MARKETS / FINANCE

Cash-rich technology companies are increasingly willing to go hostile in their bids for rivals, but potential targets are more worried about another threat -- shareholder activism, senior bankers said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks were set to rise at the open on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities higher.

Baidu Inc, China's top search engine, will launch a licensed music search service in May, in a move to legitimize its current music search that critics say enables music piracy.

Customers of Verizon Communications had their email addresses exposed in a massive online data breach last week, according to an email to customers obtained by Reuters.

Futures on the S&P 500 hit their highest level in more than a month on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities higher.

U.S. antitrust regulators may investigate Google Inc's dominance of the Web search industry, and will settle on the agency to launch a probe once scrutiny into the company's plan to buy ITA software is done, a source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Futures on the S&P 500 hit their highest level in more than a month on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities higher.

Twitter experienced service disruptions on Tuesday, displaying an older version of the social networking website to some users and becoming completely inaccessible to others.

Wall Street was set to extend recent gains that have seen key indexes hit their highest since 2008, on optimism for economic recovery, and mergers and acquisitions activity.

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said on Wednesday it would not restart production at most of its idled Japanese vehicle assembly factories next week, denying a Nikkei newspaper report.

Japan will not issue new debt to fund an initial extra budget of more than $35 billion for disaster relief, the Asahi newspaper said, in a sign the government is wary of alarming bond investors by adding too much to Japan's already huge debt pile.

Japan's government is likely to set aside more than 3 trillion yen ($35 billion) for its first extra budget for disaster relief, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

With time running short, President Barack Obama failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock in budget talks between his Democrats and Republicans that threatens a partial shutdown of the government.

With time running short, President Barack Obama failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock in budget talks between his Democrats and Republicans that threatens a partial shutdown of the government.

U.S. antitrust regulators may investigate Google Inc's dominance of the Web search industry, and will settle on the agency to launch a probe once scrutiny into the company's plan to buy ITA software is done, a source told Reuters.

With time running short, President Barack Obama failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock in budget talks between his Democrats and Republicans that threatens a partial shutdown of the government.

Blockbuster Inc's future was at stake on Tuesday as billionaire investor Carl Icahn squared off against Dish Network Corp and two other suitors at a bankruptcy auction to decide the movie rental chain's next owner.

Some Federal Reserve officials last month believed they would have to hold to an easy monetary policy course beyond this year while a few said the central bank should move to tighter conditions before year-end.

The S&P 500 failed to break a key technical resistance level for a second day on Tuesday as low trading volume raised further questions about the market's strength.

CBOE Holdings Inc Chief Executive Officer William Brodsky, who steered the operator of the biggest U.S. options market through an initial public offering last June, received a giant pay boost for his efforts.

Trade-by-trade and sometimes using a calculator, an FBI agent testified at hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam's insider trading trial how the government matched phone records with transactions that it contends were based on illegal confidential information.

Shares of Google Inc fell nearly 3 percent on Tuesday, following a Bloomberg report that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering an antitrust investigation of the company's dominance of the Web search industry.

President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday that a federal government shutdown would seriously disrupt the U.S. economy, after Republican and Democratic leaders failed to make headway on a budget deal.

The Obama administration is preparing a comprehensive proposal for corporate tax reform in an effort to kickstart the legislative process in Congress, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 failed to break a key technical resistance level for a second day on Tuesday as low trading volume raised further questions about the market's strength.

Seems you can't keep a safe haven down. Not when retained wealth worldwide needs to escape money-printing and zero rates at home. What options are left to anxious savers? What choice but the Euro is still open to the Swiss National Bank...?

U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday as a large acquisition helped lift positive sentiment and offset another rate hike in China.

Former BP Plc chief executive Tony Hayward denied on Tuesday he was setting up an investment firm as he left a private meeting in one of the most luxurious hotels in the United Arab Emirates.

Divisions at the U.S. Federal Reserve over how soon to reverse course on monetary policy emerged more clearly last month, although the central bank appeared intent to complete a $600 billion bond-buying plan.