Business news with words able+deal. 38 news.

Worldwide Pants, the production company of "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Craig Ferguson," has made an agreement with the Writers Guild of America. The deal would give Letterman a leg up on the competition, according to analysts; he'd be able to draw on prepared written comedy material.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Europe stocks weakened out of the gate on Monday, a half-day of trade ahead of the New Year's holiday. Air France-KLM shares rose 1% in early trading Monday, following Friday's news that it's the preferred bidder to buy Alitalia . Cairn Energy , the Scottish oil explorer that surged last week on the back of deal speculation, strong oil prices and its re-entry into the FTSE 100, slipped 1.6%. London Scottish Bank tumbled over 16% after taking a provision and warning it won't be able to pay its final dividend. The FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% to 6,462.70 in London and the CAC 40 dipped 0.2% to 5,616.79 in Paris. German and Swiss markets were shut.

Aim is to compete in global market Two of China's biggest automakers announced a deal yesterday to combine their production assets in hopes of creating a company able to compete in global markets.

Two of China's biggest automakers announced a deal Wednesday to combine their production assets in hopes of creating a company able to compete in global markets.

Japan's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo will join with Internet search engine Google to provide Internet search and e-mail services on the company's handsets, news reports said Tuesday. Starting as early as the spring, users will be able to access...

CHINA Investment Corp said on Saturday the reference price for its stake in US-based Morgan Stanley was fixed between US$48.07 and US$57.68 per share. The state-owned forex investment firm reached an agreement with Morgan Stanley on Wednesday to invest US$5 billion into the second largest investment bank in the US. The injection was used to purchase equity units that are mandatorily convertible into Morgan Stanley common shares. The two sides agreed CIC would be able to convert the equity units into Morgan Stanley common shares at a price no more than 1.2 times the reference price when the conversion was due. CIC said the share of common stock underlying the convertible securities would not be issued until the exercise of the stock purchase contracts on August 17, 2010. The equity units carried a fixed annual interest rate of nine percent before conversion. Shares held by CIC were agreed to reach no more than 9.9 percent of outstanding shares. Wednesday's agreement came as

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Schering-Plough Corp. were up 4% at $27.20 on Friday amid news that the drugmaker has expanded its pact with Johnson & Johnson for the popular rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade and its intended successor, golimumab. Under the revised deal, if golimumab receives regulatory approval, Schering-Plough will be able to sell Remicade for up to 15 years past the first sale of golimumab. Schering-Plough's right to distribute Remicade currently expires around 2014. Schering-Plough has the right to sell the products outside the U.S., Japan and certain Asian countries, while J&J holds U.S. marketing rights. The revised agreement also allows for Schering-Plough to pursue regulatory approval for golimumab for the treatment of Crohn's disease in its territories. The companies said they expect to file for U.S. and European approval of golimumab in 2008. Shares of J&J were up 1% at $68.06. (Corrects day of the week)

The provincial government is pleased with the protection it was able to obtain for workers at Fisheries Products International as it was sold, Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout said Thursday.

AFP - Chinese banks will be able to invest client money in British stocks and mutual funds, China said after a striking a deal with the European nation's regulators.

AECOM Technology Corp, a leading design firm, has acquired Shenzhen-based CityMark Architects and Engineers, expanding its presence in the rapidly growing market in China. "By drawing on CityMark's expertise and local presence, we expect AECOM will be able to greatly expand its market and service scope in the People's Republic of China and deepen our planning, design and management services across Asia," said John M. Dionisio, AECOM president and chief executive officer at a news conference. The acquisition is believed to be the first time a non-Chinese company has acquired full ownership of a Chinese design firm with a Class A architectural and engineering license issued by the Ministry of Construction. CityMark co-founders Mark Mao and Jin Yiqun remain president and senior vice president respectively. "I believe joining AECOM gives us a strong professional advantage, helping us to deal with bottlenecks on management, human resources and finance," Mao said

RUPERT Murdoch may take until the end of 2010 to show he was right to pay US$5.2 billion for Dow Jones & Co., whose shareholders probably were to approve the takeover yesterday. By that time, Murdoch's News Corp should be able to double Dow Jones's pretax cash flow to US$600 million, giving it a 12-percent return on the purchase, said Larry Haverty, a fund manager at New York's Gamco Investors Inc, Bloomberg News reported. Dow Jones may start adding to News Corp's profit in 2009 following investments next year, said Laura Martin, an analyst at Soleil Securities in San Marino, California. "It's not a quick strategy," said Haverty, who helps manage Gamco's US$30 billion in assets, including US$308.1 million of News Corp shares as of September 30. "Where he's going, we're very comfortable with it. It's just going to take three years." More than 50 percent of shareholders approved the deal ahead of the meeting, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The

Gordon Brown is optimistic the government would be able to guarantee 90% compensation for people who suffered losses before the Pension Protection Fund was set up

YAHOO! Japan Corp and eBay Inc agreed yesterday to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things over the Internet from the United States and Japan. The move marks a return to Japan of eBay, which pulled out of the market in 2002, never able to compete against the domination of Yahoo! in the country. Yahoo! said by March Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo! auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo! Japan auction items through the eBay site. The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo! said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers. "We are excited to partner with Yahoo! Japan in providing Japanese users with a localized site designed to

YAHOO Japan Corp and eBay Inc agreed today to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things via the Internet from the US and Japan. Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site. The move will mark a return to Japan of eBay, which pulled out of the market in 2002, never able to compete against the domination of Yahoo here. The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers. Americans using eBay will be able to more easily buy Japanese goods popular abroad, such as "manga" comic books, CDs,

The sub-prime buy-to-let mortgage market has virtually collapsed after the summer’s credit crunch with lenders withdrawing almost 90 per cent of deals. According to Moneyfacts, the price comparison website, more than half of buy-to-let deals for landlords with troubled credit histories have vanished in the past month, sparking fears that many may be forced to sell their investments. There were 1,383 sub-prime buy-to-let deals available in July. There are now 149. Only four relatively unknown lenders remain in the market: Preferred Mortgages, edeus, Manchester Building Society and Pink, which is funded by The Mortgage Works, Nationwide’s sub-prime specialist arm. The exodus means that investors who need to remortgage may no longer be offered attractive rates and will be forced to pay the standard variable rate, pushing up their monthly outgoings by hundreds of pounds when rental yields are relatively flat. Melanie Bien, director of Savills Private Finance, the mortgage broker, said: “Novice landlords might sell up when the going gets tough and if the cost of mortgages rise. Without a similar increase in rents they might not be able to make it pay. “If they are relatively new to it, they may have large mortgages on their properties and the payments may just be too much.” The decline in the sub-prime residential market has also continued, with the number of deals falling a further 20 per cent since October. There are now 63 per cent fewer of these rates on the market than before the collapse of the US sub-prime market. Julia Harris, analyst at Moneyfacts. co.uk, said: “With the sub-prime buy-to-let market already virtually destroyed, it surely cannot sustain much more pressure before it vanishes. In less than a year, the sub-prime market has grown, flourished, and is now wilting fast.” The fall in sub-prime residential and buy-to-let deals comes shortly after Kensington Mortgages, which specialised in the market, pulled out. Kensington Mortgages also funded Bank of Ireland’s sub-prime operation. Ms Harris said: “When one big lender withdraws, you see a massive drop. They don’t do just one deal, they are responsible for hundreds.” Moneyfacts called for lenders to take a radically new approach to the sub-prime market. However, the CML said the problem is to do with

A green jamboree in Indonesia will not achieve anything tangible, but it matters IF SIZE is a measure of importance, the meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that starts in Bali on December 3rd is a big deal. Somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 politicians, officials, activists and journalists are expected to attend, stretching the Indonesian island's resources to breaking-point. "It's a nightmare for those of us who are actually working on the agenda," says an official who is attending. "We won't be able to get internet access or food." The recent floods in parts of Indonesia (shown above) may help concentrate minds. The numbers of people pouring into Bali next week do at least demonstrate that the political profile of climate change has risen over the past year. Nobody whose job touches on global warming can afford to be absent. And the issue that the meeting is primarily about--how the world should try to mitigate climate change when the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012--is crucial. ...

Wall Street rebounded Tuesday after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it will invest $7.5 billion in Citigroup Inc. --a vote of confidence for the nation's largest bank, which has suffered severe losses amid the ongoing crisis in the mortgage market. The Dow Jones industrials rose more than 200 points in yet another volatile session as investors were hopeful the financial sector can remain healthy despite the ongoing credit crisis. The banking industry has been battered in recent months as defaults on home loans have risen and rendered some mortgage-backed securities essentially worthless. Major financial institutions, including Citi and its competitors, have had to book some $80 billion of writedowns on those holdings -- a trend that has left the markets nervous about the full extent of the damage from soured loans. Citi's ability to secure a capital injection raised hope others might be able to do the same. "The Citi deal is certainly a relief after a series of negative news on Monday with respect to the financials," said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffer's Investment Research. Funds like Abu Dhabi's "that have plenty of cash may be viewed as a potential rescuer given the balance sheet troubles the banks are having. A weak dollar makes it that much more possible." Still, the market showed some vulnerability to anyone raising the specter of a sagging economy, and that caused another day of big swings for major indexes. Concerns about further writedowns caused the Dow to fall 240 points Monday, bringing the blue chip index, along with the Standard & Poor's 500 index, down 10 percent from recent highs, a decline that signifies a correction.

WALL Street rebounded yesterday after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it will invest US$7.5 billion in Citigroup Inc., a vote of confidence for the largest US bank, which has suffered severe losses amid the ongoing crisis in the mortgage market. The Dow Jones industrials rose more than 200 points in yet another volatile session as investors were hopeful the financial sector can remain healthy despite the ongoing credit crisis. The banking industry has been battered in recent months as defaults on home loans have risen and rendered some mortgage-backed securities essentially worthless. Major financial institutions, including Citi and its competitors, have had to book some US$80 billion of writedowns on those holdings, a trend that has left the markets nervous about the full extent of the damage from soured loans. Citi's ability to secure a capital injection raised hope others might be able to do the same. "The Citi deal is certainly a relief after a series of

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co. , is poised to announce a deal with digital recorder company TiVo Inc. giving NBC Universal the rights to use TiVo's viewer research and interactive advertising products, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. NBC Universal will also use the deal, which could be announced as soon as Tuesday, to sell advertisers TiVo products such as interactive tags that allow a company's name to be seen even as the viewer is skipping over a commercial, the Journal said. NBC will be able to offer advertisers data about the results of campaigns that use interactive tags, the report said. NBC Universal will start using the TiVo services on Jan. 1, the Journal reported.

Older Americans tend to think of Social Security as something we ought to be able to afford. Indeed, many seniors tell themselves that when Washington pours extra cash into the New Deal pension program, the action is something like investing in a new Volvo. The purchase may look extravagant but is, in reality, deliciously necessary. This attitude is also held by some of our most respected pension officials. The longtime Social Security Administration commissioner Robert M. Ball wrote on this page recently that "it's the essence of responsibility, in my view, to insist on no benefit cuts" ["A Social Security Fix for 2008," Oct. 29].