Business news for Mon, 17 Mar 2008. 1346 news.

The company averts a proxy battle by agreeing to expand its board by two seats and to back two nominees supported by outside investors.

The premium in the presidential campaign appears increasingly to be on picking a president who can handle a 3 a.m. call about an international economic crisis. Here are five realities to consider.

Just over a year ago, Bear Stearns' equity was valued at a cool $20bn. Under the plan, its shareholders would swap their paper for JPMorgan stock

The spectacular collapse of Bear Stearns may have cost no one more than James Cayne, the bank's legendary leader who lost nearly a billion dollars and a painstakingly built reputation in the wreckage.

The U.S. railroad files a lawsuit against two hedge funds alleging violations of U.S. securities law.

GLOBAL markets have gone into "a complete state of panic" in the hours after Aussie stocks lost $31 billion.

The French bank promoted its chief financial officer, Fr?d?ric Oudea, to deputy chief executive - a move that some observers said could pave the way for the bank's chairman to step down.

Two deals do not make a trend, but some industry analysts were talking excitedly about the prospects for consolidation in the European telecoms industry

A very unsocial kerfuffle breaks out between Marc Canter and Marc Andreessen over the real number of users in the latter's social network.

FT.com - It was not the expected St Patrick's Day Massacre. US stocks briefly fell into a bear market on Monday, as the S&P 500 dropped 20 per cent below the intra-day peak it hit last October, but then made a spirited attempt to shrug off the world financial system's worst crisis in many decades.

One of the largest US pharmacy and drug store chains, is to start operating workplace health clinics in a strategic expansion

John Authers on the equity markets which while down considerably, did not suffer as badly as other markets

Listing of Kenyan mobile operator set to be biggest listed company in east Africa with the country's government valuing it at $3.1bn

The chief executive of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. got compensation valued at $12.6 million in 2007, 3 percent more than the year before, as the railroad operator's profits slipped but its stock rose nearly 13 percent.

Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car start-up, said today it has begun "regular production" of its first car, the 2008 Roadster.

A US appeals court has overturned the high-profile insider trading conviction of Joseph Nacchio, the former chief executive of Qwest Communications and ordered a fresh trial

Italy's finance minister has accepted an offer by Air France-KLM to acquire the Treasury's 49.9 per cent shareholding in loss-making Alitalia

Whitehall aims to stem the number of people affected by long-term sickness, in the wake of a report putting the annual cost of worklessness at ?100bn

Company pulls down version 1.4 of the photo management program and recommends those who have updated go back to the old version until the bugs are squashed.