The euro zone economy ended 2014 with its worst quarter for over a year as further price cutting failed to significantly drive up business activity, adding pressure on the European Central Bank to act, surveys showed.
Europe
Tripadvisor acquires leading Dutch restaurant rating site
Tripadvisor (TRIP.O) has agreed to acquire top Dutch online restaurant review and booking sites Iens, the companies said on Thursday, giving the travel website a leading position in the Netherlands.
Euro zone December sentiment unchanged, November producer prices fall
Euro zone economic sentiment was unchanged in December against the previous two months, data showed on Thursday, as a more upbeat end-of-year mood in the services and retail sectors and among consumers was offset by a gloomier industry.
Unemployment at record low in Germany, record high in Italy
Germany's unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 6.5 percent in December while Italy's pushed up to a new high of 13.4 percent, underscoring the vast differences within the struggling euro zone economy.
Euro hits nine-year low as Brent oil goes below $50
The euro hit a nine-year trough on Wednesday as collapsing oil prices and worries about the world economy drove skittish investors into the arms of safe-haven sovereign debt.
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Bitstamp, one of the largest exchanges for trading the digital bitcoin currency, said it has temporarily suspended service after "some" of its "operational wallets were compromised" on Sunday, resulting in loss of about 19,000 bitcoins.
The euro slumped to a nine-year low on Monday as investors bet that the prospect of inflation across the region turning negative and mounting political uncertainty in Greece will force the European Central Bank to unleash quantitative easing.
German consumer goods and industrial glue maker Henkel wants to expand in the area of consumer branded goods and hair care and could consider a large acquisition, the company's chairwoman told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
Global Resorts, the investment vehicle of Italian tycoon Andrea Bonomi, has decided not to raise its offer for struggling French resort operator Club Mediterranee and to withdraw its bid, ending France's longest-running takeover battle.
Greek leftwing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras said the European Central Bank (ECB) could not exclude Greece if it decides to move to a full "quantitative easing" program to stimulate the euro zone's faltering economy.
Russia's 2014 oil output hit a post-Soviet record high average of 10.58 million barrels per day (bpd), rising by 0.7 percent helped by small non-state producers, Energy Ministry data showed on Friday.
British technology and outsourcing company Quindell Plc said it had entered into exclusivity arrangements with a third party for possible disposal of an operating division to improve its working capital profile.
France's floundering economy pushed car sales 6.8 percent lower year-on-year in December, while Spanish sales jumped by 21.4 percent, helped by a subsidy scheme, and also rose in Italy, according to auto industry associations.
Brent crude LCOc1 reversed early gains to trade near $57 a barrel on Friday, as the glut of oil that has halved prices since June overshadowed investors repositioning at the start of the year for an eventual recovery.
