Apple’s iAds challenge Google

Microsoft, Adobe issue critial patches

China’s AgBank Gets OK for Biggest IPO

SHANGHAI — China’s stock regulator approved Agricultural Bank of China’s plans for an initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong worth well over $20 billion that may be the world’s biggest ever, despite current market doldrums.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission reviewed the plan Wednesday and announced in a brief notice on its Web site that it had been approved. Read more

Microsoft Dynamics + Office 2010 + SharePoint 2010 = The Future of Productivity

REDMOND, Wash. — May 27, 2010 — There was a time when the phrase “works well with others” belonged primarily in school report cards. But in today’s complex and interrelated IT landscape, working together is at the heart of productivity, with businesses demanding solutions that build bridges between disconnected business systems and enhance collaboration. Read more

McDonald’s May Sales Rise 4.8% on New Frappes

June 8 (Bloomberg) — McDonald’s Corp.’s global sales rose more than some analysts estimated last month as diners purchased new beverages such as frappes.

Sales at restaurants open at least 13 months increased 4.8 percent, the world’s largest restaurant company said today in a statement. Analysts projected global sales would advance 4.5 percent, the median of four estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Read more

JPMorgan May Pay More Than RBS to Sell CMBS: Credit Markets

June 8 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. is selling $716.3 million of bonds tied to loans on commercial properties at higher relative yields than when the debt was last issued in April, just before the worst month for credit since markets froze in 2008.

A top-rated portion maturing in five years may yield about 140 basis points, or 1.4 percentage points, more than the benchmark swap rate, people familiar with the offering said. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc paid a spread of 90 basis points on a similar slice of a $309.7 million deal in this year’s only other sale of commercial mortgage-backed bonds on April 9. Read more

Bharti now among global top 5

Bharti Airtel closes $9 bln Zain Africa deal

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel has completed its $9 billion acquisition of African operations from Kuwait’s Zain in a deal that would make the firm the world’s No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers.

In March, Bharti struck a deal to buy the Kuwait firm’s mobile operations in 15 African countries, in India’s second biggest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel’s $13 billion buy of Corus in 2007. Read more

Publishers bet big on iPad

This doesn’t mean Apple’s tablet computer will live up to its hype as a potential lifeline for the media industry. Online ads still generate a small fraction of news companies’ advertising revenue, and it’s an open question whether print ads will return to what they totaled before the recession. Read more

Microsoft Introducing “Point and Click,” Our IT Advisors for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

REDMOND, Wash. – June 2, 2010 – Matt Hester loves to find cool new technology. Keith Combs loves to find ways technology makes businesses more efficient. Together they are “Point and Click — The IT Investigators,” a new Microsoft team whose Internet radio shows are designed to help small- and medium-sized business managers understand and take advantage of the powerful new technologies available to them.

The talk-radio-type shows, in which Hester and Combs chat with real business owners about their everyday challenges, launched May 26 on the Microsoft News Center’s Small- and Medium-Sized Business virtual press kit. A new episode of Hester and Combs’s business conversations will appear roughly every two weeks. Read more

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