Business - Page 8

Reuters - French retailer PPR on Tuesday made a 5.3 billion euro ($7.07 billion) bid to hitch German sportswear company Puma to its line-up of iconic fashion brands Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

FT.com - London equities moved higher in midday trade on Tuesday, powered by strength in the mining sector, as traders absorbed the latest bid developments after the holiday weekend. More Info...  

Investor's Business Daily - California is home to many of the biggest subprime lenders in the country and has by far the highest share of home loans to borrowers with spotty credit histories. More Info...  

Reuters - Carl Icahn, who is pressing for a board seat and changes at Motorola Inc. , has raised his stake of the struggling mobile phone maker's shares to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

Reuters - Dow Chemical Co. , responding to a British newspaper report that a consortium was preparing a $50 billion bid for the company, said on Monday it has had no discussion about a leveraged buyout.

Reuters - Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said on Monday that Chief Financial Officer Karl Winters had resigned, marking further management upheaval at the troubled video game publisher. More Info...  

Reuters - Independent power producer Mirant Corp. said on Monday it was exploring strategic options, including selling itself, pushing up its shares by more than 8 percent.

Business

Reuters - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said on Monday that quarterly revenue would fall short of Wall Street expectations by about 20 percent, but the microprocessor maker's shares rose after it promised to slash this year's capital spending by one-fifth.

FT.com - Wall Street stocks were holding modest gains at midday on Monday, as caution over inflation and future Federal Reserve policy followed Friday's report of solid job creation last month and reports of a possible buyout of Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW). More Info...  

Reuters - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Monday that regular strategic reviews of its businesses are simply "good governance" after a report in the Wall Street Journal said the retailer had developed a secret plan that mulled a possible spin-off of its Sam's Club operations.

Reuters - Citigroup has agreed to buy Taiwan's Bank of Overseas Chinese (BOOC) (5818.TWO) for T$14.1 billion ($426 million) in cash, a BOOC executive told Reuters on Monday. More Info...  

Business

Reuters - A consortium of Middle Eastern investors and American buyout firms is preparing a $50 billion approach for Dow Chemical Co. in what could be the world's biggest ever leveraged buyout, a paper said on Sunday.

Reuters - Citigroup is in talks to buy Old Lane, a hedge fund run by former Morgan Stanley executive Vikram Pandit, for more than $600 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

AFP - Global financial chiefs gather in Washington this week to take stock of a world economy that appears to be shrugging off a housing-led slowdown in the United States.

Reuters - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) said it has acquired a 10.9 percent stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. , becoming the railroad company's largest shareholder.

Reuters - US Airways Group said on Sunday it expects to post a "slight profit" for the first quarter even as revenue was hurt and costs were increased due to weather and reservation systems problems during the period. More Info...  

AFP - Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers Sunday said it had no plans to sell off any businesses to fund its bid for the country's second-largest retailer Coles.

AP - Pedro Morales filed his first income tax return four years ago, a difficult decision for an illegal immigrant and one that caused years of headaches because the apartment manager who prepared his return made so many mistakes.

Business

Reuters - Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s chairman and chief executive took in more than $400 million in compensation last year, the company said in a filing, one of the biggest single-year payouts in U.S. corporate history.

AP - If you were looking for a job as a teacher last month, you were in luck. Same goes for health workers, retail clerks and building contractors. All told, the economy added 180,000 new jobs, dropping unemployment to a 4.4 percent rate that matched a five-year low.