Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words food+rose. 2 news.

UNITED States Internet sales rose at the slowest pace on record as discounts cut revenue in the final days of the holiday shopping season. Online spending from November 1 through December 21 increased 19 percent from the same period a year earlier to $26.3 billion, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc said yesterday. Sales trailed last year's 26 percent growth and the research firm's forecast for a 20 percent gain during this year's holidays, Bloomberg News said. Consumers have limited spending growth this year as gasoline and food prices rise and mortgage defaults increase. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment for December dropped to 75.5, the lowest since October 2005. "This year will be the year of the discount," Fred Crawford, managing director at AlixPartners LLP, told Bloomberg Television on December 21. AlixPartners is a consulting firm based in Southfield, Michigan. ComScore hasn't recorded growth of less than 20 percent since

FISHER & Paykel Healthcare Corp, the New Zealand-based maker of breathing masks to treat sleep disorders, rose to a three-month high in Wellington after the takeover of a rival stoked speculation about more mergers. The Auckland-based company jumped three percent to its highest since September 20, after Respironics Inc, the world's largest manufacturer of the breathing devices, was acquired by Royal Phillips Electronics NV for US$5.2 billion in cash, Bloomberg News reported. Fisher & Paykel has about seven percent of the market for products to treat obstructive sleep apnea, a condition thought to affect as many as 12 million Americans. It is among a handful of companies with US Food & Drug Administration approval to sell OSA devices, along with Respironics and ResMed Inc. "They definitely could be a takeover target because the OSA market is very attractive with its high growth," said Stephen Walker, who manages the equivalent of US$107 million at Walker Capital