Apple's board of directors was challenged by investors at the annual general meeting to reveal the succession plan it has drawn up to replace Steve Jobs should the chief executive not return from medical leave. In a vote, shareholders backed the board, which argues that disclosing the plan now would only help competitors. Jobs did not attend the meeting.
Wal-Mart reported another poor quarter in America, with revenue dipping again from stores that have been open for at least a year. Sales from the retailer's international business, which accounts for around a quarter of its profit, boosted its overall results.
Making good on its recent undertaking to conduct more of its business in emerging markets, BP bought a stake in the maritime natural gas assets owned by India's Reliance Industries. Potentially worth around $9 billion, the deal is one of the biggest-ever foreign investments in India.
BHP Billiton boosted its energy portfolio by agreeing to pay $4.8 billion for shale gas assets in Arkansas. The mining company earns a fifth of its profit from oil and gas resources.
Huawei, China's biggest maker of telecom equipment, reversed course and accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that it revoke its acquisition of assets owned by 3Leaf, an American technology company. Huawei had already bought the assets, but officials at the Pentagon asked the committee, which considers the national security implications of takeovers, for its opinion. If Huawei had persisted, the White House would have had to rule on the deal.
HP's share price fell sharply after it delivered a weaker-than-expected set of quarterly earnings that showed sales declining in the company's IT services and personal computing businesses. HP shaved $1.5 billion from its revenue target for the year.
Joseph Flom, a legendary lawyer who participated in many of the big hostile takeovers of the 1970s and 1980s, died at age 87. Flom's clients included T. Boone Pickens, James Goldsmith and Ron Perelman. His services were sometimes retained by companies as a defense against those corporate raiders. A poor boy from Brooklyn, Flom entered Harvard Law School without having earned an undergraduate degree.
Political economyIn Ivory Coast the internationally recognized winner of November's disputed presidential election extended a ban he had imposed on cocoa exports from his country, in an effort to make the incumbent stand aside. Cocoa stocks are piling up in ports, increasing the chance of the beans decaying.
