COMPANIES

Jon Stein got a good education in economics at Harvard and Columbia Business School. In nearly every economics class, Stein said he was taught that for any investor who doesn't have better market information than another there's just one optimal portfolio to own: The market portfolio.

Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc (ANDS.O) said Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) agreed to buy the U.S. company for $230 million to broaden its portfolio of hepatitis drugs.

Newsweek ranks greenest U.S. and global companies.

Apple was able to dodge concerns that its new iPhone 4S underwhelmed as anticipation leaned towards a new iPhone 5, but record sales is reassuring not only Apple, but Sony.

Kinder Morgan Inc. announced on Sunday plans to buy El Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion in cash and stocks to create the largest natural gas pipeline energy company in the U.S.

Today is officially Steve Jobs Day, thanks to the state of California. The Apple Inc. co-founder and longtime CEO has been hailed as one of the most impactful innovators the modern world has known. Here is a handful of ways to honor and celebrate his life.

Gap Inc. -- parent of the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic retail chains -- announced Thursday it will be closing 189 Gap locations in the United States by the end of 2013.

The Microsoft Corp. announced the closing of its $8.5 billion deal to acquire Skype Global, on Thursday. The Redmond, Wash.-based company originally disclosed its intention to do so on May 10.

NASA has booked a charter suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic -- the company owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS -- which aims to become the world's first commercial spaceline.

Italian luxury brand Gucci is reportedly facing allegations of abusive behavior against workers at a store in Shenzhen, China.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is warning staffers their personal brokerage-account information may have been compromised, after it uncovered security flaws with an ethics-compliance program.

Debt holders of Energy Conversion Devices have formed an ad-hoc committee and hired legal and restructuring advisors, as the company faces the same pressures that led to the high-profile bankruptcy of Solyndra, said a source familiar with the matter.

It was 68 degrees by 8:00 in the morning Friday, but the loyal fans who had lined up outside the Apple Store at 1 Stockton Street in San Francisco had already braved (slightly) less hospitable temperatures.

The wealthy couple tried to sell the home in 2009.

Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, said Friday it would withhold its votes for the re-election of Rupert Murdoch and sons James and Lachlan to the News Corp. board of directors.

Ads for General Mills fruit snacks mislead customers into thinking products like its Fruit Roll-Ups are healthy, when they actually lack significant amounts of real, natural fruit, according to a new lawsuit.

A U.S. judge said that Samsung Electronic's Galaxy tablets infringe Apple Inc's iPad patents, but added that Apple has a problem establishing the validity of its patents in the latest courtroom face-off between the technology giants.

Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it planned to unveil a new smartphone based on Google's latest version of the Android operating system at an event in Hong Kong on Oct. 19.

A Dutch court on Friday turned down Samsung Electronics' request for an injunction against all of Apple's mobile products that use 3G telecommunications technology, denying it revenge over a similar move by Apple.The two technology giants have been lo

Thursday's cancellation of the Hulu auction had less to do with the $2 billion sale price and more to do with a shift in strategic perspective among the owners.

Hermes Equity Ownership Services is the latest firm to call for a major restructuring of the media company's corporate governance.

Suzuki Motor Corp accused Volkswagen of breaching a partnership pact by withholding hybrid technology it promised to share, pushing their two-year-old alliance to the brink of disintegration.

Sri Lankan-born Hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the biggest hedge fund insider trading case in the U.S., but the verdict was not as stringent as legal circles had predicted.

The BSE Sensex pulled higher on Friday after a sluggish start as investors awaited monthly inflation, which would set the tone for the RBI's monetary stance.

Gap plans to focus on international expansion, closing stores in North America while opening them in Asia.

The U.S. job market remains a very challenging one -- with inadequate job growth so far in the current economic expansion. But there is some good news for job seekers this holiday season: retailers plan to add 480,000 to 500,000 season jobs during the next few months to prepare for the holiday shopping season, retail sector officials said.

An employment report that was better than market expectations helped to lift long-term Treasury bond yields and mortgage rates as well, Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac, said in a statement.

Gibson Guitar Corp.'s chief slammed the U.S. government on Wednesday for sending armed agents to raid two Tennessee factories under a law aimed at curbing the illegal harvest of tropical hardwoods.

Safeway Inc reported a quarterly profit that beat analysts' low expectations, benefiting from higher fuel sales and cost cuts, and its shares rose nearly 4 percent.