IBT Staff Reporter

Starbucks Corp said on Wednesday it would spend $180 million on U.S. factories, creating 150 manufacturing jobs, and that it would get into the $8 billion U.S. energy drink market with a new product.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen has donated an additional $300 million to a foundation aimed at expanding research into how the brain works and how best to treat brain-related disorders.

Bank of America Corp has eliminated jobs in its equities, mortgage-backed securities and research divisions in recent weeks, two sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Germany's Deutsche Bank AG changed the legal status of its main U.S. subsidiary, Taunus Corp, as a way to avoid injecting billions of dollars of capital into the unit by 2015.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21 - Hewlett Packard Co will merge its printer and PC businesses, combining two of its largest divisions as Chief Executive Meg Whitman tries to jumpstart growth at the technology company.

European policy makers have identified a large shortfall in computing and IT skills among young people that threatens to dent Europe's ability to compete and could exacerbate youth unemployment in the coming decade.

Greece unveiled details of payments to its two main debt restructuring advisers late on Wednesday to knock down a local website report that they had received 74 million euros.

Allen Stanford, the financier convicted of running an estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme, has asked for a new trial, citing the media's use of Twitter in the courtroom and a lack of time to prepare his defense.

Home sales fell in February, but upward revisions to the prior month's pace and the first yearly increase in prices in 15 months pointed to steady improvement in the housing market.

Starbucks Corp is expanding into the fast-growing energy drink category and plans to add manufacturing jobs in the United States, the world's biggest coffee chain said on Wednesday.

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.

Zynga Inc is buying OMGPOP, maker of the popular game Draw Something for an undisclosed sum, as the company moves to expand its games lineup on mobile devices and Facebook.

A Brazilian federal prosecutor filed criminal charges against U.S. oil company Chevron and drill-rig operator Transocean for a November oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21 - Hewlett Packard Co will merge its printer and PC businesses, combining two of its largest divisions as Chief Executive Meg Whitman tries to jump-start growth at the technology company.

Stocks struggled on Wednesday to rise above recent highs, hampered by losses in risk-associated sectors like energy and financials.

Apollo Global Management LLC said on Wednesday it was doubling down on Bank of America Corp's European assets, agreeing to buy its Irish consumer credit card portfolio after acquiring its Spanish credit card unit last summer.

U.S. home sales fell in February, but upward revisions to the prior month's pace and the first yearly increase in prices in 15 months suggested the housing market recovery remained on track.

Chevron, the No. 2 U.S. oil company said on Wednesday that oil from a new seabed seep at its Brazilian offshore field is chemically different to crude from a November spill, and that the two leaks are unrelated.

Apple Inc's new iPad throws off a lot more heat than the previous version, lending weight to complaints on Internet forums that the hot-selling tablet computer could get uncomfortably warm after heavy use, an influential consumer watchdog found after running tests.

Stocks struggled on Wednesday to rise above recent highs, hampered by losses in risk-associated sectors like energy and financials.

Home resales unexpectedly fell in February and the supply of properties on the market rose, underscoring the many hurdles for the housing recovery.

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.

Stocks edged lower on Wednesday after worse-than-expected housing market data for February and a soft outlook from oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc.

A proposed 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires backed by President Barack Obama - dubbed the Buffett tax after investor Warren Buffett who supports it - would raise about $47 billion over a decade, according to a congressional report.

The maker of the hit mobile game Angry Birds has struck a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc to embed clues to a new version of the game in merchandise sold in Walmart stores, hoping to lure Angry Birds fans through the doors and shoppers to the game.

Activist hedge fund Third Point on Wednesday filed a proxy statement with regulators seeking to install its own slate of directors on Yahoo Inc's board after criticizing the Internet company's recent appointees to the board.

Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.

U.S. stocks were poised for a slightly higher open on Wednesday ahead of data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.

Google Inc's Chrome web browser overtook Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer to become market leader globally for the first time last Sunday, web analytics firm StatCounter said on Wednesday.