IBT Staff Reporter

Google Inc's former chief executive Eric Schmidt received a bump in his annual salary to $1.25 million from the $1 he received in the previous year, after he became the executive chairman of the company in April 2011.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and billionaire co-founder Larry Page have teamed up with Avatar director James Cameron and other investors to back an ambitious space exploration and natural resources venture, details of which will be unveiled next week.

Chesapeake Energy Corp , in response to a Reuters report earlier this week, will disclose to shareholders the existence of loans its CEO Aubrey McClendon took out against his interest in thousands of wells granted to him as a corporate perk, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Labor groups at bankrupt American Airlines said on Friday they support a potential merger with rival US Airways Group Inc in a deal they say would save more jobs than a plan by parent AMR Corp to reorganize as a stand-alone carrier.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is close to selling its U.S. metal concentrates trading arm and could announce a deal as early as Monday, two sources who were informed of the deal told Reuters this week.

Rich Ross stepped down as chairman of Walt Disney Co's movie studio after a less than three-year run that included the release of John Carter, one of the biggest flops in recent Hollywood history.

After a strong first quarter, Wall Street has gotten a case of the jitters.

JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday won the dismissal of a pension fund lawsuit accusing it of mishandling its money by investing in notes from its client Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, which later went bankrupt.

China and Russia are making military history this weekend with the first bilateral naval exercises the two governments have ever conducted together.

Stocks mostly rose on Friday, led by solid earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Microsoft, but declines in banks and technology shares pulled indexes from their day's highs.

Ex-Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel, who is appealing a three-year prison sentence for his role in France's biggest-ever rogue trading scandal, is suing his former employer for allegedly obtaining a verdict under false pretences, his lawyer said on Friday.

Stocks mostly rose on Friday, led by solid earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Microsoft, but declines in banks and technology shares pulled indexes from their day's highs.

The three main unions at bankrupt American Airlines have reached a tentative deal with US Airways Group intended to put pressure on a reluctant American to start merger talks with its rival, the unions and US Airways said on Friday.

Ads within smartphone applications such as the popular puzzle game Angry Birds are turning into a key driver for mobile advertising, as apps become the main distribution method for media on mobile phones, according to a report.

The Group of 20 nations on Friday pledged more than $430 billion to better than double the International Monetary Fund's lending capacity and protect the global economy from the euro zone's debt crisis.

The Group of 20 nations on Friday were poised to commit at least $400 billion to bulk up the International Monetary Fund's war chest to fight any widening of Europe's debt crisis.

Days after being rebuked by shareholders, Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and the bank's directors have been sued by a shareholder accusing them of awarding outsized pay to top executives.

Chesapeake Energy Corp CEO Aubrey McClendon has been sued by a shareholder over potential conflicts of interest on the same day that a Wall Street analyst urged leadership changes at the company.

French polling institutes will not release exit polls or projected results for the presidential election on Sunday before voting ends at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), the polling watchdog said on Friday.

Stocks rose on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on pace for its biggest weekly gain in the past five weeks, led by solid earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Microsoft.

In the aftermath of India's ballistic missile test of its powerful new weapon, the Agni-5, people are asking, what is China's response?

General Electric Co topped Wall Street's profit and revenue forecasts for the first quarter, helped by strong demand for energy equipment and railroad locomotives.

Rich Ross stepped down as chairman of Walt Disney Co's movie studio after a less than three-year run that included the release of John Carter, one of the biggest flops in recent Hollywood history.

Chesapeake Energy Corp CEO Aubrey McClendon has been sued by a shareholder over potential conflicts of interest, after a Reuters report showed he had borrowed as much as $1.1 billion against his stake in thousands of company wells.

Stocks rose on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on pace for its biggest gain in the past five weeks, after earnings from a slew of bellwether companies propelled what has been a solid earnings season to date.

Shares of Microsoft Corp rose more than 5 percent on Friday after the world's largest software maker reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street forecasts on better-than-expected sales of personal computers.

Flash memory chipmaker SanDisk Corp's shares fell 15 percent on Friday after the company warned that a glut in the memory chip market will hurt prices for the rest of the year.

French food group Danone has raised its offer for Pfizer's infant nutrition business to close to $11 billion in an attempt to outbid rival Nestle , according to news website WanSquare.

Three unions representing workers at AMR Corp's American Airlines would support a merger with US Airways Group Inc, calling it the best strategy and fastest option to complete a restructuring at bankrupt AMR.