IBT Staff Reporter

BlackRock, Inc announced it has agreed to buy Barclays Global Investors from Barclays Plc in a $12.9 billion cash and stock deal to create an the world’s largest asset management firm with combined assets of over $2.7 trillion.

U.S. import prices rose 1.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on Friday, but the gain was powered by petroleum prices and underlying import price pressures were more muted.

Australian Dollar: Cool winter winds may be blowing in Sydney but the Australian dollar is on fire at the moment and opens on Friday at 0.8190.

Spain's telecoms watchdog CMT said on Friday that 66 percent of net new broadband customers signed up with companies other than dominant operator Telefonica between February and April.

The two founders of struggling Irish sports broadcaster Setanta are in talks with a potential investor which could prevent the group from falling into administration, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

Italy's founder and other shareholders said on Friday they would launch an offer to buy out and then to delist the software company, sending RGI shares up more than 2 percent.

Spain had 614,000 new homes sitting unsold at the end of 2008 -- lower than most analysts' estimates -- according to the first major survey of Europe's most over-stocked home market.

Ireland's new National Asset Management Agency would consider buying loans from Irish units of foreign-owned banks under the country's bad bank scheme, the finance ministry said on Friday.

Private equity firms are expected to bid for Goodbaby Group after its top shareholder hired Morgan Stanley to sell its stake in China's largest baby stroller maker, sources said on Friday.

BlackRock has agreed to buy Barclays Global Investors to create the world's biggest asset manager in a $13.5 billion deal that British bank Barclays hopes will put to rest concerns about its capital.

Three Boston businessmen, including a member of the family that used to own The Boston Globe, have emerged as suitors for the 137-year-old daily newspaper that The New York Times Co is trying to sell, the Globe reported on Friday.

KKR Financial Holdings LLC, a debt fund managed by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, said a debtholder swapped $3 million of convertible notes for 1.18 million shares in the company.

Contract drug manufacturer Patheon Inc posted a smaller quarterly loss on Friday as costs and restructuring expenses declined.

Global Payments Inc said it has bought the remaining stake in its British joint venture with HSBC Bank Plc for $307.7 million in cash.

India represents a sixth of humanity and its giant economy may help reshape global business, but its place in the world is still hindered by the country's struggles to find stability in its own dangerous neighbourhood.

The head of the Iraqi parliament's biggest Sunni Muslim bloc was killed at a mosque on Friday, officials said, an assassination which could undermine efforts for sectarian reconciliation in Iraq.

The murder at a mosque of the head of the Iraqi parliament's biggest Sunni Muslim bloc could frustrate efforts to seek reconciliation among the country's fractious sectarian and ethnic groups after years of conflict.

A court in army-ruled Myanmar has delayed the widely-condemned trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for at least two weeks, her lawyer said on Friday.

Several big banks bailed out by U.S. taxpayers are expected to begin repaying their government debt next Wednesday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Oil fell below $72 a barrel on Friday, a day after reaching a near eight-month high, pressured by a firmer dollar and views that prices have risen too far despite improving economic sentiment.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved tripling U.S. aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for each of the next five years in a key part of a strategy to combat extremism with economic and social development.

A prominent anti-Taliban Muslim cleric who condemned suicide bombings was killed on Friday in a suicide attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore, police said.

NATO ministers have backed a U.S. shake-up of military command in Afghanistan based on a model used in Iraq, as well as plans to step up training of Afghan security forces, a NATO spokesman said on Friday.

U.S. financial aid to carmakers and a number of stimulus packages adopted by other countries to fight the economic slowdown could distort global trade, a confidential European Commission report said.

Social media company Twitter is struggling to craft a profitable business model, but the Web-based service has helped Dell Inc chalk up millions of dollars in sales.

North Korea is unlikely to respond militarily to planned U.N. sanctions for its nuclear test, but the possibility should not be completely dismissed, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

General Motors is close to selling loss-making Swedish unit Saab after tiny supercar maker Koenigsegg agreed to ride to the rescue, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The leading moderate candidate in Iran's presidential election said some of his representatives had been denied access to polling stations on Friday to monitor the vote, the ILNA news agency reported.

Wall Street was set to open lower on Friday as commodity prices fell and investors looked ahead to key consumer confidence data for insight into the prospects for the recession easing.