IBT Staff Reporter

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc on Wednesday named NYSE Euronext Chief Executive John Thain as its new CEO, a move that acknowledges it needed an outsider with a Goldman Sachs pedigree to repair an image battered by wrong-way bets on subprime mortgages. Thain, 52, replaces Stan O'Neal, who was ousted as Merrill's CEO and chairman last month after the company wrote down $8.4 billion in assets during the third quarter.

Adobe Systems former CEO Bruce Chizen is swiftly transferring the reigns to newly appointed CEO Shantanu Narayen as they look towards the ……, said in New York on Wednesday.

Motorola President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Brown said Tuesday that one of his top priorities in the near term is to bolster the company’s consumer mobile phones division.

AT&T Inc plans on Wednesday to introduce a nationwide program giving owners of small- and medium-size businesses some of the same tools big security firms offer for remotely monitoring employees, customers and operations, the New York Times said in its online edition.

The vast Three-Gorges dam is meant to subdue the Yangtze River but rising water levels are raising alarms.

There are scores of eligible Google millionaires, but as of next month, both its famed billionaire founders appear to be taken.

Defying fears the contemporary art market has become overvalued, a sale at Christie's on Tuesday achieved the second-best auction result ever with records broken for 16 artists.

The role of Lavender Brown, Ron Weasley's girlfriend in the new Harry Potter film, has gone to an established actress, according to a source close to the film.

Gold firmed on Wednesday, having briefly tested support below $800 per ounce, leaving investors nervy over the prospect of more falls from recent 28-year highs.

Fox is producing fresh episodes of its animated comedy Family Guy without the participation of its striking creator Seth MacFarlane, who does many of the main voices, sources said.

The dollar fell on Wednesday on continued worries that a struggling U.S. housing sector and lingering credit problems could hurt the broader economy.

Tata Motors Ltd, India's biggest vehicle maker, expects sales and operating margins to improve in the second half of the fiscal year, but is wary of a weaker dollar and growing competition, a top official said.

Progress has been made towards answering suspicions North Korea tried to enrich uranium for atom bombs but the issue is by no means solved, the chief U.S. negotiator on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament said on Wednesday.

While Asahi Green does not expect to break even until 2011, it hopes the Japanese technology will help farmers improve efficiency, food safety and income as well as repair soil damaged by years of heavy chemicals use.

President George W. Bush on Tuesday vetoed a measure to fund education, job training and health programs, marking the sixth veto of his presidency and the latest salvo in a fight with congressional Democrats over domestic spending.

Qantas Airways Ltd, Australia's largest airline, on Wednesday agreed to buy up to 188 new narrow-body planes worth more than $12 billion at list prices to defend its domestic routes and expand into Asia.

Yahoo Inc has settled a lawsuit alleging it aided China's prosecution of several dissidents, in a case that prompted criticism of the company for cooperating with an authoritarian government.

Sony Corp. and Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors said on Wednesday they will set up a joint venture to promote the use of mobile phones as a virtual wallet for paying for store purchases and train tickets.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Japan's second-largest bank, posted a 17 percent drop in its first-half profit and cut its full-year forecast on Wednesday, after the subprime-market turmoil sparked losses at its brokerage unit and increased credit costs.

A Dutch court dismissed Nokia's patent-licensing case against mobile technology provider Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday, saying its jurisdiction was limited and that Nokia's complaint was too broad to give a reasoned decision.

UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank, said on Wednesday third-quarter net profit rose an underlying 19 percent to 1.122 billion euros ($1.6 billion), although its investment banking profits were hit by the credit markets crisis.

Citigroup Inc and Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial said on Wednesday they have altered clauses in a stock-swap deal to make Nikko a wholly-owned unit in the wake of a recent slide in Citigroup's share price.

Apple Inc's(NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is unlikely to hit Chinese shelves soon because of technical and fee issues, industry executives said on Wednesday, a day after shares in the U.S. company shot up on hopes of a deal with China Mobile.

Ford Motor Co. is preparing for the risk that higher oil prices and a slowing U.S. economy crimp demand and will cut production as needed to avoid building costly inventories, senior executives said on Tuesday.

Japanese electronics group NEC Corp posted a smaller first-half loss on Wednesday as sales of its IT systems outweighed scaled-back overseas operations, and it stuck to its full-year forecast.

Cities in California, Florida and Ohio dominated the 25 U.S. metro areas with the highest home foreclosure rates, though rates jumped in most of the top regions during the third quarter, RealtyTrac said on Wednesday.

Oil moved higher on Wednesday, after falling sharply for the past two days, supported by expectations of a further fall in U.S. crude oil supplies and as OPEC brushed off U.S. calls to raise output.

Bear Stearns Cos Inc expects to write down $1.2 billion of assets linked to mortgages in the fourth quarter, resulting in an overall loss, the Wall Street bank's chief financial officer said on Wednesday. Investors were relieved the write-down was not bigger, and sent Bear Stearns shares up 6.6 percent in pre-market trading.

Retail sales rose a sluggish 0.2 percent in October, matching economists' expectations, as a housing downturn and steep oil prices constrained consumer spending, Commerce Department data on Wednesday showed.