BYD shares jump on China debut despite weak earnings

Shares in Chinese carmaker BYD have risen sharply on their debut on the Shenzen stock exchange, despite the company reporting a drop in profits.

BYD shares jumped as much as 39% to 25 yuan, compared with the listing price of 18 yuan.

The company had raised 1.42bn yuan ($219m; £136m) from the share issue to fund its expansion plans.

Moody's cuts Toyota credit rating on strong yen

Car giant Toyota has had its credit rating cut by the ratings agency Moody's on worries that the strong yen and rising raw material costs will hit profitability.

Moody's cut the car maker's credit rating one notch to Aa3 from Aa2.

The ratings agency, which had put Toyota under review in April, said further cuts remained a possibility.

Saab says a big order means it can pay employee wages

The Swedish carmaker Saab has announced a big order from a Chinese company, which means it now can afford to pay its staff.

Last week, the company said it was too short of cash to make the payments.

Now it has said that the pre-payment on a 13m euro ($18m; £12m) order for 582 Saab vehicles would give it the short-term funding it needs.

Apple removes 'offensive' Intifada application

Computer firm Apple has removed an Arabic-language application from its App Store called ThirdIntifada, after Israel said it incited violence.

"We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people," Apple said.

Winklevoss twins end legal row with Facebook

The Winklevoss brothers, Harvard contemporaries of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have ended their legal battle with the social network.

They reached a $65m (£41m) settlement in 2008, after claiming that Mr Zuckerberg stole their idea.

The legal spat was immortalised in the film "The Social Network".

Google facing US antitrust probe - reports

US federal regulators are preparing to issue court orders to Google and other companies as part of a probe into practices in Google's search engine business, US media report.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to open a formal inquiry within the next several days, the Wall Street Journal said.

The FTC is looking at whether Google manipulates its search results to steer users to its own sites and services.

FTC steps up probe of Google

WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is moving forward with an antitrust investigation of Internet giant Google, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

The regulator has been making inquiries about Google's business behavior in recent months, but is now issuing subpoenas to collect a broad swath of information from the company and from others that do business with Google, the Journal said Thursday.

Samruk-Kazyna plans to acquire up to 25% in Alliance Bank, BTA Bank, Narodny Bank and Kazkommertsbank, advisor to Kazakhstan prime minister says

Samruk-Kazyna, a Kazakhstan state-owned fund, is planning to acquire up to 25% of the ordinary voting shares in the four largest banks in Kazakhstan, said Alexander Mirtchev, one of the directors of Kazyna Fund and advisor to the prime minister of Kazakhstan.

Google to digitise British Library collection

Thousands of books and papers from the British Library’s collection will soon be made available online through a new partnership with Google.

Google and the British Library will work together to digitise 250,000 out-of-copyright texts from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Sega says hackers stole data of 1.29 million users

Sega has confirmed that the personal data of 1.29 million of its customers was stolen in an attack on its systems.

It comes after the computer games firm said on Friday that e-mail addresses and dates of birth stored on the Sega Pass database were accessed by hackers.

However, Sega continues to say that payment information, such as credit card numbers, remained safe.

Blackberry firm shares fall sharply on poor results

Shares in Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) have fallen by more than a fifth since it announced disappointing results on Thursday.

The company said that it had missed even its lowered expectations and reduced its profit forecasts.

RIM's net profit was $695m (£430m) in the three months to 28 May, down from $769m in the same period last year.

Toyota targets full North American output by September

Toyota Motors has said it expects its North American factory output to return to full capacity as early as September, faster than it had earlier forecast.

Toyota had curbed production at its factories in the region due to a shortage of parts in wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Honda warns of profit slump due to earthquake

Honda has become the second major Japanese carmaker in a week to warn of dramatically lower profits due to reduced production resulting from March's massive earthquake.

It forecast net profits of 195bn yen ($2.4bn; £1.5bn) for the year to the end of March 2012, down 64% on the 534bn yen the company made last year.

Nokia and Apple settle patent dispute

Nokia and Apple have agreed a technology licensing agreement that ends the long-running legal dispute between the two firms.

"The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies," Nokia said.

Nokia sued Apple for patent infringements in 2009 and extended the action in December last year.

Lending to firms can bring tasty returns, but there are risks for ordinary investors

Pioneering investors have turned the traditional idea of bank borrowing on its head.

Rather than borrowing from the banks, they hope to make solid returns by lending their own money to companies including Lloyds TSB and Tesco Bank.

These are among the growing number of businesses raising money by issuing corporate bonds aimed directly at ordinary investors. As Financial Mail reported in the Midas column last week, housing association

Toyota forecasts profits slump after earthquake

Japanese car giant Toyota has said it expects profits for this financial year to be sharply lower than last year, due in large part to the massive earthquake in March that disrupted production.

The carmaker forecast net profits of 280bn yen ($3.5bn; £2.1bn) for the year to the end of March, down a third on the 408bn yen it made last year.

Facebook sorry over face tagging launch

Facebook has apologised for the way it rolled-out a new system that recognises users' faces.

The social network said that it should have done more to notify members about the global launch.

Its Tag Suggestions feature scans photos and automatically picks out existing friends.

Although users have the option to switch it off, some complained that they were not explicitly asked if they wanted it activated.

Ford looks to Asia to grow sales by 50% in four years

The US car giant, Ford, has said it wants to boost sales from 5.3 million vehicles a year to eight million - a number that would pull it level with rival car maker, Toyota.

But the trouble with forecasting is that predictions often miss the mark.

That has not stopped Alan Mulally, the chief executive of Ford from making a few bold ones.

Apple boss Steve Jobs shows off iCloud service

Apple has unveiled its much-anticipated iCloud service at its annual developers' conference.

Apple boss Steve Jobs returned from medical leave to show off the features of the web-based service.

He said iCloud was necessary because the PC was no longer the digital hub of users' digital lives.

The web-based service aims to synchronise and co-ordinate the key content people store and share across their devices

9 things Weinergate tells us about Twitter

(CNN) -- By now, unless you live under a boulder large enough to block data signals, you know that New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is embroiled in a scandal involving an extremely personal picture sent from his Twitter account to a Seattle college student.

'Ethical’ charity has to sack staff after the Prince of Wales resigns

While the Prince of Wales has the power to attract attention to causes close to his heart, the withdrawal of his patronage can be devastating.

Mandrake hears that a charity from which the heir to the throne resigned as president is struggling to survive.

This week, staff at the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum were told they may lose their jobs.

China Foreign Stocks Board ‘Very Close,’ Shanghai’s Fang Says

China is “very close” to starting a board for the listing of overseas companies in Shanghai and global manufacturers will have priority, according to the head of Shanghai’s financial services office.

The so-called international board will be a success because of pent-up demand for “high-quality” companies, Fang Xinghai, director general of the office, said in an interview today at Bloomberg’s Shanghai office. Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, said this week it’s in talks to list shares in Shanghai, while HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, said in June 2010 it aims to raise a “significant amount” of funds.

Seven Latin American CROs Launch Multinational Company

South Cone Alliance LLC launched operations last April. Its members –seven CROs located in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Perú and Panama- joined their efforts under the banner “One contract, multinational reach, local focus”

To deliver integral corporate solutions through the merging of their services and the standarization of their operating procedures and rates, is the core of the strategy developed by the new venture, according to Carlos Cáceres, CEO of Clinical Trials Support (CTS), one of the founding members of South Cone Alliance.