IBT Staff Reporter

Japan's Panasonic Corp plans to buy out subsidiaries Sanyo Electric and Panasonic Electric Works for up to 818.4 billion yen ($9.4 billion) to strengthen its push into greener businesses.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said second-quarter current cost of supply net income jumped 94 percent to $4.53 billion thanks to a strong operating environment and a speedy restructuring of the group.

AstraZeneca doubled its 2010 share buyback program on Thursday, after posting strong results and winning an endorsement from a U.S. advisory panel for its potential blockbuster heart drug Brilinta.

Nissan Motor Co and Hyundai Motor Co's forecast-beating quarterly profits may prove tough to match in the second half as robust sales in China and elsewhere start to slow.

Nissan Motor Co reported its strongest quarterly operating profit in more than two years as sales surged in China and other major markets, but it left its cautious guidance unchanged amid an increasingly murky outlook for demand.

Hyundai Motor Co , South Korea's top automaker, warned global car demand will likely ease in the second half due to a slowdown in key markets such as China, Europe and the United States, sending its shares lower.

Japanese chipmakers Toshiba , Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory reported improved quarterly earnings as robust global sales of smartphones and other consumer electronics boosted chip demand.

Robust quarterly earnings from Europe drove world stocks higher on Thursday, while the dollar hit a three-month low on the back of weak U.S. data and a downbeat assessment of the economy from the Federal Reserve.

Japan's Panasonic Corp plans to buy the shares it does not own in Sanyo Electric and another unit, four sources said, in a deal that could top $10 billion and strengthen its push into greener businesses.

Hyundai Motor Co , South Korea's top automaker, said its quarterly net profit rose 71 percent to a record high, beating estimates on healthy demand in the United States and China.

Hyundai Motor Co , South Korea's top automaker, said on Thursday its quarterly net profit rose 71 percent to a record high, beating estimates on healthy demand in the United States and China.

Hyundai Motor Co , South Korea's top automaker, said its quarterly net profit rose 71 percent to a record high, beating estimates on healthy demand in the United States and China.

India has raised security concerns with Research In Motion over the Canadian company's popular BlackBerry services, but is not planning a ban in the world's fastest growing mobile phone market.

Asian stocks edged back up toward a three-month high and the dollar eased toward three-month lows on Thursday, hit by soft U.S. data that highlighted the patchy nature of the U.S. economic recovery.

Consumers report the primary obstacle in selling unwanted gold jewelry is confusion about their gold's true value. Lack of knowledge about the weight of their gold and strange terms like pennyweights (dwt), grams and troy ounces, confuse and intimidate many potential gold sellers.

BP Plc may permanently shut the well that caused the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history as early as Monday, the company said as speculation grew over assets it might sell to cover mounting costs.

Asian stocks edged down from a three-month high and the dollar eased toward three-month lows on Thursday, hit by soft U.S. data that underlined the patchy nature of the U.S. economic recovery.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Twitter is for more than just tweeting.

A natural gas limited partnership IPO was priced at the top of the expected range on Wednesday while an investment technology platform company IPO was priced at the bottom of the range and sold fewer shares.

A security expert showed off techniques for breaking into ATMs, causing machines to spit out cash to a cheering crowd at an annual gathering of hackers.

U.S. advisers backed a potential blockbuster blood thinner from AstraZeneca on Wednesday, a victory for a company seeking new drugs to offset expiring patents on some of its best-selling medicines.

The United States will suffer high unemployment for some time as it slowly recovers from the deep recession that ended in 2009, a former second in command at the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

The Australian dollar has opened lower this morning following a bout of risk aversion trading overnight.

The Aussie's three-week ascent towards US90.50 came to an abrupt halt yesterday immediately after the release of the much-anticipated June quarter inflation data.

Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit card processing network, posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, but analysts said new processing fee regulations could cut into future profits.

Sprint Nextel Corp said it lost fewer valuable contract customers in the second quarter than analysts expected, helped by its most advanced smartphone, the EVO from HTC Corp .

Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit card processing network, beat expectations with a quarterly profit of $716 million on Wednesday, as consumers resumed spending.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of three new members to the Federal Reserve's powerful board, including Janet Yellen for vice chairman, clearing the way for a final vote by the whole Senate.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) claim that many Australians have higher chronic disease risk because they missed out on breastfeeding when they were babies.