IBT Staff Reporter

Merus Capital, the venture capital firm co-founded by Google Inc's former head of mergers and acquisitions, is preparing to raise a new $100 million fund, according to a limited partner of the fund.

China's central bank kept up its rhetoric against inflation and excess liquidity on Friday by saying it will deploy a range of policy tools to head off inflationary pressures and asset bubbles.

Oil hovered around its highest levels in more than two years on Friday, supported by cold weather across the globe, appetite for risk assets and no signals from OPEC it was prepared to arrest the rally.

China's central bank kept up its rhetoric against inflation and excess liquidity on Friday, saying it will deploy a range of policy tools to head off inflationary pressure and asset bubbles.

Japan's government approved a record 92.4 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) draft budget on Friday for the year from next April, keeping its self-imposed cap on new debt but it faces a tough road ahead to fix its tattered public finances.

Toshiba Corp will overhaul its chip operations, outsourcing output of some system chips to Samsung Electronics and selling a production line to Sony Corp, as it reduces its non-memory chip exposure.

Oil rallied to its highest price in more than two years on Friday, supported by unusually frigid weather that has fueled demand, depleted supplies and stoked inflationary worries from South Korea to India.

Toshiba Corp will outsource production of some non-memory chips to Samsung Electronics Co, the South Korean electronics maker said, freeing up Toshiba's resources for its mainstay memory operations.

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> is aiming to significantly lower the break-even point for its Japanese operations through a slew of improved manufacturing processes, a top executive said on Friday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, has invested in China's top online seller of consumer electronics and communication products, in a push to extend its reach to more Chinese buyers.

Japan's government has managed to meet caps on spending and new bond issuance in compiling a budget for the year from next April, the finance minister said on Friday, as the government struggles to mend tattered public finances.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released the text of its orders for the Internet.

Toyota has agreed to pay $10 million to settle legal claims from the family of a California state trooper and three relatives whose fatal car wreck helped spark the automaker's wide-ranging safety recall, lawyers said on Thursday.

(Corrects name of president to Akio Toyoda, not Ikio, and that testimony was in February, not April, in paragraph 7.)

South Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and several companies that use its chips do not infringe two Spansion Inc flash memory chip patents, the International Trade Commission said on Thursday.

Ground Zero first responders and the lawmakers who backed their efforts gathered this afternoon across the street from the site of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to celebrate the passage on Wednesday of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which will establish permanent healthcare and compensation to the approximately 20,000 people who got sick from the toxic air at the site in the weeks following the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc wants to have control over its bankruptcy extended to March 21 to develop its business plan, according to court documents.

Boeing Co said it would resume tests for the carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner later on Thursday after it made design changes following an electrical fire on a plane last month.

MBIA Inc won a key ruling that will sharply reduce the time and cost of gathering evidence to prove that Bank of America fraudulently induced it to insure billions of dollars of mortgage bonds.

With the nation in the midst of a foreclosure crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is shelling out $73 million in housing counseling grants to more than 500 national, regional and local organizations, so that they can help people stay in their homes or find new homes.

Online travel agency Expedia is making users take extra steps to get American Airlines listings after the U.S. airline stopped selling tickets through rival Orbitz Worldwide earlier this week.

Tony Bates, the Skype CEO, says the 16.5 million of the company's 25 million users are back online.

Oil surged above $91 a barrel to its highest price in more than two years on Thursday, as OPEC member Libya's apparent lack of concern over prices prompted some analysts to call for a new year's run at $100.

Arab OPEC ministers began arriving in Cairo on Thursday ahead of talks expected to broach how high an oil price the world economy can stand as crude jumped to a more than two-year high above $91 a barrel.

Stocks racked up a fourth straight week of gains on Thursday, as investors expected optimism about the economic recovery to support equities through year-end.

According to the blog TorrentFreak, the most downloaded movie that wasn't pornography is Avatar.

The Federal Communications Commission's top official has given his approval to Comcast Corp's purchase of NBC Universal with a number of tough and narrowly tailored conditions on the deal.

Internet calling service Skype said its system was still down for around 20 percent of users on the second day of its biggest outage in more than three years, although service was gradually recovering.

President Barack Obama will again nominate economist Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve Board next year, a White House official said on Thursday, setting up a potential clash with Republicans who will have more influence in the new Senate.