BP) integrated Southern California refining and marketing business for $1.18 billion, plus the value of inventory at the…