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Friday, January 11, 2008 - CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - Bank of America said Friday it will buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion in stock. The deal will rescue the Countrywide, country's biggest mortgage lender, from its troubles, and further expands the financial services of Bank of America, the nation's largest consumer bank. The acquisition will make Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. the nation's biggest mortgage lender and loan servicer.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006 - ROUND ROCK, Texas - Dell Inc.'s chief financial officer, Jim Schneider, will step down by the end of January. An SEC probe continues investigation of the company's accounting practices, and may also have been a factor in the executive changes. Dell has been forced to delay the release of its earnings report to the Securities and Exchange Commission until it can get a handle on its accounting issues. Donald Carty, a former chief executive and chief financial officer of AMR, parent company of American Airlines, will replace Schneider. Carty has been on Dell's board of directors since 1992 and chaired the audit committee, which is conducting its own investigation into Dell's accounting practices. Carty will assume the title of vice chairman and chief financial officer, keeping his position on the board. He will officially start his executive duties on January 2, 2007, with Schneider staying on until the end of the month to help with the transition.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - EBay Inc. announced plans Tuesday to open a new Chinese Web site as part of a joint-venture with a Beijing-based Internet company. The new site operated by online portal and wireless operator Tom Online Inc. will focus on the domestic Chinese market, while EBay's current Chinese portal (http://www.ebay.com.cn) will become a platform for Chinese merchants to sell to international buyers.

Monday, December 18, 2006 - NEW YORK - Cingular, the largest U.S. wireless phone carrier, will offer a version of popular Internet social network MySpace on its phones in an expansion of their partnership, the companies announced on Monday. For an additional $2.99 per month, customers will be able to upload photos taken on cellphones, read and respond to MySpace e-mails, update blog entries and view and search for friends from their handsets. Analysts have said that media and other entertainment services are expected to be major areas of growth for the wireless and media industries. MySpace is one of the fastest-growing Internet services with more than 130 million user profiles, and is also already offered on cellphone service carrier Helios.

Thursday, December 14, 2006 - SYDNEY, Australia - Qantas Airways said Thursday it had accepted an 11.1 billion Australian dollar ($8.64 billion) takeover offer from a private equity consortium including Australia's Macquarie Bank and the Texas Pacific Group — one of the biggest corporate buyouts in Australian history. The 86-year-old airline has remained one of the few profitable global air carriers in recent years, amid soaring oil prices and concerns about worldwide terrorism.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - LONDON - The U.S. securities exchange, Nasdaq, launched a 2.7 billion pound ($5.3 billion) hostile bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Tuesday. This is the latest move appealing directly to investors, after being turned down by LSE (Europe's biggest stock market) within hours of an offer on November 20, 2006. NASDAQ already owns 28.75 percent of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and has now bid 1,243 pence a share in cash for the rest. The world's stock markets are looking for partners, under pressure from customers who want lower fees and broader offerings.

Friday, December 8, 2006 - CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - US shares of Barclays PLC rose more than 3 percent Friday, after a Merrill Lynch research analyst, Edward Najarian, advised clients that Bank of America Corp. may be interested in bidding for the London-based banking company. He said "Bank of America has previously indicated that the next phase of its expansion is to become a leading global commercial and investment bank."

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 - WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae finally erased $6.3 billion in profit in a long-awaited restatement Wednesday after an accounting scandal that stunned financial markets two years ago. The scandal brought the ouster of top executives and a record fine against the government-sponsored mortgage leader. The correction of its earnings from 2001 through June 30, 2004, was ordered by the SEC. Fannie Mae escaped criminal prosecution over the accounting failure although the Justice Department had pursued a criminal investigation. But federal prosecutors said in August that they had shut down their probe without bringing any action. The SEC could bring civil actions against individual executives, including those no longer at Fannie Mae. Civil cases have a burden of proof less stringent than in criminal prosecutions.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. announced a reorganization on Tuesday that marks Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker as a potential successor to the CEO. Yahoo is aiming to simplify its corporate structure in a battle with faster-growing rival Google. Decker has been a director of Costco Corporation. She reported earlier this year that Yahoo had capitulated to Google Inc. in the battle for market dominance in search.

Monday, December 4, 2006 - NEW YORK - Bank of New York has agreed to take over Mellon Financial Corp. for stock valued at $17.6 billion in a deal that will create the world's largest securities servicing company and one of the biggest asset managers.

Monday, December 4, 2006 - SINGAPORE - Oil prices gained slightly Monday as comments from key OPEC members over the weekend suggested the oil cartel would push for further cuts in output at its December 14 meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. On Saturday, de facto leader, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi, of the 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the cartel needed to take 100 million barrels out of the market to balance it. Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheik Ali Al Jarrah Al Sabah, who was also at a meeting of Arab oil producers in Cairo, agreed.