IBT Staff Reporter

Indian media company Network18 said on Wednesday it would invest $90.5 million over three years in its joint venture with Viacom Inc, which will launch a Hindi-language general entertainment channel in India next year.

Dutch financial group ING will buy a 25.2 percent stake in Thailand's TMB Bank, TMB officials said on Wednesday after the money-losing Thai bank rejected a last-minute rival bid.

Washington Mutual Inc, the largest U.S. savings and loan, said on Wednesday the U.S. housing slump will persist through 2008, causing loan losses to mount and mortgage lending to fall to an eight-year low.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce on Wednesday he is examining what role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might have played in an alleged scheme to inflate appraisals of home values, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc said on Wednesday it would acquire the Philadelphia Stock Exchange for $652 million, a move that will let the No. 2 U.S. stock exchange expand its presence in the fast-growing options business.

Citigroup Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, both seeking new chief executives after taking billions of dollars in write-downs, are considering the same five candidates for their top jobs, CNBC television reported on Wednesday.

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the constitution.

Americans can watch television shows on anything from a computer to an iPod these days, but media companies and advertisers have yet to figure out how best to take advantage of all the new ways to reach audiences.

Microsoft Corp. released on Tuesday a suite of free Web services that connect to its Windows operating system, delivering a major element of its strategy to maintain the dominance of its software while extending its reach on the Internet.

At least seven people died when a gunman opened fire at a school in southern Finland on Wednesday, hours after a video was posted on YouTube predicting a school massacre.

A nonprofit group said on Tuesday production of a new laptop computer for children in developing countries had begun, a milestone that could shake up the PC industry by ushering in a new era of low-cost computing.

Oil was on the cusp of the landmark $100 a barrel level on Wednesday, helping push gold towards a record $850 an ounce as an embattled dollar hit new lows.

A global shortage of executive talent is forcing companies to be much more accommodating as increasingly restless senior managers demand less travel and more flexibility, executive search firms say.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said on Wednesday that assessing the credit market turmoil that started this summer may take more time and that the Fed did the right thing in making funds available, albeit at a cost.

Non-farm worker productivity increased at the strongest rate in four years during this year's third quarter, the government said on Wednesday in a report implying the economy could keep growing without generating inflation.

When the first snow falls this winter, 61-year-old Grace Murphy won't be turning on the heat in her Dorchester, Massachussetts home. With her heating oil tank at empty, she'll be huddled around her gas oven with her husband Paul, 66, and her 88-year old mother.

General Motors Corp posted its largest quarterly net loss on Wednesday, reflecting a $39-billion charge related to unclaimed tax credits and a loss at its former finance subsidiary GMAC. The largest U.S. automaker posted a third-quarter net loss of $39 billion, or $68.85 per share, compared with a loss of $147 million, or 26 cents per share a year earlier.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's most profitable automaker, posted a 2.7 percent rise in quarterly operating profit thanks to a weaker yen, stronger sales and cost cuts and nudged up its full-year forecasts.

French oil giant Total posted a 3 percent drop in third-quarter adjusted net profit on Wednesday, despite higher oil prices and production, but the result beat forecasts and it maintained a key output target.

Time Warner Cable Inc, the second-largest U.S. cable television operator, said on Wednesday that third-quarter profit fell due to a large year-earlier gain.

Gauging retail success or failure for the holidays is an increasingly difficult, and often unreliable, endeavor.

Six in 10 U.S. consumers say a recession is likely in the next three to six months, a new survey on holiday spending said on Wednesday. A telephone survey found 45.7 percent of 1,000 respondents say a recession is somewhat likely, 14.3 percent said very likely and Forty percent said a recession was not likely

Oil sped above $98 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, closing in on the landmark $100 level, driven by a slumping U.S. dollar and worries over a winter fuel supply crunch.

North Korea still poses a military threat even if the reclusive state has started to roll back its nuclear arms program, South Korea's defense minister said on Wednesday.

Iran's nuclear program is irreversible, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, voicing continued defiance in the face of possible new international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

BNP Paribas SA reported a 21 percent jump in its third quarter profit, beating estimates.

General Motors Corp said on Tuesday it would book a $39 billion non-cash charge in the third quarter, reflecting the risk of a slower turnaround that could keep it from claiming expected future tax credits in key markets.

Two analysts expect Morgan Stanley will take a fourth quarter write-down of between $3 billion and $6 billion related to asset-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.

President Bush on Tuesday announced his strong support for tougher product safety measures that would give mandatory recall authority to the Food and Drug Administration and increasing penalties on companies that import unsafe products to the United Sates.