Three execs resign ahead of meeting
On the eve of a highly-anticipated board meeting that will be attended by Olympus' ousted president, Michael C. Woodford, the company said three senior executives had resigned and that its top management was prepared to step down once the company is on the road to recovery from an accounting scandal.
The move is a compromise ahead of what was expected to be a tense showdown today between Woodford and the Olympus management. Woodford publicly said that he was fired last month after he raised questions about $1.4 billion in exorbitant payouts related to mergers and acquisitions to obscure recipients.
India to allow foreign retailers to own stores there
The Indian government decided Thursday to allow foreign retailers like Wal-Mart and Tesco to open stores in the country, the first time that policymakers have moved to open India's vast and fast-growing retail market to outsiders.
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The decision by the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will allow retailers to own 51 percent of their Indian operations, with the rest held by an Indian partner.
A spokesman for the governing Congress Party confirmed the move on Indian television but provided no details about the decision, which is opposed by small-store owners and many political parties.
AT&T, T-Mobile move closer to dropping deal
AT&T and T-Mobile USA appeared closer to scrapping their proposed merger, saying Thursday they had withdrawn their application to the Federal Communications Commission to join their cellphone operations.
Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile, and AT&T said in a joint statement that they still intended to pursue the $39 billion merger and would prepare for a federal antitrust lawsuit that is seeking to block the deal.
The application withdrawal appears in part designed to prevent the FCC from publicizing the companies' records about the potential effects of the merger, which could then be used by the Justice Department in the antitrust trial.
Nokia Siemens to cut 17,000 jobs
Nokia Siemens Networks, the equipment joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, said Wednesday that it planned to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2013 in a wide-ranging program to enable Nokia Siemens to refocus on mobile broadband equipment, the fastest-growing segment of the market.
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The reductions will slash the company's workforce by 23 percent.
The cuts follow Nokia Siemens' $1.2 billion purchase of Motorola's mobile network equipment business in July 2010, which added staff.
Soap opera rescue plan moves slower than anticipated
In July, after ABC canceled "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," Jeffrey Kwatinetz and Rich Frank licensed the shows and promised to bring them back to life on the Internet.
But Wednesday they rewrote the storyline, saying they had underestimated the time it would take to win over cast members like Susan Lucci, the star of "All My Children," and groups like the Writers Guild of America.
Another union involved, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said it remained hopeful "that an opportunity to revive these two popular series will emerge in the future." So, stay tuned.
