Filed under: Company News When we hear of pharmaceutical companies’ ventures it’s usually either a straight merger & acquisition or a collaboration on a drug or two in their pipelines to share costs and, of course, potential profits. But Pfizer Inc. ( PFE ) and GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK...

Filed under: Company News On Thursday, Starwood Hotels and Resorts sued Hilton Hotels, including two former employees who now work for the massive chain. Starwood’s claim is that Hilton has stolen confidential information that it intended to use in the launch of its new Denizen “lifestyle...

Filed under: Company News , Economy Sony Ericsson succumbed to rapidly falling global handset sales. The number of units it shipped in the first quarter dropped 35 percent compared with the same period last year, and the joint venture posted a 293 million-euro ($382.7 million) net loss. Experts say...

Filed under: Economy Don’t look now but the U.S. economy is set to record another decent week. The stock market is about to post a weekly gain after surmounting the psychologically important Dow 8,000 level. The Q1 earnings season has, so far, not produced any “just dreadful” reports...

Filed under: Company News , Columns The brass at General Electric Co. ( GE ) is telling the on-air talent at CNBC too cool the anti-Obama rhetoric, at least that’s the story coming from the New York Post’s Page Six . GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt and NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker held...

Filed under: Company News There’s no doubt eBay Inc. ( EBAY ) has been refocusing itself on its core market of e-commerce. Only this past week, eBay announced its intention to unload Skype in an IPO, sell StumbleUpon back to its founders, change and tweak its marketplace Website and buy Korea’s...

Filed under: Company News A major union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, is beginning a new push to unionize workers at Wal-Mart ( WMT ). Congress has been working on new legislation that would make it much easier for labor to bargain and set up contracts. A numbers of companies, both large...

Filed under: Columns , Economy Are people going to spend $20 for an issue of Worth ? I would suspect not. The publicity gimmick by Sandow Media Corp., which bought Worth from CurtCo. Media last year, says a mouthful about the precarious state of the print media. First quarter magazine advertising revenue...

Filed under: Company News , Earnings Today we have another example of why it is such a huge mistake to let companies write their own report cards . That’s right folks, Citigroup, Inc. ( C ) reported a $1.6 billion profit for the first quarter of 2009. Doesn’t this sound great? It sure does...

Filed under: Company News , People The Administration has had plenty of its appointees step aside, or withdrawing their name before being approved to their posts, due to indiscretions in their pasts such as dodging taxes or paying workers off the books. The latest problem with an administration official...