Carl Icahn increases his stake in Yahoo In a move likely to fuel speculation over Yahoo's search for a new chief executive, activist investor Carl Icahn has bought close to 7 million additional shares of the Internet company, according to regulatory filings. Icahn -- a hedge-fund manager who threatened to oust the board of Yahoo Inc. this summer after it rejected a deal with Microsoft Inc. -- snapped up about $67 million worth of shares over three days this week, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That brings his total stake to 75.6 million shares, or nearly 5.5 percent of Yahoo.
Newspapers' online ad sales fall 3 percent U.S. newspapers online advertising sales fell 3 percent to $749.8 million in the third quarter from a year earlier, the second consecutive drop, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Print-ad sales slid 19 percent, their steepest quarterly decline since the Arlington, Va.-based trade association began tracking industry data in 1971. The print and online declines combined to produce an 18 percent decrease in total third-quarter industry ad revenue, to $8.94 billion from $10.9 billion in 2007.
Japan's industrial production starts sinking Production at Japan's vital manufacturers is sinking fast -- and is projected to turn in its worst quarter ever -- amid a plunge in global demand that is battering the core of the world's second-largest economy. The government said Friday that industrial production in October fell 3.1 percent from the previous month and is expected to decline precipitously in the months ahead.
