Drugs and chemicals maker Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE) said it agreed to acquire Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL.O) for $17 billion in cash to boost its Merck Millipore lab supplies business in the biggest takeover in the German group's history, lifting its shares.
Legal & Regulatory
China to cut cotton import quotas to boost demand for domestic fiber
China, the world's top consumer of cotton, will slash its import quotas for 2015 to boost demand for domestic fiber, a senior official said on Monday, driving futures prices in both China and the United States lower.
AT&T, Chernin venture to buy majority stake in Fullscreen
Otter Media, a joint venture between telecom giant AT&T Inc and The Chernin Group, has agreed to buy a majority stake in Fullscreen, one of the largest networks on YouTube, the companies announced on Monday.
Israel approves Intel's $6 billion investment in chip plant
Israel's finance and economy ministries on Monday approved a plan by Intel Corp to invest $6 billion in the upgrade of its chip manufacturing plant, in what would be the largest single investment by a foreign company in the country.
Argentina's Fernandez to meet billionaire investor Soros in New York
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Monday will meet bondholder and billionaire financier George Soros, who is suing a U.S. bank caught in the middle of the country's latest debt default, a government minister said.
Latest News
Independent health advisers to the World Health Organization (WHO) have assessed that there should be no general ban on travel or trade with countries reeling from an Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the U.N. agency said on Monday.
Workers at German warehouses of online retailer Amazon.com took strike action again on Monday as labor union Verdi pressed its demands in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
The underwriters of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.N's IPO have issued additional shares, according to the Wall Street Journal, bringing the IPO's size to about $25 billion and making it the largest initial public offering in history.
The University of California voted on Friday to maintain its investments in fossil fuels, frustrating a student-led effort to divest its portfolio in oil, natural gas and coal.
Asian shares got off on the back foot on Monday after an uninspiring session on Wall Street, while the dollar gave back a little of its recent solid gains in early trading.
U.S. car manufacturer General Motors Co is recalling hundreds of thousands of cars over a defect in the parking brake that could cause a fire, a letter by the top U.S. auto safety regulator showed.
Swiss private bank Julius Baer is interested in acquiring Coutts International, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, but will not get into a bidding war for the venerable British bank's overseas arm, a Swiss paper reported on Sunday.
Scotland's rejection of independence and a lack of any fireworks at a Fed meeting last week have calmed investors enough to shift the focus back to what some call the "Great Stagnation", and how to avoid it.
The U.S. drive to end its reliance on Russian rocket motors got a boost this week when Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos unveiled a new engine project, but officials and industry insiders say it will take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a locally built alternative.
