Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word business. 38 news.

2007 was a banner year for some business bigwigs, but it also had its share of corporate screw-ups, public embarrassments and CEOs behaving badly. Here's an interactive look at those who came out on top and those who should sink to the bottom of the barrel.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Commerce Bancorp Inc. completed the sale of its insurance brokerage business, Commerce Insurance Services, to a group led by Commerce Insurance Services' Chairman George E. Norcross and President Michael Tiagwad, Commerce Bancorp said Monday. The sale includes the commercial property and casualty, employee benefits, and various specialty insurance lines of Commerce Insurance Services. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sky News' team of financial experts has joined the Prime Minister and business leaders as they warn of tough times ahead for the UK economy in 2008.

Added Value, WPP's brand-development business, has acquired Cheskin, an innovation consulting firm. The renamed Cheskin Added Value brings a strong presence in the tech sector, design strategy expertise and a solid understanding of the U.S. Hispanic market to its parent company.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Workstream Inc. said Monday it received an unsolicited offer from a U.S.-based payroll business to determine the viability of a merger between the two companies. Any deal will be subject to the standard conditions including the completion of due diligence, regulatory approval, shareholder approval, board approval and the required valuations, Workstream said. Shares last traded at about 65 cents each.

Doggy Door of the West Valley, a Goodyear pet-grooming business that has served locals for more than 20 years, is under new ownership.

THE white-hot infrastructure investment boom is showing no signs of slowing down, with business borrowing growing at its fastest pace for two decades.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp is in advanced talks to buy Israeli start-up XIV Information Systems for $300 million to $350 million, financial daily Globes reported on Monday.

SOUTH BAY Jan. 2 HomeBuyer Workshop Seminar. Steps on locating, loan programs, inspections and difference in minor and major repairs.

Star columnist Jennifer Wells culls her files for the best business quotes of the year. Can you say Conrad Black?

Some people think big. Others, like the popular "pink boot lady," just think bigger.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- International Business Machines Corp., the Armonk, N.Y., tech giant, is in advanced talks to buy an Israeli storage-technology startup, XIV, for $300 million to $350 million, the Israeli business daily Globes reported in its online edition. Citing sources, Globes said the company is chaired by Moshe Yanai, a former executive with EMC Corp., the Hopkinton, Mass., technology-infrastructure provider. Yanai laid out the $3 million that's funded XIV from its founding in 2002 to date, Globes reported.

Reuters - International Business Machines Corp is in advanced talks to buy Israeli start-up XIV Information Systems for $300 million to $350 million, financial daily Globes reported on Monday.

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.

Head of the Tata Group Ratan Tata feels that after the successful launch of his dream project -- the Rs 1-lakh car-- will ideally be the nice time for him to retire from active business life, a media report said here.

London Scottish Bank is to take a charge of up to ?22m sterling to cover losses at its unsecured consumer credit business.

HULL-BASED entrepreneur Diane Rothwell has launched an online lingerie business with support from Partnership Investment Finance (PIF).

Hitachi Ltd., Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate, plans to exit the business of making small hard disk drives as demand shifts to flash memory chips, the Nikkei business daily reported Sunday.

Vinod Khosla seems to relish rattling cages. He has become the nation's most visible investor in green tech, that fast-growing field of companies that develop new fuels and other eco-friendly products. Environmentalists couldn't be happier to see serious...