Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word billion. 20 news.

BOEING was awarded a follow-on contract valued at a total of $US1.3 billion ($1.49 billion) over five years to supply additional improvements to the C-17 weapon system, the US Pentagon said today.

Merrill Lynch's sale of two life-insurance units to Dutch insurance and investment-products provider Aegon has closed, with the $1.25 billion pricetag being $50 million less than the two parties agreed to in August.

Shoppers spent nearly $28 billion in online purchases this holiday, the smallest online sales...

Legg Mason last week bailed out two cash funds to the tune of $1.12 billion to insulate them from...

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) estimates that U.S. studios lose more than $3 billion annual to piracy. Consider recent issues: "American Gangster" is pirated and available on DVD for $5 two weeks prior to its theatrical release. The Writers Guild of America and studios negotiate for important slices of the digital media pie.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve added $17.5 billion in temporary reserves to the banking system Monday through overnight repurchase agreements, or repos, through the New York Fed's Open Market Desk. "The large operations this morning are intended to offset the drain to reserves arising from an elevated balance in the Treasury's account at the Fed," the New York Fed said in a statement on its Web site. The Fed injected $13.5 billion through a 4-day repo, and $4 billion through a 2-day repo. "Clearly the Desk is looking to provide a lot of liquidity into the system for the turn of the year," wrote analysts at Action Economics.

Class action lawyers pursuing Tyco International on behalf of shareholders have been awarded nearly half a billion dollars in fees, the largest legal payday in history.

China Investment Corporation (CIC), which has a 10 per cent stake in private equity group Blackstone and invested $5 billion into Morgan Stanley, has pumped $20 billion ($£10 billion) into the China Development Bank to transform it into a commercial lender.

eMarketer is forecasting U.S. online ad spending to reach almost $28 billion in 2008--with the market buoyed by the presidential election and the Beijing Olympics, among other factors. That's up nearly 29% from this year.

AFTER missing out on Qantas, David Coe's controversial Allco Finance Group has made the first move to reinvent itself by unveiling a $200 million foundation investor to launch one of four planned specialist funds valued at up to $2 billion.

China's sovereign wealth fund injected $20 billion into policy lender China Development Bank, the latest example of how the country is using its surplus of cash to beef up the balance sheets of local banks.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of semiconductors rose 0.7% in November compared to October to $22.5 billion, or 2.3% more than last year, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday. "Early indications are that consumer products with high semiconductor content such as LCD TVs, PMP and MP3 players, along with digital cameras all sold well in the holiday buying season," said SIA President George Scalise. "While unit demand has been very robust, average selling prices have declined in a number of key product segments," it added.

The sub-prime fiasco has cost many high flying careers so far, but there is much more to come in 2008. There are many hundreds of billions of more losses to come, and likely many more careers that are about to be prematurely ended.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday announced a $20 billion capital injection into China Development Bank, one of the country's three policy lenders, as part of a long-planned transformation of the state-owned company into a commercial bank.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch on Monday completed a previously announced deal with Aegon , where it's selling its life insurance unit for $1.25 billion in cash. Aegon's Transamerica companies will continue to supply insurance and investment products, including offering the flagship Merrill Lynch Investor Choice Annuity product through the acquired Merrill Lynch subsidiaries. Merrill Lynch expects to record a gain on sale during the fourth quarter of 2007 and anticipates the transaction to be slightly accretive to earnings per share and to have a positive effect on return on equity in 2008 after redeployment of proceeds. Aegon expects the acquisition to add scale to its existing business and to have a marginally positive effect on earnings per share.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Financial Services Authority is probing a jump in the share price of U.K. waste services group Biffa ahead of an announcement in November that it had received a 1.2 billion pound ($2.4 billion) takeover bid, according to a report in the Times (of London) newspaper. The report said the FSA has written to various parties involved in the talks to ask what they knew about any possible bid before buyout groups HgCapital and Montagu Private Equity revealed their offer. The inquiry is a part of a continuing focus at the regulator on insider trading ahead of major announcements, the newspaper added.

Former top maker wins NASA pact in comeback effort Boeing Co.'s satellite-making complex in El Segundo, Calif., received a much-needed boost last week when it won a U.S. government contract potentially worth $1.2 billion.

Russia is not only rich in oil, but the precious metal titanium, which is underpinning so much of the US aerospace industry. This deal is a massive win for VSMPO-Avisma and also for Boeing, which has locked in a reliable supply for badly needed titanium parts.

Australia will review its air-combat spending program, which includes a $5.8 billion deal for 24 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter bombers from...

The Financial Services Authority is investigating a jump in the share price of Biffa, the waste services group, that occurred before an announcement that two private equity firms had made a £1.2 billion bid for the company.