Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word unit. 9 news.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil giant ConocoPhillips said Monday that it signed a production-sharing contract with Malaysian national oil company Petronas for the exploration and development of natural gas fields offshore Sabah, Malaysia. Petronas will hold a 40% stake under the contract through its unit Petronas Carigali, while Shell and ConocoPhillips will each hold 30%.

Through its Kijiji unit, eBay is trying to dethrone the Web's most spectacularly successful underdog, Craigslist.

SETANTA Sports has saved at least ?23 million in taxes by setting up a unit in Luxembourg, the Sunday Times reported, citing its own calculations.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Magic Software Enterprises Ltd., the Or Yehuda, Israel, provider of business-integration and application-development technology, sold its Advanced Answers on Demand subsidiary to Fortissimo Capital for $17 million. Fortissimo is the Rosh ha'Ayin, Israel, investment firm. Magic expects to post a more than $9 million gain on the sale of AAOD, which develops software for application in long-term health care, including retirement facilities as well as home-health and rehabilitation agencies. As part of the deal, Magic has licensed to AAOD the right to continue to sell its product portfolio for three years.

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.

Beijing said a unit of its new $200bn sovereign wealth fund would inject $20bn into China Development Bank in a move intended to smooth the policy lender's transformation into a commercially-oriented institution

Beijing said a unit of its new $200bn sovereign wealth fund would inject $20bn into China Development Bank in a move intended to smooth the policy lender's transformation into a commercially-oriented institution

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.

A city agency and a developer will pay an estimated $1.5 million after canceling a steel order for an 80-unit luxury condominium project that was scrapped amid slow sales.