Despite the overall financial gloom, German engineering giant Siemens got off to a good start in the new year. The company reported an earnings increase Tuesday, Jan. 27, while expressing a bit of cautious optimism. Earnings for the first quarter climbed 7 percent from a year ago to 19.6...

John Thompson, outgoing chief executive of security company Symantec, is being considered for the post of secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to a news wire report on Tuesday. “He (Thompson) is the leading candidate,” Reuters quoted an unidentified senior Democratic source as saying. “He is still...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government agreed to implement a second economic stimulus package on Tuesday, Jan. 27. The program calls 50 billion euros ($66 billion) worth of investments, aid to businesses and tax breaks. The stimulus program, agreed to by Merkel’s Christian conservatives and Social Democratic Party earlier this month,...

Brand-new Chief Executive Carol Bartz deserves exactly zero blame or credit for the fourth-quarter financial results Yahoo will announce Tuesday afternoon, but the judgment of her abilities will begin in earnest when she bears the Internet pioneer’s tidings. That’s because Bartz so far has spent only 20 minutes on...

Some financial analysts believe that Europe might have reached its economic low point, with recovery on the way. But economists say they are waiting for some key statistics which will be released next week. The 16-member euro zone might still be in the grip of a severe economic slump,...

Pfizer, the No. 1 drugmaker, said on Monday that it would acquire U.S. rival Wyeth for about $68 billion (49.6 billion pounds) in a move to diversify its revenue base. The world’s largest drugmaker, which raised $22.5 billion in debt from a consortium of banks to finance the deal,...

Struggling German chipmaker Qimonda has filed for insolvency at a court in Munich, a court spokeswoman said Friday. The Infineon subsidiary had received a 325-million-euro ($422-million) cash injection from the German state of Saxony, the federal government and a Portuguese development bank in December in a bid to keep...

EU finance ministers vowed to lower their growing national deficits after recession-hit economies improve, but the politicians did not call for implementing binding deadlines to fight the debts. “A crisis that arose out of (too much) debt cannot be fought by creating more debt over the long term,” Austrian...

Barack Obama has taken the oath of office and been sworn in as America’s 44th president – and the country’s first African-American leader. More than one million people gathered in the National Mall in a wintry Washington DC, to see Mr Obama take the oath shortly after 1200 (1700...

Analysts were unprepared for a higher-than-predicted leap in German investor optimism in January, despite continued signs of downsizing in German industry. German investor confidence jumped unexpectedly in January, a key indicator released on Tuesday showed. It signals hope that signs of an economic recovery could emerge as the year...

The government has announced a second package of measures to encourage banks to lend to individuals and businesses. The long list of policies includes a scheme to offer insurance against banks losing more money from the bad debts that started the credit crunch. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the...

The EU is facing a “deep and protracted” recession, according to forecasts made in Brussels and released on Monday, Jan. 19. More economic contraction and rising unemployment are on the horizon, Brussels said. The 16 nations which use the euro will see their economies shrink by 1.9 percent, while...

The worldwide economic crisis has significantly shaken Europe’s economies. No country can sit back and wait it out. With a series of economic stimulus packages, nations hope they can weather the storm. At their summit in December, the EU countries’ heads of state agreed to launch economic stimulus packages...

The three parties of Germany’s grand coalition have agreed on a fresh round of stimulus measures worth billions to protect the weakening economy. But some already worry the package will not offer the help that’s needed. In talks held late into the night on Monday, Jan. 12, the governing...

The company demonstrated the technologies, along with another one designed to block malware from getting into corporate networks, to reporters and briefed them on its research and development strategy at an event it dubbed ‘Innovation Showcase’ in California on Wednesday. Virtualisation technology that essentially creates different machines on the...