BUSINESS

Insurance Australia Group will buy New Zealand's second-largest general insurer AMI for $290 million. However, the purchase excludes all of AMI's liabilities related to the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011.

Ford is ending production of its once vastly popular small half-truck, the Ford Ranger, which it admitted became the unwilling victim of in-house competition.

A firm based in Seattle specializing in caller identification technology has sued Apple Inc. for patent infringement alleging that the latter is illegally using its inventions on iPhones.

More Australians are planning to work past the compulsory retirement age, a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

About 75 per cent or 6.2 million households in Australia have broadband access, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday said.

About 150,000 bank customers have filed a $200-million class action lawsuit against the four largest Australian banks and Citibank over bank fees.

Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (ASX: BEN) agreed to purchase for A$130 million the Bank of Cyprus (ASX: BOCY), which caters mainly to Greek and Cypriot communities based in Australia.

Microsoft has decided to follow the lead of its rival browser, Google Chrome, as the software giant revealed on Thursday that it will soon implement silent updates of the Internet Explorer across the latest Window platforms.

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said on Thursday that the government should not have intervened in the Qantas labor row. Instead of referring the problem to Fair Work Australia, he said the Gillard government should have let Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce take full responsibility for the consequences of his unilateral decision to ground all Qantas fleet.

Caltex Australia is expecting profits to slide in 2011 because of production disruptions and wild changes in the global supply and price of crude oil.

By Andrew NelsonAccording to a recent outlook paper from Russell Investments, the majority of Australian investment managers believe the S&P/ASX300 will finish 2012 higher than where it started.

From Morrison Securities Pty. Ltd.U.S. stocks gained after investors took heart from stronger U.S. economic data, but fell off session highs after the head of the International Monetary Fund stoked fears that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis is worsening.

By Peter Switzer, founder of the Switzer Super Report15th December 2011This week I want to share with you the observations of my favourite US analyst ? Abby Joseph Cohen ? who is the senior investment analyst at the legendary money making operation called Goldman Sachs.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened trading around the USD0.9920 level after trading up to USD0.9990 overnight.

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckThe Dow Jones Industrial Average booked a gain of 45.33 points, or 0.4%, to 11868.

Apple Inc. is in talks to buy Anobit, an Israeli company that manufactures flash storage technology for somewhere between $400 to $500 million, according to a report published in the Israeli newspaper Calcalist on Tuesday.

Microsoft Corp. is planning to allow apps that are licensed under the Open Source Initiative to be distributed on its Windows Store.

Amazon will release an update for the Kindle Fire in two weeks after early consumer complaints about the tablet have surfaced.

Google Inc. has pulled 22 apps that are masquerading as legitimate versions of popular games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.

Thousands of migrating birds were killed or injured after seemingly mistaking parking lots, football fields and various other snow-covered areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and dropping to the ground in what a state wildlife specialist called the worst mass bird crash anyone has ever seen.

Latest data released by China's Ministry of Commerce showed foreign direct investment (FDI) in November into the world's second-largest economy tumbled to $8.76 billion, a 9.76 per cent drop from a year ago, and its first in 28 months, spurred by the economic crisis in Europe and weakness in the US.

The Mackay Conservation Group warned of the danger of the new coal terminal being planned in Queensland a day after the state government announced the award of tracks of land to two companies which will develop the ports.

Morningstar has again launched its yearly pick for the top fixed-income managers of the year. The tough criterion will again focus on how these managers delivered outstanding returns based on a sound strategy for the long term and not just on the highest returns made for the fiscal year.

The World Bank (WB) banned on Thursday Australian engineering firm Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) from participating in its projects for two years. The ban was due to KBR's misconduct in talks over a Vietnamese water supply contract.

By Andrew NelsonAnalysts at Macquarie took a little break from covering Cochlear ((COH)). They paused just long enough to do a full review of the company, of the cochlear implant (CI) marketplace and they also surveyed 389 US-based Audiologists.

Samsung has admitted that it somewhat got free marketing boosts when giant tech firm Apple decided to throw legal hurdles its way that for months barred the South Korean company from selling its flagship products on major markets around the world, including Australia.

Another Australian retailer fell victim to the weak business environment. Menswear chain Fletcher Jones will close one third of its outlets and lay off 61 employees.

Personal car-sharing spreads from California to Oregon and, very soon, to a neighborhood near you. The concept of hiring out your own vehicle has proven wildly popular here and around the globe.

The Reserve Bank's biggest concern at the moment is the eurozone crisis: those fears have driven the rate cuts in November and this month and judging by a speech in Sydney yesterday from Deputy Governor Ric Battellino.