COMPANIES

Crown land in the Pilbara could be given away for free as long as developers commit to build luxury high-rise apartments.

Face-to-face client interviews do not have to take place in person and can be held online, a law firm has stated.

Work is an important component of adult life. Australians spend on average 64 hours per week doing it. Despite it being such an important and large part of our adult life, people experience a range of problems and impacts related to work, including stress.

Brokers may not be able to differentiate their service offering from that of the banks enough to justify charging a fee, it has been claimed.

Macarthur Coal Ltd (ASX:MCC) has lifted its net profit guidance as a consequence of the sale of partial interest in Codrilla for $74.9 million.

Whitehaven (ASX:WHC), the Australian coal producer that put itself up for sale in October, announced today it had ended talks for a potential takeover transaction.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group tried to present a united front Sunday as they worked on a dispute relating to Alibaba's online payment service.

Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX: LEI) today announced a loss after tax of $382m for the nine months to 31 March 2011 from total revenue of $13.8bn. The company said it expects to report a loss after tax of $427 million for the 2010/11 financial year.

Another huge wage increase is expected to destabilize the struggling sector of small businesses in the face of federal budget warnings of a patchwork economy. This shall be the argument of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry or ACCI in the succeeding national wage trials this week.

Incidents like sexual harassment and workplace bullying could potentially cost companies millions of dollars unless they change their approach to preventing these behaviours

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have been taken to task over dodgy origin labelling, after an investigation by the NSW Food Authority revealed that two stores were selling mislabelled fruit The incident marks the first time Coles and Woolworths have been fined for Country of Origin labelling breaches, and both have been placed on the NSW Food Authority's Name and Shame register.

Google led the explicit core search market in the United States in April with 65.4 percent of search queries conducted, according to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR). Yahoo! and Microsoft took the second and third spots with 15.7 percent and 13.9 percent of the U.S. market, respectively. Ask Network had 3.1 percent of the searches while AOL, Inc., was fifth with 1.6 percent.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit May 12 to block the proposed acquisition by VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE:PAY) of Hypercom Corp. (NYSE:HYC) The department said that the proposed deal would substantially lessen competition in the sale of point-of-sale (POS) terminals in the United States, resulting in higher prices and reduced innovation, quality, product variety, and service.

Defunct peer-to-peer service file-sharing network LimeWire has reached an out-of-court $105 million settlement with major record companies.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) said Thursday it was notified just two months ago that Alibaba Group had moved ownership of an online-payment unit to a separate entity in August last year without approval or knowledge of Alibaba's board or shareholders.

Google Inc. (GOOG) has been under criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for earning millions from accepting ads from illegal online pharmacies.

Resource giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) says it has met all concerns raised over its planned expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine.

Ivernia Inc. (TSX: IVW), owner of the Magellan Mine in Western Australia, said that it has entered into an agreement for Green SEA Resources Inc. to pay Canadian $20 million (A$19.5 million) in exchange for a 16% stake in the owner of the world's largest pure lead mine.

Qantas Aiways’ maintenance engineers have decided to postpone all industrial action over their claims for job security.

Australia’s competitive advantage is in danger as the country’s freight advantage is being eroded, and as China lessens its dependence on Australian minerals, says a free market think tank.

Red-faced Facebook executives on Thursday admitted launching a smear campaign against number one rival Google and discredit its privacy practices.

The 21-year antitrust battle Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has been fighting with the U.S. government ends today, May 12.

Australian media company Fairfax Media Ltd. (FXJ) will cut about 82 editorial production jobs from its two main Sydney and Melbourne newspapers as part of a drive aimed at saving A$15 million (US$16 million) a year.

Groupon, the group buying site that features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see and buy in more than 500 markets around the world today announced its launch of the Groupon New Zealand, which began offering deals on May 10, 2011.

Michael Andrew, 54, chairman of KPMG Asia Pacific and also of KPMG Australia, has been elected Chairman of KPMG International.

BlueScope Steel Ltd. (BSL), Australia's largest steelmaker, announced today that it will report a full-year loss as the strengthening Australian dollar cuts the price of competing imports and the value of offshore earnings.

A stronger Australian dollar has been impacting on earnings for Westfield Group but a quarterly trading update yesterday suggests this is being countered by lower debt costs.

American pop star Lady Gaga has invaded the virtual farms of Farmville and has her own GagaVille to promote her singles included in her album "Born This Way," online games producer Zynga has announced.

A New Zealand court has ordered Australian airlines Qantas to pay fines worth NZ$6.5 million for fault of price fixing, records showed.