IBT Staff Reporter

The European Union and Microsoft are likely to end a decade-long dispute next week when EU antitrust regulators will accept the U.S. software company's amended offer on allowing consumer choice on Internet browsers, sources said.

High inventories of heating oil in the New York Harbor will likely keep differentials under pressure this week despite colder weather in the world's top heating oil market.

Translation company Language Line Services Holdings Inc hopes to go public in an initial public offering that would raise as much as $400 million.

French biotech ExonHit Therapeutics plans to use proceeds from a rights issue to buy a small diagnostics firm in the United States to expand use of its test for Alzheimer's disease, the company said on Monday.

A JP Morgan infrastructure fund is in talks to buy only parts of Dragados SPL rather than the whole ports division of Spanish builder ACS, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The economic downturn has highlighted the disparity in value of some of the port unit's assets, with JP Morgan now only trying to acquire some of them, the sources said, adding the talks were still continuing.

Barnes & Noble Inc. said Monday that its Nook electronic reader will only be released in-store early 2010 as its still trying to fulfill the orders its already received. Customers can only try out demonstration models at the Barnes & Noble stores.

With companies able to collect and store vast amounts of data about consumers for very little money, the Federal Trade Commission held a conference on Monday to discuss guidelines on how firms use that data to advertise.

Big, full-service brokerages have lost a significant chunk of business to online firms that told small investors they are better off making their own decisions, Aite Group said in a report.

Saturday Night Live featured several jokes about Tiger Woods during its Weekend Update segment with Seth Meyers over the weekend.

Shares of staffing companies soared on Friday after a government report showing U.S. employers cut far fewer jobs than expected last month heralded increased demand for the companies' services as the labor market improves.

The doors of restaurants and barbershops are increasingly plastered with stickers touting various online rating services, from Yelp and Citysearch to the distinctive red crest of Zagat.

Professional golfer Tiger Woods currently in the middle of an affair scandal which was uncovered the day after Thanksgiving apologized on his website Sunday to Chevron for being unable to fulfill my duties as host and player in this important event.

The U.S. job market rose slightly in November according to a report issued days after government data showing the lowest number of job cuts in that month since December 2007, a research group said on Monday.

Stocks were little changed on Monday as investors awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and continued to digest recent data on the crucial labor market.

Financial markets need global climate talks getting underway in Copenhagen to iron out a plan to price emissions more effectively and seal the switch to a low carbon economy, Europe's biggest investor told Reuters on Monday.

Music-lovers watching their favorite acts at live concerts are increasingly becoming targets for gangs of mobile phone thieves, British police said on Monday.

The head of the U.N.'s panel of climate scientists on Monday strongly defended findings that humans are warming the planet, after critics said that leaked emails from a British university had undermined evidence.

EU antitrust regulators are set to accept next week an amended offer by Microsoft that would allow PC users in Europe to choose other web browsers, two people familiar with the situation said on Monday.

At first blush, NBC Universal's $30 billion valuation appears high at a time when traditional media's advertising dollars are being siphoned off by the Web.

The Carlyle Group , the U.S. buyout giant backing China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd, could make a $4 billion profit -- a return of more than six times its investment -- once China's No.3 life insurer floats shares in Hong Kong.

Smart meters, which encourage consumers to cut energy consumption, are crucial for Britain to limit costs for achieving its ambitious 2050 greenhouse gas reduction target, an executive from National Grid said.

Electronic Arts' Visceral Games officially announced today the sequel to the action horror game, Dead Space 2, which will be available for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The sequel came as no surprise as it had already been leaked through EA statements and various job listings, including one for a Senior Online Level Designer.

Independent News & Media Plc sold its Verivox Holdings Ltd unit for 16 million euros ($23.8 million) on Monday, taking its total from divestments this year to its target of 150 million euros.

Luminaries from the worlds of music and film were feted by President Barack Obama and a black-tie audience of artists and political heavyweights on Sunday at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.

U.S. major Chevron Corp's gas sale agreement with Japan's Tokyo Electric Power is worth A$90 billion ($82.5 billion), and is the biggest Australian LNG supply agreement ever signed, the West Australian government said on Monday.

TNT might know drama, but does it remember how to launch a hit show?

Fans of the television series Boston Legal would be well advised to head to David Mamet's new play Race, in which James Spader is once again doing a crackerjack job of portraying a ruthless lawyer.

An explosion at a motor oil refinery unit of Russian oil major Rosneft has not affected overall production, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Wine-tasting and brewery-touring trips are popular in countries around the world. But connoisseurs of other beverages needs not be left thirsty. From Mexico to Japan, in nearly every corner of the