Global business
Investors generally welcomed Nokia's decision to buy Siemens' share of the pair's mobile-network equipment venture. The 1.7 billion euro ($2.2 billion) deal gives the Finnish company full control of Nokia Siemens Networks, which is a profitable business, in contrast to Nokia's floundering mobile-phone division.
BlackBerry's share price slumped by a third after it published disappointing quarterly earnings and revealed an $84 million loss. The smartphone maker has revamped its lineup with touch-screen devices, but the 6.8 million phones it shipped in the three months to June was below the 7.45 million that had been forecast.
Louis Freeh, the director of the FBI between 1993 and 2001, was asked to head an investigation into allegations of improper payments in the office that is processing claims against BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Last month BP ran newspaper advertisements stating its commitment to fork out for "legitimate claims," but insisting that some losses were "inflated.''
A former chairman of Olympus, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, and two other executives were given suspended prison sentences for trying to hide losses at the Japanese optical-devices company. The scandal came to light in 2011 when Michael Woodford, Olympus' chief executive at the time, blew the whistle. Suspended sentences are often handed down in Japan for white-collar crimes.
The chairman of CJ Group, a South Korean chaebol, was charged with embezzlement. Lee Jay-Hyun is a grandson of Samsung's founder. The government in Korea has promised to crack down on alleged mismanagement at the country's powerful conglomerates.
America's Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicted Jon Corzine on civil charges in relation to the 2011 bankruptcy of MF Global, a derivatives broker at which he was chief executive. The CFTC is charging Corzine with a "failure to supervise diligently" when customer funds were misused to cover bets on debt. He says the allegations have no merit.
Steinway Musical Instruments agreed to be bought by Kohlberg & Co. in a private-equity deal valued to the tune of $438 million. Steinway was founded in Manhattan by a German immigrant in 1853 and soon became the world's most famous maker of pianos. It has factories in Queens in New York and in Hamburg, Germany.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, entrepreneurial twins linked to the early days of Facebook, submitted a plan to regulators to set up an exchange-traded fund in Bitcoins. The virtual currency hit the headlines in April when prices soared and plunged. It is thought unlikely that regulators will approve the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust.
Political economy
A slew of data suggested that the British economy is recovering more robustly than had been thought. Indexes of activity in manufacturing and services increased by the fastest rate in two years; a measure of business confidence was at its highest level since 2007; and a survey of credit conditions found a rise in demand for mortgages.
The Federal Reserve issued rules that will compel American banks to follow the Basel 3 accords requiring them to hold more and higher-quality capital. The Fed also said it is planning even tougher requirements for eight systemically important banks, which may include a higher leverage ratio, a way of measuring how much equity banks have as a proportion of total assets.
The Portuguese finance minister, VÃtor Gaspar, resigned, followed by the foreign minister, Paulo Portas, who also heads the People's Party, the junior partner in the coalition government. The resignations were over disagreements about Portugal's austerity.
In India the government passed a law to provide cheap food rations to two-thirds of Indians. It did so by ordinance Âwithout getting Parliament's approval. Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul, from the family dynasty behind the ruling Congress Party, think the gesture will boost their chances in the general election next year.
