IBM (IBM.N) has won an outsourcing contract from Germany's Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) worth 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) that will see the U.S. company take over the airline's information technology infrastructure services division and staff.
Germany
Hitler watercolour fetches 130,000 euros at Nuremberg auction
A 1914 watercolour by Adolf Hitler fetched 130,000 euros ($161,000) at auction in the German city of Nuremberg on Saturday, the auctioneers said.
Draghi throws ECB door open to money printing as global prospects dim
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi threw the door wide open on Friday for more drastic measures to prevent the euro zone from sliding into deflation, promising to use whatever means necessary as China also acted to boost its sagging economic growth.
VW unveils multi-billion auto investments through next five years
Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) is to invest 85.6 billion euros ($106 billion) in its automotive operations over the next five years to push foreign expansion, new models and technology to back its quest for global leadership.
E.ON, Macquarie in exclusive talks over Spanish ops
Germany's top utility E.ON SE (EONGn.DE) has entered exclusive talks to sell its Spanish activities to Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG.AX), four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
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Rocket Internet (RKET.DE), the global e-commerce investor, expects to launch at least another 10 start-ups in 2015 and said it would work more closely with Facebook (FB.O) on advertising.
Pfizer (PFE.N) dampened investors' expectations of a renewed bid for AstraZeneca (AZN.L) on Monday by signing a major cancer drug deal with Germany's Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE), reducing the U.S. firm's need for Astra's products.
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday he does not believe tighter sanctions against Russia will help resolve the Ukraine crisis even though Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the European Union is considering further sanctions.
As large parts of Europe's economy grind almost to a halt, attention will focus this week on the latest assessments of business confidence in the euro zone and Germany, which has just narrowly avoided a recession.
Germany is pressing the European Commission to allow individual EU countries to ban cultivation of crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) before the 2015 harvest.
Germany narrowly avoided recession in the third quarter of the year and France exceeded low expectations, putting the euro zone on course for anemic growth but no contraction.
The mission of the first robotic probe to land on a comet reached a high point on Friday when the spacecraft radioed back to Earth that it had successfully drilled into the comet's body.
Germany's Fresenius Medical Care (FMEG.DE) said it agreed to take over Cogent Healthcare, a U.S. provider of specialist physicians to hospitals, as part of its drive to offer additional services linked to its core business of kidney dialysis.
A large group of professional forecasters cut their outlook for euro zone inflation and growth, underlining a trend that could prompt the European Central Bank to take more policy action to kick-start the region's flagging economy.
