IBT Staff Reporter

Daily deals site LivingSocial is raising a targeted $400 million in a private offering of which over $176 million of that amount has already been raised, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

U.S. companies sat on their largest pile of cash on record during the third quarter, providing a substantial buffer against any blow that might come from Europe's debt crisis, data from the Federal Reserve showed on Thursday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged private industry to protect Internet freedoms Thursday, saying it was vital to promote online rights amid restrictions in Russia, Syria and China.

Wachovia Bank, owned by Wells Fargo & Co, agreed to pay $148 million in a settlement with state and federal authorities over allegations of bid-rigging and other abuses in the municipal bond derivatives market.

Google does not work with nor does it support Carrier IQ, the software maker which has been accused of violating millions of mobile phone users' privacy rights, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Thursday.

AT&T, the second largest U.S. wireless carrier, is on track to smash record smartphone sales in the fourth quarter as the company revealed on Wednesday that it has already sold six million smartphones in the first two months.

Former MF Global chief Jon Corzine apologized to those harmed by the brokerage firm's collapse, but said he didn't directly manage customer funds and doesn't know where the missing money is.

What do you call it when someone pretends to apologize, and seems to be apologizing, but in reality is doing the exact opposite of apologizing?

It's one thing to make a bawdy and tasteless comedy if you're going to commit to making a bawdy and tasteless comedy. But The Sitter wants to have its urinal cake and eat it too, pushing the envelope of taste one minute and then delivering maudlin little life lessons the next.

Metaio, one of the leaders in augmented reality technology, on Thursday opened its platform to chipset vendors and software developers for free, hoping to boost its position in the emerging sector.

U.S. companies sat on their largest pile of cash on record during the third quarter, providing a substantial buffer against any blow that might come from Europe's debt crisis, data from the Federal Reserve showed on Thursday.

Hackers are bombarding the world's computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption.

Verizon Wireless blamed technical problems for an outage on its recently launched high-speed, 4G network, which prevented some U.S. customers from accessing the Internet for about 24 hours.

The following are remarks by EU leaders at a meeting of the conservative European People's Party in Marseille, southern France, ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.

Bank stocks led a sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday after the European Central Bank tempered hopes that policy-makers were priming a much anticipated financial bazooka to tackle Europe's raging debt crisis.

The White House unveiled a countdown clock this week, tick-tocking away the days, hours, minutes and seconds to a December 31 deadline for extending and expanding the payroll tax cut. It's a doomsday-style reminder that taxes will jump for an estimated 160 million Americans on January 1 if Congress doesn't act.

(Updates to clarify sentence in 8th paragraph)

(Updates to clarify sentence in 8th paragraph)

The New York legislature did on Thursday what Congress has been unwilling to do at the national level: it closed almost half of a $3.5 billion budget gap by raising taxes on millionaires and cutting taxes on the middle class, in a bill supported by both Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican.

Google Inc said it will invest $300 million in its Hong Kong data center, due to come online in early 2013 after the company broke ground on Thursday.

Ford Motor Co reinstated a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share on Thursday for the first time since the No. 2 U.S. automaker slid into a financial crisis five years ago.

Verizon Wireless suffered outages across the U.S. on its recently launched high-speed 4G network that have prevented some customers from accessing any Internet data.

Stocks fell on Thursday after remarks from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi tempered hopes policymakers were priming a much-anticipated financial bazooka to tackle Europe's raging debt crisis.

Europe's banks are being told to increase their capital by a total of 114.7 billion euros, more than predicted two months ago, to make them strong enough to withstand the euro zone debt crisis, two financial sources told Reuters on Thursday.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is stumping for Mitt Romney in Iowa, trying to boost Romney's campaign in the face of a surge by Newt Gingrich. He told Republicans in West Des Moines that Romney won't embarrass America and is the only Republican who can win.

McDonald's Corp reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board, led by big gains in Japan, China and a strong showing in its top revenue market of Europe.

Britpop band Blur will receive an Outstanding Contribution to Music award at next year's BRITs, Britain's answer to the Grammys.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining momentum.

International Business Machines plans to buy analytics software provider DemandTec for about $440 million in cash.